#neil gaiman approved

[sing-you-fools]

thinking about Good Omens 2. and stories, and the shape of them, and Terry Pratchett and his themes. and something clicked.

Aziraphale is cackling.

it's not just the ball. he spends the entire season trying to force the story into a shape it's not, and everyone suffers for it.

i've seen some less than charitable takes on Crowley's actions and they all ignore how much Crowley did try to talk to Aziraphale, did try to ask Aziraphale questions, did try to help, only to be ignored or brushed off. because his questions, his offers, they didn’t fit with the story Aziraphale was telling himself.

quiet, gentle, and romantic. it was, if you're our favorite Angel - right up until the end, at least. because he decided that's the story he was in. from the very beginning, he's off in la-la land, living out this romcom with a cute little mystery wrapped up in it, completely ignoring what's actually going on around him. i'll set Nina and Maggie up! (completely ignoring that Nina tells him she has a partner, and at that point, he has no reason to think she's anything less than happy.) i'll take ~our~ car to go do investigate this silly little mystery (he's not taking it even a little bit seriously!) while you stay here and run the bookshop and it will be so quaint and domestic! soon we'll dance and confess our feelings that we obviously share because we're already so clearly a couple we just need to finally say it!

Crowley knows the entire time that they're in a horror story but Aziraphale ignores every attempt he makes to point that out because it doesn't fit the story he decided he's in the middle of.

he brushes off Crowley's concerns and questions - his QUESTIONS! - like they're nothing. he doesn't want to see it, so he doesn't. and Crowley should have told him more?

why would he?

when you are CLEARLY in distress and it's being BLATANTLY AND WILLFULLY IGNORED, what the fuck are you supposed to do? "Crowley didn't comminicate" well okay if I were having a panic attack about something and my husband completely ignored it, chattering on about our dinner plans or whatever, that wouldn’t exactly make me want to open up about what was wrong! that would send the very fucking clear signal that he didn't want to know!

words aren't the only way we communicate and Crowley's body language, the entire season, is that of someone who is living in a horror story, knows he's living in a horror story, and is fucking terrified. if Aziraphale were paying any attention to Crowley instead of focusing all his energy trying to set things up just so for the big climax of his love story, he would know something major was wrong.

why would Crowley have told him how cruel Gabriel was about the execution when Aziraphale's already so thoroughly convinced that heaven is pure and good and has shown over and over through the millennia that he's not really open to considering that it can be cruel!

just look at them at the dance. Crowley freaking out because there's a horde of demons out there and Aziraphale giggling as they go to dance. that's the whole season!

you know who Crowley reminds me of this season?

he's watching helplessly and with increasing levels of distress as Aziraphale shoves every plot point into the romcom hole even though it's obviously not remotely romcom shaped! and i'm sick of people saying he was abusive because he raises his voice about it a few times!

[ineffable-baker-street]

crowley turning his applause towards aziraphale after he lied to the other angels and giving him that smirk/nod/eyebrow raise of approval that conveys ten million words lives inside my head rent free

[local-apollo-kid]

I've finished NAPLAN forever and I'm so happy so take a Good Omens thought:

Hell definitely accredited NAPLAN to Crowley, and he just sat there like "Thanks, man"

They gave him a commendation and everything cause it just fucking sucks that much, and Crowley isn't gonna say that it was the humans who invented it cause extra brownie points, y'know?

(They also think he invented Australia)

[jongwoosbraceletofteeth]

Fanfic authors, cosplayers, au creators, fan artists, theorists, and people with immense brain rot. All of you people who have somehow, somewhere, predicted something that exactly proceeded to happen in the s2 trailer, how does it feel to be a psychic and officially special.

[221bangelstreet]

I was giddily rambling about Good Omens to my 3 years old. I told him tales about the angel and the demon, how they questioned everything and how they loved each other.

He listened intently and then drew his conclusions: there was an angel and his dino. I laughed so hard I couldn't listen to him anymore but he went on about this dino's and the angel's adventures. I must prompt him to tell me more, he's a natural storyteller.

@neil-gaiman sorry if I spoiled season 2! Not my fault, he made me do it! *points to said toddler*

[dont-you-call-him-baby]

i’m seeing a lot of talk abt ppl getting mad at neil gaimen for saying that crowley and azi aren’t guys and are also ace and are claiming that he (neil) is a homophobe for saying these things and i’m here like??? did y’all not know that ppl can fall in love and not want sex??? do y’all know that just bc they’re genderless doesn’t mean they are straight?? azi and crowley are gay!! just not gay men!! bc they don’t have a gender, bc that is a social construct made up by humans and and they are! not! humans!!!!

[maybop]

I work in an art gallery, we have a permanent exhibit of Eugene Von Bruenchenhien.

I watched both seasons of Good Omens.

I now give you pt 1: Memes by Maybop (What goes through my head when nothing is happening while I work)

Source: THE DANGER WE FACE by Eugene Von Bruenchenhien 1954

[xnervouscircus]

not to be dramatic but i'm going to die and decay into dust if season three of good omens isn't confirmed soon

[neil-gaiman]

Mr. Gaiman on my paper about the literary value of comics I cited you for your sandman comic as quote that kick ass guy Neil Gaiman and I forgot to take it out before I turned it. my teacher told me unless I can get the approval of you I will get detention. Idk if she was serious but incase she was can I have your approval?

Just in case she was serious, it's nice to be a kick ass guy.

[dduane]

I just received a copy of a book I've been very much looking forward to by a favorite author, but the quality of the book itself is... not great. Cheap paper, weak binding, even a weird illustration of the main character on the cover that I'm having trouble believing the author approved. Obviously, I don't want to leave a bad review on Amazon or GoodReads or anywhere, as I'm 100% certain the content is as excellent as her other work. But how can I best let the publisher (Baen) know I'm disappointed without threatening to never buy her books again? Because, well, if this is the only option, I'm gonna keep buying them even in my disappointment.

Well, the first thing I thought when I read this was "Wow, I'm really glad I don't have anything in print from Baen at the moment except a couple of anthologized short stories." :)

As for the rest of it, let's take it point by point.

Adding a cut here, because this will run a bit long. Caution: contains auctorial bitching and moaning, painful illustrations of cases in point, and brief advice on how to complain most effectively. (Also links to paintings of cats.)

Cheap paper: This has been an accurate complaint since well before COVID—and it's often been worse since, with supply chain issues also being involved. That said: one way publishers routinely save money on printing books, especially the bigger ones, is by going for thinner/cheaper paper. I remember one of our UK editors going on at great length and with huge annoyance—during one of those late-night convention-bar bitch sessions—over how the only way they could get some really good books published (because Upstairs insisted on reducing the per-copy production costs) was by reducing the paper quality to the point where you could nearly read through it. Sacrificing decent text size(s) also became part of this. Nobody in editorial was happy about the result: but there wasn't much they could do.

Bad bindings: Similar problem. Sewn bindings used to be a thing in paperbacks... but not any more: not for a good while, now. These days, it's all glue. Even hardcovers are showing up glued rather than sewn. Don't get me started. :/ (This is why I so treasure some of the oldest paperbacks I've acquired, which are actually sewn.)

Crap covers: I've had my share of these—though my share of some really good ones, too. And one of the endless frustrations of traditional publishing is that the writer routinely has little or even no influence over what the cover will look like... let alone how much will be spent on it, or (an often-related issue) how good the execution will be.

There are of course exceptions. If you're working at the, well, @neil-gaiman -esque level or similar in publishing, a lot more attention is going to be paid to your thoughts. You may even be able to get "cover veto" written into your contracts, so that if you disapprove, changes will get made. But without actual contractual stipulations, the writer has zero legal recourse or way to withhold approval. (And I bet even Neil has some horror stories.)

The normal workflow looks like this. After a book's purchased, its editor and the art director discuss what it's about and what the cover should look like. The art director then hires an artist and tells them what to do. After that, the artist executes their vision and gets paid. It is incredibly rare for a writer to have any significant input into this process. And as to whether or not they approve of the final result, well... the publisher mostly just shrugs and goes back to eyeing the bottom line, muttering "Who told them they get a vote?"

Now, I've been seriously lucky to occasionally be an exception in this regard. In particular, my editors at Harcourt (when Jane Yolen and Michael Stearns were editing Harcourt's Magic Carpet YA imprint) would ask me what I thought would be a good idea for the next Young Wizards cover, and I'd think about it a bit and send them back a paragraph or so about some core scene. They'd then talk to their art director, and after that send their notes and mine to Cliff Nielsen (who started doing the covers for the hardcover and mass-market paperback editions of the series in the mid-90s) or to Greg Swearingen (who was the artist on the digest-format editions). And the results, by and large, were pretty good. ...I also think affectionately of the UK artist Mick Posen, who insisted on seeing pictures of our cats before painting the covers for the Hodder editions of The Book of Night with Moon and On Her Majesty's Wizardly Service (the UK title for To Visit The Queen).

But this kind of treatment is a courtesy—not even vaguely suggested in the books' contracts, and very much the exception to the rule. And for every writer who's midlist, there are times when the luck runs out. For example: one time I wrote a book that was an AU-Earth-near-future fantasy police procedural, thematically pretty dark—dealing with issues of abuse of megacorporate power, institutionalized bigotry, and (explicitly) attempted genocide. And the cover, done by an artist who's a good friend and some of whose fabulous art hangs in our house, came out looking like this. It was... let's just say "not ideally representative."

So I was glad, when my local workflow allowed it, to recover the current, revised version of the book with something at least a little more apropos. But the original cover's not the artist's fault. He did what the art director told him... as a cover artist must do to get paid, and (ideally) to get hired again. At present, that's how the system works.

...So. You've got a badly-built and -presented book on your hands. How best to make your feelings known in some way that might make a difference down the line? (As you make it plain that you'll keep buying this author's books this way if you must.)

First of all: when (as part of my psych nursing training) we were taught how to complain most effectively, we were told that the first and most basic rule of the art is this:

Only Complain To Someone Who Can Actually Do Something About Your Problem

So I salute your desire not to waste your time taking the issue to the reviews on Amazon, or the pages of Goodreads... because they can't do anything. The odds that anyone from production at Baen is reading the comments there strike me as... well, not infinitesimally small, not being hit-by-a-meteorite-while-in-the-shopping-center-parking-lot small... but really low.

So: write to corporate.

In your place I would go online and rummage around a bit to find out who's on record as the publisher at Baen. I would then write them a letter on paper. And I would lay out the problem pretty much as you laid it out up at the top.

The tone I think I'd choose would be the more-in-sorrow-than-in-anger approach. I'd say, "I write to comment about your recently published book by [X Writer], whose work I love. I have to say, though, that I don't think the cover on [X Book] is terribly representative of the quality of the prose inside. And also, the construction and production quality of the book itself was a disappointment to me because [here spell out why].

"I'd really like to see [X. Writer's] books succeed with you, and I'd like to buy more of them without wondering whether I was going to be disappointed again. But if this is typical of how they're being produced, I'd also be concerned that the state of these books is setting up a situation in which the author's sales will be damaged, and you would stop publishing them... which would really be a shame. Whereas on the other hand, better production quality could keep previous purchasers coming back and buying, not only more books by this author, but books by others whom you publish."

This phrasing, as you'll have seen, walks a bit wide around the issue of your further purchases, while directing attention toward the bottom line... which will routinely be what the publisher's looking at from day to day. And—being, one has to hope, in possession of the wider picture as regards what's going on with their production costs—maybe they can actually do something about it.

Anyway, nothing ventured, nothing gained, yeah? It's worth a try. All you can do is hope for the best.

And finally: please know that I admire your commitment to the author: whoever she is, she's lucky to have you. It's a terrific thing to have readers who'll willing to spend the time to hunt you down, and who're willing not to judge a book by its cover. :)

[bitterkarella]

Midnight Pals: Omens

Arkasha Stevenson: submitted for the approval of the midnight society, i call this the tale of the first omen Stevenson: it's about a plot to breed the antichrist King: wait this sounds familiar Stevenson: yeah it's based on The Omen King: no that's not it

King: wait! i've got it! King: this is totally ripping off Good Omens! King: it's the same set up! Lovecraft: you're right! even the name is similar! Barker: wow, i hope someone gets fired for THAT blunder

King: neil! Neil! did you know that the omen is ripping off your book? Neil Gaiman: steve, good omens is a parody of the omen King: King: what Gaiman: i mean, even the name is similar Gaiman: that should have been a clue

Gaiman: you must understand, steve, that once the omen was the biggest thing in horror Gaiman: we believed its grip on man's imagination would last the ages! But alas... it is forgotten! Gaiman: forgotten like the fading filaments of a dream in the morning light! King: oh ok

Gaiman: now, like the great ozymandias,king of kings, memory of the omen has scattered to the howling winds of the glittering desert of oblivion Gaiman: and like prometheus the titan of old my torment knows no bounds Koontz: neil! did you know the first omen ripped off your book?

Gaiman: no young dean for you see the omen actually predates good omens Koontz: huh? but it just came out! Gaiman: no see the original omen came our before the good omens book Koontz: original omen? book? Koontz: i don't understand

Mary Shelley: sup fuckers Shelley: so neil i hear they ripped off your book Gaiman: no i Shelley: i'd be real pissed if someone ripped off my book Gaiman: they didn't Shelley: i'd give em one of these [pantomimes shivving]

Gaiman: please! no one ripped off good omens Barker: oh they definitely ripped off good omens Poe: seems pretty obvious, yeah Gaiman: edgar! he's just stirring up shit! Gaiman: you know that! Gaiman: why are you believing him now? Poe: no he's right, it's an open and shut case

Neil Gaiman: it's not a rip off! good omens was literally an omen parody! Gaiman: if you won't believe me, ask terry! Terry Pratchett: hey is anyone hungry? i could really go for some soup right now

[colleendoran]

Thank you for maintaining boundaries

I am extremely happy that so many of you are enthusiastic Good Omens fans. It is wonderful that this delightful book by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman has touched so many hearts, and it is wonderful that everyone loves the show.

However...

I can't read fanfic.

I can't look at fan art.

I did not secure rights to the Good Omens adaptation with my wicked cartoonist wiles. I was approached by Pratchett/Gaiman about doing the adaptation a year ago.

I am not the boss.

Everything I do goes through an approval process.

Everything I do is BOOK based, not SHOW based.

In order to keep my head clear, I haven't even been able to watch the show for months and months. Which is sad, because I love it, and during COVID it kept me very happy. I watched it dozens of times.

I know how personal head canon can affect memories of a beloved book or show. I cannot possibly satisfy everyone's head canon.

I'm not going to try to.

I have to continually check and recheck what The Book says about each scene to make sure I'm not straying too far from the source.

I make what I consider to be only minor changes re: acting and staging so that a scene may work better in the static comic art medium. I make cuts where necessary to fit the format. I make only the most minor dialogue changes.

All of this means a lot that is in the show is not in the book because it wasn't in the book in the first place.

I am not the boss.

Everything I do goes through an approval process.

I can't look at fanfic or fanart.

I do appreciate your enthusiasm and love.

I'm going back to work.

[pippinkun]

Last weekend was magical! I traveled from Spain to see the play "Nye" at the National Theatre on Saturday with my best friend. We really enjoyed the play. Michael's performance was outstanding, and the rest of the cast was also excellent.  I got to meet Michael Sheen in person, which was a dream come true for me. I admire him so much as an actor and as a person. He was the kindest, most patient and adorable man in the world with all the fans who were there. I was very nervous, but as soon as I was near him, I calmed down and was able to talk, give him a (very long) letter and a small drawing that I had made for him. I was even able to ask him for a hug, I don't know how I dared, I guess his aura of good person made me have the courage to ask him.

On Sunday, I went to the London Comic Con Spring with my friend. We had been preparing our Good Omens cosplays for weeks, and it was the first time we were going to wear them. We were quite successful and were asked for many photos at the event. Then in the afternoon we decided to go to Regents Park and take some photos there too. We caused some shock among the tourists who were walking around, and we heard comments like: "They must be from a theater." Also, some people asked us for photos, although only one knew that we were "Crowley and Aziraphale".

I don't think Neil Gaiman will ever see this post, but if he did I would love to know if he approves of our Victorian Good Omens cosplays. We really enjoyed being Aziraphale and Crowley for a day. ^_^

[galescafe]

study tracker / sunny evening

03 JUNE 2024 | 86/100 DAYS OF PRODUCTIVITY

BIG NEWS! MY THESIS PROPOSAL GOT APPROVED! i will officially be completing an undergraduate thesis for one of my degrees this upcoming semester, and i am so so excited

otherwise i honestly was feeling pretty burnt out this morning/afternoon, and then the frustration about not being productive wasn't helping me productive, which is a whole fun spiral

didn't so much studying in the afternoon, but at least i answered some emails i had been putting off

got a lot done after dinner though! finally was able to get in the groove after a rough day

also spent some time graphic designing for my volunteer dance program that i'm running this summer

content revised: physics chs 8-9, ochem chs 6-10, 682 anki cards in bio and gen chem

📚: anansi boys - neil gaiman ⏰ 36/300 hours

[marta-bee]

How is Rowling hateful? When has she said she hates trans people?

how can you compare someone who says controversial things to a bloody rapist

I don't usually respond to anon messages, but I'm making an exception for the second half because it's something I see people on Tumblr often struggling with. Namely that you can't draw an analogy without saying two things are equivalent. They have to be similar in some specific, relevant way, but there can still be other aspects that make them worlds apart.

Obviously JK Rowling and Neil Gaiman's situations are very different. With Rowling we have her words and public actions, we don't need to tack on that "credibly accused of" anymore; but also what she said and did is very different than what Gaiman stands accused of. Like you said you can't compare assaulting people with telling all those trans women they don't get to make the choice about what kind of gender society treats them as having. Totally different severities, totally different scopes, totally different levels of certainty about the evidence.

The good news is we don't have to make that comparison. Like I said, you can see a similarity between two situations without saying they're similar in every way. And the similarity is: large parts of their fandom considered Rowlings' and Gaiman's actions "bad enough" they didn't feel comfortable supporting them. The question is how you go on relating to stories that have meant a lot to you, when you don't approve of something about the person who wrote them. That's the comparison.

Also,

I do wonder why Rowling keeps circling back to the anti-trans thing. Especially when her comments on other things are actually much more progressive; her charitable work for the poor and her comments on Brexit and anti-migrant sentiments, for example. I don't know that it's conscious hate toward trans people, but it does seem like there's something going on inside her mind that drives her to keep focusing on that. It's certainly not love.

All that said: hateful can also mean deserving of hate, whether or not the person doing/saying it was driven by hate themselves. And that's the meaning I was aiming for here.

[lilliththefan]

Okay, I’m gonna do smthn I have never done before on this platform and that is to toss my hat into my thoughts concerning Crowley. Specifically, about her Fall.

Just how she said “Call it a nebula”, call this little crackhead theory: The Booksnatcher Theory (aka: Stealing Books and what it could mean for Season 3)

[Disclaimer: this is just smthn I cooked up randomly so don’t look at it too closely lol. Also I’m not sure if another person has thought of this as well, I just wanted to look at it on a certain angle teehee]

THAT OUT OF THE WAY!!! Let’s start off with what we know about Crowley’s Fall objectively (and by objectively, I mean what Neil has to say about it)

So it’s canon (confirmed via Neil Gaiman himself) that Crowley isn’t the best source for his experience concerning The Fall. According to Crowley, they Fell for two reasons: asking questions and hanging out with the wrong people.

Another interesting thing Neil noted was that Crowley isn’t as good as he likes to maintain while also not being THAT bad as Heaven portrays him to be. So what does that mean?

It could mean that Crowley did something he hasn’t admitted to doing yet.

Which brings me to the title of this random theory I thought of while drinking some milk tea; what if he snatched a book? This book in particular.

If you can barely read the title, you’ll notice that it has the title of “Nebula” along with some (probably) volume numbers that would help identify the book. It was also noted by Crowley that she “wasn’t the original concept designer but that he worked very closely with Upstairs on it.” As some people have pointed out, this was a habit Crowley also did in Hell: taking credit for an idea that wasn’t technically theirs.

Crossing your fingers like this typically means one is asking for luck, OR more poignantly in this scenario, outright lying to another person but not to God as a way to negate the lie you just said. Other people have noted this gesture as well!

Essentially, the theory goes like this: What if Crowley borrowed the Nebula book without prior knowledge or permission and used it to start the star factory without proper clearance?

That basically meant that Crowley stole a Heavenly document for their own gain and created something without an overseer’s approval. Even if it was to satiate their love and curiosity of stars, it still paints him in a bad light while simultaneously not being “that bad” of an angel.

For this theory, Crowley’s angel identity doesn’t matter tbh, you’re free to explore that in your own headcanons. But what matters for this theory, it mainly hinges on the idea that he stole something and did something out of line. Which isn’t all too out of character for Crowley, as he mentioned pranking the cherubs with Beelzebub and threats of the Book of Life.

SPEAKING OF!!!

This brings me to the next part: Why does it matter if Crowley stole a book?

Because that means books can be stolen. And there is ONE particular Book that is currently a Chekov’s gun waiting to be fired.

NOW LET’S 👏 TALK 👏 THE 👏 METATRON 👏

Metatron overall is a VERY shady character, no surprise here. We know barely anything about the guy, which basically meant us (who are into angelology) had to go off of three main things: (1) he’s the Voice of God, (2) he was once human favored by God, and (3) he’s the Scribe to the Book of Life.

So here’s the thing about point 1 and point 2…

…okay so Metatron doesn’t ACTUALLY talk to God and he was never human in the first place, which means out of everything so far, point 3 is the only thing that still remains as true.

What does that mean, then? It means, in the context of this theory, the Metatron would probably be keeping that Book under lock and key in the best way possible: by controlling any single angel (former or current) that has shown instances of showing interest towards knowledge they shouldn’t have.

Which means that it makes sense to make Crowley Fall, if she has been known to steal books. Aziraphale could easily be put under the Metatron’s control due to conditioning. Hell (heh), even Michael backed down the moment Metatron revealed himself.

But there’s one surprising addition to the growing count of angels (and demon) who have an interest in books and that is Muriel.

Muriel was seen by Metatron as a purveyor of books, expressing excitement and curiosity toward humanity and their culture. That kind of curiosity could be dangerous to Metaton, especially if you consider that Muriel basically now knows a demon who has clearance to certain files.

So, in Metatron’s mind, the probability of Muriel stealing the Book of Life might be probable. Not saying it will happen, but the chance of it happening does exist.

It would be an interesting twist ngl, while also making total sense for Muriel. They’re a scrivener, it’s kinda in their nature to validate documents and books fall under that category. We even see them validate the contract between God and Satan during the events of the Book of Job, so it kinda feels like a normal progression for them; the underdog lowest ranking angel overseeing the most important artifact Heaven has.

Hence why the Metatron probably stationed them down on Earth. Not only as someone to look after the bookshop but also to keep them away from looking into Heaven’s libraries.

All in all, this lil theory hinges on the fact that books are important in the Good Omens-verse, from Agnes Nutter’s book of prophecies to the Book of Life. Which also kinda has some symbolism attached to it: Books contain knowledge, and knowledge is power.

And if Metatron has a monopoly on knowledge, less people would be less inclined to ask questions.

But see, that’s the thing.

The questions will always remain, regardless if you’re an angel or a demon. So now, I end this theory/tirade/meta of mine with my own inquiry: If you have a question no one wishes to reply to, how far will you go to get your answer?

P.S: So you know how the Metatron is the de-facto writer of the Book of Life in this scenario?

…yeah…