A Conversation with Neil Gaiman
By J.p. Lawrence
Long lines of Bard students gathered to hear celebrated storyteller Neil Gaiman read the first draft of his latest story, a new take on Sleeping Beauty, at the Fisher Center Sept. 5.
Gaiman, the author of the comic book series “The Sandman,” the novel “Stardust,” and the children’s book “Coraline,” said he wanted to hear how his latest short story read before beginning a second draft.
Theater personnel estimate that 780 people attended the reading, which included a poem reading at beginning, a read-through of Gaiman’s draft, and then a ukulele performance by Amanda Palmer, Gaiman’s wife.
And to his “enormous relief,” Gaiman got through the reading to a gathered crowd that give him a standing ovation. The Free Press spoke with a nervous Gaiman before his talk.
Free Press: What brings you here to Bard today?
Neil Gaiman: Amanda, actually. I’m generally in the area because my wife is using Bard’s space and facilities to put together a tour, and I finished a short story last week and I thought, ‘I’m not sure about this. I don’t know where the beats are.’ I want to do that thing that I sometimes do before I go onto the second draft, which is reading it aloud. And I asked Gideon [Lester] here if there was any chance to just read it to some students. The theory was that we’d get an empty classroom, 40 people. And it embiggened.
FP: So you have like a live sounding board now?
NG: And that’s honestly what I mostly want. It’s very, very weird because I haven’t read it aloud yet. This isn’t something that I’ve practiced in my bedroom. Normally I will have at least read something to Amanda before I’ll read it to a live audience, but in this case...
FP: Virgin ears?
NG: Virgin ears, virgin mouth! I actually brought my notebook, along with the iPad, in case I hit something in the story and go, ‘I need to fix that!’ I can just take out my pen and make a note to myself.
FP: Like a spoken rough draft.
NG: Exactly. It really is.
FP: It almost crosses into spoken art, which is something I’ve noticed. You’ve done comics, screenplays, prose. Going cross-disciplinary – what’s the motive there? Why specialize?
NG: As far as I’m concerned, writers, we ought to be doing all this stuff. Writers who just write one kind of short story, and that’s what they do, and they have this one kind of short story set in a specific location, I guess I admire those people, but I admire them in the same manner I admire the sort of craftsman who just paints the same thing over and over again or perhaps studies the same place for 30 years.
I have no interest in doing that. I want to be able to paint everything, if I’m painting, and I want to be able to write about everything, and I don’t see any reason why, if I want to write a song or a poem, I shouldn’t write a song or a poem.
FP: So as far as today’s reading, what aspects of other genres have helped you create this story?
NG: The story that I’m going to read tonight is a fairy story.
I don’t know about, what 14 years ago, maybe a bit longer, I did a version of Snow White called “Snow Glass Apples,” which was basically me telling the story of Snow White but changing everything around slightly. And this is me telling the story of Sleeping Beauty, but turning it around a little bit. And Snow White is the hero. I did her a bad turn once, so I did her a better turn here.
FP: I was reading about an interview you did once about the difference between comic books and novels, about how in comics, it’s more of a wide-open space and how in novels you’re walking in the footsteps of men with large feet. As far as that goes, how do you really try to create something original?
NG: You don’t. I don’t think I’ve ever created anything original.
Because perfect originally would presuppose you’d get up to a completely blank environment with no life experience of any kind and begin to create art. And that’s not what happens.
What happens is that you grow up surrounded by stories, surrounded by images and songs and poems and performances and films and all of this stuff. And it all goes in. And at some age, it all kind of melts down in your head. It composts. Like rotting fruit on a compost heap. And then you take that compost, and you plant your own seeds in it, and they grow new flowers. And the flowers that grow are being fed on everything that’s gone before.
FP: Now tell me, have you experimented at all in the musical genre? Has your wife influenced you at all in that respect?
NG: No, not really. I wrote songs before I met and married Amanda, and I still write songs from time to time. One of the very first things Amanda and I did together was almost accidental. I sang her a song called “I Googled You” that I had written. And she went off and put chords to it and three days later was performing it in San Francisco. So I love doing things with music, and I wish I had a real voice. “The New York Times” described me: I sing like a novelist. And I thought, fair enough.
FP: Well, if you want go across disciplines, you can’t be afraid to fail, right?
NG: I think you have to not be afraid to fail in any medium – whether you’re crossing disciplines or sticking to the one you’re in. Because fear of failure is paralyzing. What was that lovely Ted Hughes line? All the advances that an artist makes are made when the artist outwits his or her inner police force. And the idea that there are these tiny cops in your head that say you can’t do this or that – you have to outwit them.
FP: I really admire that. You’re going to be putting your first draft, your mistakes, in front of people.
NG: Yeah. Absolutely. But how am I going to know what works and what doesn’t if I don’t?
I don’t want to sound brilliant and blasé. I did this once about a year ago in Edinburgh. I hadn’t even typed a story; I had finished handwriting it about five minutes before the taxi arrived to take us to the gig. And I got onstage and read it in handwriting. And I was so absolutely terrified that shortly before I got on stage, I stuck my head out the window and threw up. Just from terror.
You can be terrified, but do the art anyway. If you’re afraid to fail and don’t do the art, that’s where you fuck up.
FP: So these young kids coming in, these potential storytellers, what would you have as advice for them?
NG: You know, when you’re a college student, at that period of your life, my main advice would be to absorb everything you can. Read everything you can. Read outside of your comfort zone. Don’t obsess about writing. Don’t obsess about finishing stuff. Just absorb all your influences. And then start writing. And then start telling your stories. And sooner or later you’ll be telling the stories that only you can tell.