update: all videos from the talk are online now
The Villa crew went out to Keplers tonight to watch Neil Gaiman speak. It was very nice to actually see Gaiman at Keplers: last year Keplers went out of business just before he was going to speak. I would hate to think that Gaiman is somehow cursed. It was charming to see Gaiman reading Anansi Boys from a church pulpit instead, a but one-minute drive to my local bookstore has its benefits. It was also special because Gaiman helped promote the Save Keplers cause.
The Fragile Things talk was charming as Gaiman talks are. I like to argue that it is important to hear Gaiman speak if you are to read his works: much of what he writes, especially his children's books and short stories, make much more sense if you can imagine a Neil Gaiman voice in your head speaking with the appropriate rhythm and inflections. It is also fun to hear Gaiman speak because he can make a story about buying a pair of pants at Armani yesterday amusing. littlestar was entertained enough that she went and bought a copy of Fragile Things immediately afterwards, going against her inclination to wait for a smaller paperback edition. I, of course, am a whore for Gaiman product: excluding individual comic book issues, my current count is 24 plus an autographed backpack. My count is only impeded by my desire to acquire my Sandman within the same printing vintage.
In the past, I've generally taken lengthy notes at book talks at spent hours upon hours transcribing them into blog form. Now that I'm slowly coming to the realization that my camera takes video and therefore is also an audio recorder, I've decided to make life easier by just including video with short summaries.
NOTE: all of the videos are of crappy quality shot with my ELPH. I was more concerned with just getting audio -- think of the video as bonus ;).
Intro
See the extended for more videos
Readings
"Other People"
"Locks"
Q & A
Influence of his Jewish background
On writing a Sherlock Holmes + Lovecraft story ("A Study in Emerald")
Someone asked a variant of the typical book talk question about writing process, i.e. do you start with a theme or the plot first when you write? It's a boring question to always hear, but Gaiman had a fun anecdote about his agent asking him to write a Sherlock Homes meets H.P. Lovecraft story ("A Study in Emerald", for which he won a Locus Award).
A very long question on originality
Someone gave a very, very long-winded introduction to a question -- even Gaiman prodded him to get to the actual question -- that basically boils down to, "how original is your work?"
On buying pants in San Francisco before his talk at Codys
On the upcoming adaptations of Coraline
Neil Gaiman talks about three upcoming adaptations of Coraline: a musical, a life-sized puppet play, and a stop-motion film.
On his Hollywood experience vs. Alan Moore's
Neil Gaiman does an Alan Moore impression while answering a question about his Hollywood experiences vs. Alan Moore's.
Rube Goldberg devices based on Neverwhere
"What's the most delightfully strange thing based on your work that you've become aware of?"
