Just found Neil Gaiman's blog, and whaddaya know, the man's reading about ma time period! See it here. Part of me wants to say, gee, man you've only touched the fringes of the oddities of the Middle Ages. But the other part is sitting down and saying, hmm. He makes a good point here:
The idea of a god of love whose first action, before becoming incarnate, was to cleanse by "exterminating" an indeterminate number of people for having sex with people of the wrong gender, is one I find remarkably disturbing, although it gives a very immediate picture of a specific mindset, not always medieval, just as the Grimm's tales in which Jews are laughingly killed set the stage somehow for the horrors of Nazi Germany.
Exactly the thoughtfulness I'd want to see from this particular author.
Note: Neil Gaiman is an author whose graphic novels (graphic in the sense that they are visual, not that they are nasty) I've taught in some of my courses. He's a refuser of boundaries, of pigeonholes, not to mention a rather good writer. It was also his movie, MirrorMask, which my partner and I were kicked out of. We'd gone to the theatre with a then month and a half-old baby, who obligingly requested to nurse during the opening sequence. Unfortunately, the baby enjoyed the experience so much that he began making pleasure sounds which were strongly reminiscient of a door hinge in need of oil. These sounds escalated, becoming somewhat loud, at which point we took our abashed selves out of the movie theatre, without having had a chance to see what would happen to the heroine's mother, and would the circus stay together?
Luckily, the nice people running the place gave us a refund, which we spent on some really excellent sushi - at a place that is very baby-friendly.
2 comments:
Neil Gaiman is a good writer, but I disagree that his graphic novels aren't graphic; some of the stuff I've read has been very creepy in ways I hadn't expected.
His children's books are extremely creepy, too, but in a rather wonderful way!
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