This anti-fan letter was so wonderfully constructed that I had to comment on it. That second line is pure poetry. Plus my favorite in letters, Totally ranDom Capitalization. It’s almost as if the capitalization carries its own hidden message, too. Lowercase “neil” and “gaiman” but uppercase “Batman” and “Writing” and of course “Fuck You.” Overall a pretty awesome letter.

Neil Gaiman’s Journal
I hope this reaches neil himself. Never have i ever known of anyone as full of himself as well as shit, than you. Now another milestone in your over-hyped career, Writing Batman. Not only are you under the impression you can write, but write batman? Fuck You. You Tried before and it sucked. It was just gaiman… With Batman in it. Fuck You.

If I’d known that Secret Origins of Batman Villains #1 had made that much of an impression on people, I would have… actually, probably not done anything different, really. I was rather fond of it.

If you think you won’t like the Batman comic I’ll write, probably you’d be best off not reading it. It’ll just be a two part Batman comic, you can save your money. Although if you’d bother to write me a letter like that you might buy it just to prove to yourself that you hate it as much as you know you’re going to…

I can’t imagine having to deal with the public regarding things I’ve written and/or otherwise created. Am far to sensitive and don’t know if I could carry the weight of the skin I’d have to develop.

Just finished reading John Connolly’s The Book of Lost Things. I’d heard about/read about this book when it came out and meant to pick it up, but never did. Two years later and I saw it on sale at the local Borders, so it became mine.

I liked the description of the book:

High in his attic bedroom, twelve-year-old David mourns the death of his mother, with only the books on his shelf for company. But those books have begun to whisper to him in the darkness. Angry and alone, he takes refuge in his imagination and soon finds that reality and fantasy have begun to meld. While his family falls apart around him, David is violently propelled into a world that is a strange reflection of his own — populated by heroes and monsters and ruled by a faded king who keeps his secrets in a mysterious book, The Book of Lost Things.

but even more I liked the cover art, so simple but twisted, intricate and decorative but somehow also malevolent. Good job cover artist, whoever you are. Crap, now I am going to have to go look that up, aren’t I?

Anyway, picked it up on Thursday evening and dove in on Friday, it’s a short but intense read. I couldn’t decide if I appreciated the author’s somewhat choppy style; the writing was at times a bit staccato, reminding me of books written for children, though this book wasn’t something I would ever give to a child in my care. It was the story of a child, sure, and it was about things that typically happen in children’s stories, OK. But the dark and twisted violence in this story (though probably closer to the murky musings of an actual child than most modern fairy tales) isn’t something I’d want to insert into the fevered imagination of a child or even pre-teen. Way too many people tortured, burned alive, eaten and mangled for my comfort. The monsters here were way too close to home, serial killers, amoral entities who would destroy you as soon as talk to you - it was too realistic for fantasy. Not to say it wasn’t good - it was good. Just not a children’s book.

I guess I am still muddling over in my head what kind of book it WAS, exactly. The extreme, pervasive violence makes it inappropriate (in my mind at least) for children, the aforementioned choppy writing and overly obvious climax/dénouement make it a little simplistic for adults… but nevertheless I really, really enjoyed it. So perhaps it’s a fairy tale for me. Realistic enough to keep me horrified, comforting and childish enough in its predictability to remind me of a time when I thought things were going to turn out right if only I consistently Tried Hard and Did the Right Thing.

Not perfect, but what is? I am going to give it a “Slender Tampon” rating.

Edit: The cover artist is Robert Ryan, his charming work can be seen here http://www.misterrob.co.uk/

Edit again: And… that just became birthday self-gift #2

Feh. I just read the most depressing book. And I don’t even know why it was so soul-sucking, because everyone sort of lived HEA, but by making unwelcome sacrifices. True love with an unbearable price, and full of death, and horror and loss and grief. Double-feh. And I have been in a serious brain-candy mood with reading lately, I want easy-to-read, non-intellectual fodder that captures my emotions - not heavy non-fiction, or heavy fiction for that matter. Sweep me away and let me stop thinking for a bit. This was not what I bargained for.

I am going to go back and re-read all my Christine Feehan “Dark” series books, because I know what’s coming, and I know her writing, and I know that they will satisfy my urge not to think and to just pretend someone’s going to come and sweep me away, eventually. Because her human heroines seem familiar to me, and her?Carpathian heros are what women would love in a man, and never get. And I don’t even care if it sounds anti-feminist. How unimaginably lovely to?be given powers, eternal life, true love, mind-blowing sex, a man who cherishes you, a man with immense strength and honor and wisdom. And so he’s bossy. But he can’t do anything but make you happy - so he can’t be too bad. She’s constructed the ultimate female fantasy IMHO. And actually I bet there aren’t too many men who would object to having an immensely powerful partner, dedicated to caring for them - so maybe it’s not about gender, but about the universal desire to be parented, adored, coddled, loved, protected, seen and understood.?(at least for those of us who weren’t parented or understood the first time around, we’re always looking it seems.)

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I had misplaced there, since they date back to the chickshow era, and I was looking for the HTML files and they were all in Flash format cuz I was Flash-happy back then. Anyway, I got them up here and added a new review for Anansi Boys. Do we think this marks the day that I begin to regularly update my reviews?

Nah, me neither. But it will be semi-regular from now on, hopefully. :)

I bought the book that is mentioned below on my lunch break today, after reading about another book called “Machete Season” that has just been published, on the same topic. I really don’t want to read this book. But I think I need to read it, I need to know and understand what happened. Because if I am not going to succumb to the American way of averting our eyes from the ugliness, then I guess I have to read things that make me sick and sad and horrified.

I don’t know yet if I am going to read Machete Season or not. That may be too much, and in some ways seems almost to be glorifying these people, and what they did? Maybe “glorifying” is too strong a word, but giving them a voice, does that humanize them and help us understand, or does it just take away some of the stigma that these “people” should rightly be subject to? I don’t know. Will post updates as I read. If I can read it. I think this book may also detail the events on which “Hotel Rwanda” was based. So I may rent that and watch it too.