Neverwhere - Tumblr Posts

Thank you Neil!! You make it so exciting to be a fan of an author, usually they are just a name on a book. You grew arms and legs the moment you started interacting with your fans. In fact, you just keep growing more and more arms and legs!

I'm a little distraught!

Before season two released and you got very busy with fan reactions, I had asked you to acknowledge my existence in an Ask, giving me official bragging rights that I have been Classified as Existing by Neil Himself, and you kindly did so.

I've been searching and searching, and I can't find it anywhere. I should have screenshotted it and gotten it laminated to keep in my wallet. Perhaps my C.E.N.H pass expired with the turn of the year. Would you please renew it? It would mean the world to me, and I'll make sure to print it this time so it lasts forever!

I did send an ask or two after I noticed it was gone from this website somehow, trying to fill the hole my official acknowledgement left when it vanished, but I understand how slim the odds are that you will see and have time to respond to something. No need to tell me if you like panda king isopods or not if you see both of these!

You definitely exist. Or I do. Or both.

Good. Good art. Amazing art.

Neverwhere has been one of my favorite books for so long and yet somehow I’ve never drawn anything from it? Wild.

okay but like. can we talk about how the marquis didn't recognize his brother bc Strong Powerful Mind Control but snaps out of it the moment he sees someone wearing his coat

Metaphors failed him, then. He had gone beyond the world of metaphor and simile, into the place of things that are, and it was changing him.

-Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere

i just read Neverwhere and oh my gosh i love it so much i love books with a magical underground world and there was this cool eldritch angel and mushroom people and magic doors and and and

This is going to be awesome...

In the midst of the Neil Gaiman accusations, I feel it's important to acknowledge:

You are allowed to still like his work regardless of your opinion of him.

Ignoring whatever your opinion may be, you are allowed to still like The Sandman, Good Omens, Coraline, American Gods, Neverwhere, and all the others.

If you decide you can't continue to support them, that is okay. You are allowed to do that too.

But we are capable of separating works from their creators. You can pull a Harry Potter and run off into the sunset with your characters without supporting their creator.

Many of these fandoms were safe spaces for a lot of people, and regardless of whatever else is going on, they should STILL REMAIN safe spaces.

That's the message.

Please, regardless of opinion or your support of Neil Gaiman, try keep these fandoms as safe spaces, because the simple act of having a safe space can be really important to people, and no-one should have to give that safety up.

One person should not be responsible for an entire community to turn on one another and create a previously supportive space toxic.

We can keep these fandoms safe and supportive, regardless of whatever else is going on, because at the end of the day, fandoms are about the people who take that original idea and make it their own, and support each other in enjoying it. They are about the work, NOT about the fandom's creator.

I feel I need to further clarify something-

Anyone reading, please take care of yourselves.

@originalitysquared this is absolutely not an attack, it is my attempt to expand on what I meant. If you feel you cannot enjoy the work any more, that is completely up to you.

Firstly, I am in no way defending Neil Gaiman. That is not what my post is about. Nor is it about supporting him, or even really about the work itself.

My post is asking those who wish to stay to keep the fandoms safe and supportive. I'm asking us not to turn on one another during this time of trial, because that's what a good community should do- be supportive even while going through stuff.

But for those who wish to separate work from creator, we need to band together and keep safe spaces as safe spaces, without attack and without turning on each other, because we're better than this.

Now, to address the comment- fandom is about taking the creator's work and making it our own.

We're all here to have already done that. 'His' work isn't his anymore, it's ours to make of it what we will. So that's where we can start.

We are able to take the narrative and we can rewrite it. That is what we've done before in so many ways, because nothing becomes popular without being given over to us, the fans.

You are absolutely correct, media is written from the creator's point of view.

But we're here, so by that same logic we're capable of rewriting it, and everything alongside it, from our perspectives, without Neil at all. In fact, for most, by actively excluding and condemning Neil.

However, we can't make anything better without staying and trying, first.

Each person is free to make their own choices regarding Neil Gaiman and his works. I'm simply asking that anyone who chooses to stay continue to support one another. That we don't turn safe spaces unsafe. Eventually, we can change the narrative of the works without supporting Neil, but we require a community to stay together while doing so.

In the midst of the Neil Gaiman accusations, I feel it's important to acknowledge:

You are allowed to still like his work regardless of your opinion of him.

Ignoring whatever your opinion may be, you are allowed to still like The Sandman, Good Omens, Coraline, American Gods, Neverwhere, and all the others.

If you decide you can't continue to support them, that is okay. You are allowed to do that too.

But we are capable of separating works from their creators. You can pull a Harry Potter and run off into the sunset with your characters without supporting their creator.

Many of these fandoms were safe spaces for a lot of people, and regardless of whatever else is going on, they should STILL REMAIN safe spaces.

That's the message.

Please, regardless of opinion or your support of Neil Gaiman, try keep these fandoms as safe spaces, because the simple act of having a safe space can be really important to people, and no-one should have to give that safety up.

One person should not be responsible for an entire community to turn on one another and create a previously supportive space toxic.

We can keep these fandoms safe and supportive, regardless of whatever else is going on, because at the end of the day, fandoms are about the people who take that original idea and make it their own, and support each other in enjoying it. They are about the work, NOT about the fandom's creator.

Book Review: Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman

My Review in a Tweet:

It feels like cheating when you point out the similarities between two works then the author himself mentions a character by name, but this book truly feels like a Lewis Carroll or even James M. Barrie story. Lots of suspension of disbelief tho.

My Full Review:

I truly dislike saying this about a book, but I have finally finished reading "Neverwhere". There are a couple of reasons why it took me so long, but the main one is the constant and intentional nonsense you are forced to deal with.

The biggest responsible for that is the worldbuilding (or the lack of it): Gaiman cheats when he describes the "Londres de Abajo" (I'm guessing he named it the "Under London" in English or something like that?) as this mirror reality under London (not very subtle) that just happens to have anything the plot needs and works with simple and straightforward rules, the most important one being the owing of favors. The randomness of the characters and locations they visit constantly throws you off.

In favor of the novel, I did like the "clasic fairy tale" feeling of it, where our protagonists meet some perilous tests, fierce foes and unexpected allies. All of these also had a certain "greek myth" or "folk tale" nature to them, like the Beast of the Labyrinth or the Huntress and the Warrior.

The characters are very likeable, but they fall a little short in being fully developed or having truly great moments for themselves. "This thing happens, then this other thing happens and we are done", the characters don't seem to notice any of it or truly react to the events around them, they just stroll through the plot. Only in the ending I felt like they were experiencing real consequences of the events in the story.

It was a nice enough reading, but I don't know if I would recommend it, except maybe for teenagers. I remain curious for the rest of Gaiman's works, specially "American Gods", "Good Omens", and finishing "Sandman" (of which I read the first two volumes).

5.5/10.

My Other 2024 Readings.