Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    

JaNell - yes, I did get your offer to sculpt me a gnome!  Thanks, and my
apologies for not replying.  Since I have yet to see an actual x-rated
gnome (although I keep hearing about them) I wouldn't even know what to
ask for.

<streak>'s post about sexual obsessions that most of us are completely
innocent of in conjunction with Michelle's post about her purchase of
plushy duckies and bunnies juxtaposed with Martha's comment about what
surprises you find when you go looking under rocks reminded me of the
latest obsession I only learned about in the last issue of Vanity
Fair:  Furries and Plushies.  People who dress up as animals and people
who have sex with stuffed animals.  As someone who has literally hundreds
of stuffed animals (if you count the Beanie Babies) I have not yet
completely recovered from my shock at this discovery.  Count me among the
formerly innocent.
  

    
Michelle - *sigh* I suppose fuzzy bunnies aren't really enough... but
I'm still edgy around the medications. Everyone I know who has been on
them eventually went off of them because they couldn't stand feeling so
fuzzed and bland all the time.

Neil - Congrats on the Death Script!! I will start as eagerly awaiting
you to start production as I am for Terry Gilliam to start on Good
Omens. I fully expect a slew of Gaiman material to hit the big screen
in the near future. 

Well, after all the comments about 69 Love Songs, I found it online
and bought the set. I eagerly await being "in the know" about this...
  

    <hidden>
  

    
And the hidden response is a mini Nick Cave concert review for Justin
& whoever else might be interested.

Neil - Congratulations on the Death script!
  

    
Oddly enough, I've met quite a few guys that confided that when they
were adlolecents, endulged in stuffed animals (with holes in them) and
even their mattresses. They didn't do it for very long though; they got
sick of the rashes. Hormones make people (mainly budding young men,
I've noticed) do very strange things. Once, when I was at a Frat party
(I have no idea what I was thinking), I drunkenly walked in on a circle
jerk. And I always thought they were just urban legends...

Martha- When I hear Rotiserrie, I think of food.

Neil- Congrats on the comletion of The Script! I've read recently that
quite a few of your stories have been bought by movie companies. Does
this mean that they are working on them soon, or just that they bought
them in case they want to do them later? I don't know anything about
the strikes..but I hope it all works out to your advantage.
  

    
neil - as everyone else has said, congrats on the script.  i imagine
it's a huge load off to have a draft under your belt.

to all you folks who are way better writers than i (i.e. - probably
most of you): i'm working on a graduation speech that i'm hoping to get
to present this year (for law school) and was wondering if you had any
pointers/insights from your own writing experiences, or even from
great speeches you've heard.  thanks....

  --  s
  

    
Re: rogering stuffed items (rogered rabbit?)-- ok, ew.  First of all,
unless the item is stuffed with sheep's wool-- which would provide
needed lanolin--it seems to me that the act would be insanely
uncomfortable-- especially if the mattresses had springs.   Second, I
pity the poor kid whose mother buys the stuffed and re-sewn doll once
it's donated to Goodwill.  Yuck.  

[This does, however, cast a different light on that "When She Loved
Me" song that the girl cowboy doll sings in Toy Story II.  On second
thought, maybe that was already there and I missed it.]

But I'm reminded of a conversation I had with my wife yesterday-- it
seems to me that, in at least in my circle, anything goes, sexually, as
long as it doesn't deviate too much from the contemporary model of the
monogamous nuclear pair.  Gay & straight, whips, wax and clips are all
fine, but I find myself weirded out and confused by husbands and wives
who keep seperate bedrooms.  There are married teachers in my school
who keep whole seperate apartments, and choose to see their spouses
only infrequently.  To me this is right out of the Twilight Zone.  And
yes, I know-- Henry II and Eleanor didn't see too much of each other
either, marriage as an institution is always in a state of flux, but
I'm talking about our culture, not the last 800 years. How did we
become so liberal in one respect and so conservative in another? 

Sarah-- Warren Ellis?  Like Transmet Warren Ellis?  Huh?

Re XXX Gnomes-- when I was 14 and went to Portugal I was absolutely
scandalized by these little wooden statues of robed monks who
brandished enormous, bright red erections when you pulled a string in
the back.  Come to think of it, I'm still kind of scandalized.
  

    

This is one of the weirdest drifts on the well.

Just saying.
  

    
Len- I think that the stuffed animal/matress thing probably was
uncomforatable...which is why they stopped. I think it was the
curiosity. I don't understand this curiosity either. But then I don't
really have anything attached to me to stick into things. Who knows
what they were thinkng. I wasn't there. No one was but them and the
poor stuffed animals...which was most likely the problem.

As far as the old vs. modern veiw on sexuality and marriage. There are
many factors. I think Julian Cope said it best (sort of): "Falling in
love is something you do when you're bored." I don't find that
statement entirely true, but you have to remember that life as far as
surviving is a lot easier for us now. They didn't have much time to
think about love (except for the women, who basically invented the
term...but that's another topic altogether.) We don't have to worry
about kings and emprorers beheading us because his horse told him to
and so forth. Most of us don't have to concentrate on scavenging for
food and defending our homes...so that leaves us a lot spare time for
thinking and wondering. People get bored and to eleviate all of that,
well, I think that's where a lot of the kinky stuff comes from. Too
much time on our hands. I mean, we're not exactly building pyrimids
anymore.Too much time. I think that's what it is, mostly. But we
(americans, at least), being a christian nation are still bound some of
the morals. But morals are a trend. Sometimes a long standing trend,
but still a trend, none the less. I'm sure a thousand or so years from
now marriage will mean something completly different. If anything at
all. It doesen't seem to be working for most people these days. The
idea of Love and monogany is a fairly new thing...so we'll see how it
pans out. I could say more...but I'd probably end up offending some
people. And that I don't want to do. Not here anyway.
ANYHOO
x-rated garden knomes?! I have to see these things! Don't think I'll
be going to Portugal anytime soon, though.
Oh my god, these last few posts must look strange to people who have
just tuned in from the web. Imagine all of those poor
intellectual-excited-about-neil souls expecting to see some words of
wisdom and brilliant AG insights from the Great Mage himself, only to
find this. "X-Rated garden gnomes!? Sex with stuffed animals!? Sweet
Mary and Joeseph! Who ARE these people and what did they do with
Neil?!" To all of you, madman and anyone one else: Sorry.


 
  

    
Neil-
Congrats on the script--looking forward to seeing it on the screen.

On separate apartments--
I understand the urge to have a separate space even with someone you
love dearly, maybe it makes even more sense with someone you love
dearly.  I think that sometimes people lose a bit of themselves in LTRs
and perhaps compromise too much.  My way of dealing with that is to
have a place that is my own to decompress after work, or to pursue
hobbies, or just to spend some time enjoying my own company.  This has
helped me maintain some of the charactaristics that make me unique and
(I hope) interesting and still be very close to someone who's quite
different than me.  I'm much better company for others, specifically
one other, as a result.  Perhaps the apartment thing is a bit extreme,
but I still have my own bedroom even in the 5th year of my relationship
with my S.O.  (Hate both boyfriend and fiance as descriptors, neither
quite fit.)  We rarely sleep separately but we each have a space that
is ours.  I'm not sure it's an example of prudishness, in my case it's
a mechanism for sanity.

Just my $0.02
  

    
Well, as long as we're talking about sex and love and relationships
while Neil starts digging into the second draft of Death....

After my divorce, I was pretty uninterested in getting back into a
monogamous relationship again. After a couple of years of exploring my
identity (since, as Kristin suggested, I had pretty much managed to
lose myself over the course of my marriage and hadn't had a very good
grasp on myself when I got married in the first place), I came across
several sources of literature on Polyamoury, and met more and more
people who were actively polyamourous as well. I'm currently in a
relationship with a woman I completely adore who is in a relationship
with another man, who I get along with quite well. Keeping the idea of
love, while removing requirements like exclusivity and fidelity is an
option that doesn't get a lot of press, for some reason.

Seeing your $0.02 and raising it $0.02 more.
Dan
  

    
Madman - agreed, but I'm not complaining either...

re: plushie-fetish - EW!!! It's up there with trans-species Peeps-sex!


See, when I read Streak's mention of human subcultures, my first
thoughts were of my own personal social circles: the whole Neil-fan
culture; the local goth/industrial scene; even my little group of
friends who have similar mental problems (which is cool, but a little
creepy if I think about it). Didn't even think about sexual subcultures
(which is odd, considering how much fetish-wear inhabits my closet,
and the sort of modeling I'm prone to... did I really just post that?).


Dan - while it's usually great fun for brief durations, polyamory
rarely ever works for anything long-term, so good luck. Speaking from
experience, all over that spectrum.

squeaks, who has had her fill of being a part of a couple containing
more than 2 people.
  

    
Neil - Congrats on the completion of Death! Erickson's blurb sounds
really cool. :)

squeaks, who thought she should mention at least ONE thing on topic.
  

    

I wasn't complaining, either.

But... trans-species peeps sex??? Bwa?

As for polyamory- sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I know someone
who has two relationships both of which are approaching the 10 year mark.
I've been in a number, none of which lasted but only one failed for any
reasons relating to the openness of the relationship.
I read too much Robert Heinlein as a child, you see.

And sex and death sounds like a fine combination to me, for discussion. All
we need is John Constantine and a banana.
  

    
        Personally, I always figured that the plushie thang derived from
people who discovered masturbation as children by humping a stuffed
animal.  I'm coming to believe in "masturbatory reinforcement" as a
major factor in fetish development, so the cause-and-effect in plushie
folks seems pretty ABC to me.  I just recently met a girl who
discovered masturbation as a child via humping her teddy bear, and
still has the bear.  Still masturbates with it occasionally, though she
thinks of it less as a fuzzy little lover than just another sex toy,
apart from the sentimental value, of course.
  

    
Email from Jennifer Redmane:

Linda- I've been reading (and being immensely amused by) this thread for a
while, but I've never had anything to say untill now. I couldn't let the
topic of furries and plushies pass without adding my two cents. Speaking
as a member of the therianthrope community, a group that often bleeds into
the furry fandom, I can tell you that most furries are not the way Vanity
Fair portrayed them. Many are better adjusted than some "mundanes" (as
they call non-furries) I could name. Some experience their furriness in
much the way I do my therianthropy, as a sort of spirituality, or a way to
get in tune with the all-too-neglected animal side of human nature. And
also keep in mind, the Plushies (those who are, erm, amorous of stuffed
animals) are a fringe group of the furry community. They are by no means
your average furry.

Now that that's been said... Neil- I just wanted to say thanks. My dad
always used to ridicule and belittle my reading habits, ("you're too old
for those things," etc.) untill about a month ago when I loaned him the
entire Sandman set. He was instantly hooked. Now he says he won't read
anything unless it's got pictures in it, (though i think that'll change
when he reads American Gods) and I haven't heard a peep out of him about
my choice of reading material except, "can I read it when you're done?"

Jennifer Redmane
  

    
Michelle - thanks for the encouragement. I don't know how any of this
will go, but I have my hopes for a long term evolution... I have as
much hope in this configuration as in the standard pairing up strategy.
I get the impression that your foray into that realm left you feeling
a little bruised...?

Madman - *great galloping guffaws* about the Constantine remark. and
congrats to your friend for holding it together for almost 10 years!
Woo hoo!

Streak - I think you've got something there. Early childhood sexual
experiences (not always masturbation) are pretty pivotal. I've known
people who could trace their "turn ons" to experiences from as early as
when they were three. (this was more a case of gender association with
Old Spice and turtlenecks, but became eroticized over time). That
being said, i wonder if Dankin would have any luck marketing their
stuffed animals as "My First Sex Toy"

*Hoping Neil is amused by all this*
Dan
  

    
Jennifer -- oh good. You're very welcome.

Erynn -- well, there are a lot of stories and books sold, and in
various stages of development. (Henry Selick's writing the first draft
of Coraline, Terry Gilliam's just finishing the second draft of Good
Omens, don't know what's happening with Chivalry right now, etc). I
hope that they get made into good films, but would rather they didn't
get made than that they got made into bad films.

Seth -- put the most important thing first, the second most important
thing last, and some  funny and interesting thigs in the middle.

Justin -- Snow Glass Apples (starring Bebe Neuwirth) will soon be
available on the scifi.com seeing ear theatre site -- they sent me a CD
to listen to it on. 

The only Stephin thing that I know will happen is the Gothic Archies
will be doing the music and songs for the Coraline Audio book...
  

    
Neil... Bebe Neuwirth is doing SnoW Gloass Apples?????
That's excellent! This will be a reading, or have they adapted it as a
radio drama?
  

    
Am often fascinated by the phonomenon of 'Suspension of Disbelief' in
non-fiction...

Picked up Batman Unmasked: Analyzing a Cultural Icon, by Will Brooker
yesterday. Looked myself up in the index. Read the page with me on it.
Watched as he traced the development of the Riddler from Gerard Jones'
take on him in 1992, to my story with Matt Wagner and Bernie Mireault
in 1995 and on to today's Riddler.

Except my story was written and published in 1987/1988 in a Secret
Origins, was a specific reaction to Batman circa 19867/1987 and was
simply reprinted in some collection in 1995. 

Decided that if he was that sloppy on something I knew about, I didn't
trust  him for the rest of the book, and put it back down again.

.....

It's a full-scale radio drama. I did the script. (Check out Brian
Dennehy in Murder Mysteries, which I also wrote, up on their site.)
  

    
Neil - On sloppy journalism...

that's why I don't trust most of the mainstream media... invariably,
when they report on something I know about I'm struck by the errors,
misconceptions, and gaps.

I will most definitely check out Murder Mysteries... wow... you DO
tend to attract a high caliber of talent, don't you? Well, good stories
will do that.
  

    
Email from Sean Michaels:

Justin - Yeah, the Gentle Waves was a let down, but not as much of a
letdown as Fold Your Hands Child... Ugh. One of the biggest
disappointments of the year, for me. I didn't know Stuart M was working on
an album. How intriguing. By the way, the Kings of Convenience are
-Norwegian-, not Swedish. My terrible, terrible mistake. I just bought
tickets for Arab Strap, Badly Drawn Boy and Coldplay, and I am happy. :)
Hooray.

Everyone else- Have you all seen the "[Neil] Gaiman Purity Test" at
http://www.angelfire.com/la2/rlea42/Gaiman.html . I only scored 64.0%
"Gaiman Pure". Having examined the questions, however, I find it doubtful
that you, Neil, would score 100%. Have you ever attended one of your
readings in costume?

Also Neil, might I inquire as to the connection between Stardust and
Howl's Moving Castle? Besides the fact that you and DWJ are friends, that
is.

Sean, who is chomping through the new Iain M. Banks novel.
  

    
I just listened to Murder Mysteries on www.scifi.com while working... 
Neil... did you change the story? I don't remember that ending at all!
Gave me the shivers, to say the least...
I remember wondering after reading it in Smoke and Mirrors what the
purpose of the frame story was, and now it makes horrifying sense.
  

    
Neil - Congrats on the script. Hopefully some weird producer won't
want to make it a love story about a cute Goth chick with a dark side
and a fetish for scythes.

Michelle - Please, by Cthulhu... not the Peeps.

JaNell - Ahh yes, the infamous ConCat Auction fiasco... hehe. The desk
told me the boxes didn't exist, the guys at the CBLDF are nearly
beside themselves tracking it and saying 'Someone signed for it', and
all along they were tucked away in the loading dock. (sigh)

Sean - I'm only 2% pure, but that's because I refuse to go to a
signing in costume, and I won't dress up as a character (unless, on the
infentesimal chance, I'm written into a book as myself)... then I'd be
100% corrput. Why I just decided to post my fan-geekness escapes me,
but it's prolly because I just woke up. (oh, and Neil kinda was in a
somewhat costume, that being a red-velvet waistcoat, at a midnight
reading at ComicCon one year)...

Neil - Oh yeah, HarperCollins.com is showing the drop-by signing at
Bill's Melrose store, and it looks like Vroman's again. Huh.

-- Trev/Walker --
Off to do some domestic vandalism
of a few local Starbuck's Coffee
with 'Consumer Whore' flyers...
  

    

Jennifer - thanks for the point of view.  I really appreciate it, since I
have some idea how the media skews the information, whether intentionally
or not.