Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
(Yes, yes, I hadn't meant that Neil *said* that all writers were liars
so much as he wrote those words into someone's mouth once.  That will
teach me to hurriedly post Sandman references. ^^)
  

    
JaNell -- Okay. Yes, I remember him.

Rafe -- I would much rather not hand the reader explanations. I know
that each reader will read a different book, they bring a different
life and a different mind to it.  Some are brighter than others. Some
simply know more.

I want to write books which (as Gene Wolfe said) can be read with
pleasure by an educated reader, and reread with increased pleasure.
And I would define educated very broadly.

And mysteries linger in ways that explanations never can. (Who can
forget the Hound of the Baskervilles? And who can remember quite why
that guy painted the dog in luminous paint and sent it out onto the
moors?)

I've enjoyed talking to people who have recently reread SANDMAN for
the first time in 5 years and discovered all this stuff in there they
hadn't known about. That's fun, for an author. Or at least, for this
one.
  

    
BTW -- talking about Kevin Crossley-Holland (as we were some posts
back) I just read his wonderful book ARTHUR: THE SEEING STONE, which I
cannot recommend too highly. Astonishingly good book, which kept me
company on the plane from vancouver to minneapolis.
  

    
 I imagine that figuring out who the forgotten god is will be a
mystery I ponder for quite some time.
  

    
Gah... the god that folks forget is driving me batty... keep thinking
one then then another and almost at a loss for options.  *sighs* 
attempted all the things that are considered Vegas then looked in that
manner... keep going back to dreams.  
  

    
 I probably knew who he was at one time ... :)
  

    

The god that god forgotten had something in common with information that
Wednesday gave Shadow, in that Wednesday would tell him, and Shadow would
immediately forget.

What can we deduce from that?
  

    
That Wednesday kept slipping Shadow ice cubes made from Lethe(al)
water in his drinks? :)
  

    

That was "got" forgotten up there, of course.

I just want to weigh in on the side of being happy that Neil gives
slippery sideways answers to direct questions.  Having to look into things
myself has led to some very serendipitous moments.
  

    <scribbled>
  

    
*blinks slowly*

Where was Buddha? Anywhere? No where? Why (or not)?...
  

    
(snickering)
"Another 'Forgotten God'"?
  

    

I am enjoying 'American Gods.'  

It's funny how some of the book's little things catch my attention.  I
enjoy the TV references (I caught myself drifting off on a tangent
wondering whether or not Shadow would feel differently about the TV
character offering to strip for him if it had been Laura Petrie rather
than Lucy Ricardo).

One of my favorite lines in the book was when Shadow and/or Mr. Town,
thinking about 'Get Smart' for some reason, thought he "still feels
weird and slightly embarassed after all those years about not realizing
it was a comedy when he was a kid . . . "  In my kidhood, I found the
opening credits to 'Get Smart' a bit nightmarish (Agent 86 walking down
the hallway with all the unusual doors slamming behind him and just
missing him).

Neil -- growing up in England, did you see as much American television
as it seems you're familiar with, or did you pick it all up from
Nick-at-Nite?  
  

    
JaZilla -- not at all. Surely the point about Buddha & co is that they
aren't forgotten. They're doing just fine (as Easter claims she is,
but isn't), which is why Mr Wednesday isn't looking for them. On the
other hand, there are certainly some buddhist deities at Rock City,
that everyone spotted...

Sorry about irritating you. 

Stuart -- we get your television. We got our own TV too. Best of both
worlds...
  

    
Neil -  No biggie. We covered that already, anyway. :)

Oh, are you aware of Moon Shadow, an environmental sustainability
living group near Chattanooga? Great parties, and monolithic rock
formations, and if you take the time to climb up the cliff at the right
time of year, you'll get covered in ladybugs, which is very lovely...
  

    
JaZilla?  Now I am frightened.
  

    
Well, that's to warn sharp-eyed people ...;>
  

    
Yes, I did see the Buddhist deities at Rock City (and smiled for it);
for some reason it just occured to me now that I'd not actually come
across any representations of Buddha.  

I know the official interview is over, but if you're so inclined...
how did you decide which deities were dead or being forgotten, and
which were alive and well? Obviously some would be easy to classify in
either category, the "official" dead religions such as, oh,
Zoroastriansim and the alive and kickin ones like Christianity (I liked
the touch with Eostre, as she's not really worshipped, yet still is).
But others, say... misc. Buddhist deities, ;-) ... how was that
decided?

-Kelly
  

    
Kelly - now I see what happened. Neil answered your question, but with
my name in front...
I was so confused.
  

    
>you'll get covered in ladybugs, which is very lovely...

Unless you accidently squish one, which is not.  Unbelievable reek. 
We get plagues of them here in the winters, and for months you're
afraid to touch anything or walk anywhere.  You can't vacuum them
either.  It's like too much of any good thing, I guess...
  

    
JaNell--There is a non silly mode?

Ladybugs: I like ladybugs as much as the next person, but I was
wondering just what makes them so different from other bugs.  Why
aren't people afraid of them, but they might be afraid of a pretty blue
shiny beetle?  hrmm...

Angelina.
  

    
I suppose it's that they've been cute-ified in song and story.  Really
you get over the cute thing once you mush one and the reek haunts you
for days, or once an entire wall of your home is covered in a swarm, or
once you REALLY watch one grab hold of an aphid and lustily chew its
head off.  I'm rather a green-blue sheeny beetle fan myself. 
  

    
I actually felt/feel blessed by the ladybugs... but from which diety,
I've no idea...
Ladybugs are beautiful and cartoonish and friendly, don't bite or
sting, and look nothing like at all like roaches.

When I was a kid, reading the Bible, I imagined that Satan's attempts
to create explained all the nasties in the natural world:

God, beetles; Satan, roaches.
G, ants; S, fire ants.
G, non-poisonous snakes, ivy, dolphins; S, poisonous snakes, poison
ivy, sharks

and so on. Sort of a failed imitation thing.
  

    
Rebecca, being covered by blue-green shiny beetles *sounds* good in
theory, and would look really cool, but it would HURT.

I'm not sure I need to be blessed anymore by *that* diety.
  

    
 Besides, aphids are pests who clearly deserve to have their heads
chewed off by ladybugs.