That makes me very sad. But everything about this story makes me sad.
Oh please get started on Brust, probably my favorite SF writer.
Good Omens will return for a 90 minute finale movie. Neil not directly involved.
A captcha check warning is new to me… but I’m glad for all the cybo-posters here who’ll want to avoid it.
Vulture has an article up:
If you are at all sensitive to accounts of sexual assault and manipulation, I would encourage you to not read the article. It’s very damning.
Oof! The “It was all consensual BDSM” defense, I would have expected better. Those poor women. Well, at least my existing dislike of Amanda Palmer can continue unabated as well.
I was so looking forward to Sandman Season 2, as well.
Jesus. I had imagined some bad things, but it was worse.
Can somebody summarize the article?
Gaiman, with what his ex-wife is trying to claim was her unwitting assistance, subjected isolated and highly vulnerable women to rape and sexual degradation, through extortion, gaslighting, manipulation and physical force. He pretended throughout - and still pretends - that these violations were always part of a consensual BDSM relationship. He bribed and bullied his victims into signing NDAs and manipulated them - directly and via confederates - into claiming consent after the fact.
This is not a one-off, it’s a persistent pattern of behaviour. He also displayed an absolutely shocking lack of sexual boundaries while in the presence of his child, initiating some of these repellent activities in their presence in a way which has clearly affected the kid. The accounts of the many victims are credible and consistent with known facts and with each other.
Gaiman himself was raised by high-level Scientologists, seems to have been abused by his father, and clearly learnt a great deal about manipulation of the vulnerable as he grew up. Which he has used to treat women in ways that however bad you are imagining are worse.
Well, shit.
I couldn’t finish the article. I feel ill now.
If authors and artists I like could stop being really horrible people, that’d be great.
Same here. After the first five minutes of reading, I only skimmed the article and was disgusted nonetheless. It’s sickening, and I feel so goddamn bad and sick for liking (having liked?) his work.
His work remains amazing. But I won’t want to read it anymore.
It’s a classic conundrum to be sure, but, absent that knowledge, it’s not like those works are inherently tied to all the actions of the person who created them. History is littered with artists who created masterpieces yet were not particularly good people otherwise.
That said, given what is now known, the choice to provide financial support from now on by buying any new books or watching upcoming TV shows (I think there’s a concluding Good Omens movie and another season of Sandman coming up?) is something I would encourage people to really think about with respect to their own consciences.
For my own part, I can’t see anything in the short term that would get me to support him financially. Even in the long term, it would take some real contrition rather than the mealy-mouthed defenses that have been coming up.
I still have one of his books on my Kindle I haven’t read yet. I’ve already paid for it, but I don’t think I’ll read it or even buy any other of his books ever again. I couldn’t read him now without always thinking what a horrible person this writer is.
I will likely watch Sandman and Good Omens if only because the performances are likely to be good (and to get closure on GO). I also am partway through his Norse mythology book. But i’m not going to buy any more.
I still have all my Harry Potter books too, bought long before JKR came out as a transphobic loon. I don’t know if I’ll read them again, and I certainly won’t watch the films. Le sigh.
Second the request for at least a summary.
I won’t do the ‘trial subscription’ nonsense.
How authoritative is this anyway? I can’t say I’ve ever noticed anything particularly squicky in his work. Apparently was a good friend of Terry P, who seemed to be a very decent liberal and perceptive fellow, and might have been expected to pick up on anything off-colour?
I’m suspecting a smear campaign? At least until I see more evidence?
I think it’s possibly a little late to be hoping for that. It seems like this is quite a lot of independent (but corroborating) allegations.
Yup. Multiple victims sharing similar stories that had not been in contact prior to sharing their experiences. Plus text and email threads from the time that corroborate key points of the story.