When I first heard of his name, I thought, this was not one of them. He will become passé and nobody will care about his works after a few years. But I was wrong.
It began with a switch. We swapped our books to have a taste of each other’s preferences (more or less). I gave up my Sheldons, Deveraux, and Fielding, while they, their Gaimans, Sauls, Andrews, Browns, Murakami, Roy and a Pantoja-Hidalgo. After a few minutes, I found myself with a Pantoja-Hidalgo, Murakami and a Gaiman.
I am already familiar with Pantoja-Hidalgo because of her book, Catch a Falling Star. Murakami’s The Elephant Vanishes is also a page-turner for me. I love shorties nowadays, because of my inability to devote much time to reading novels,fiction or nonfiction.
But Gaiman is something new to me. A friend wanted to push it on my face every time she sees me eyeing it but not picking it up. I don’t know. My apologies, Neil Gaiman, for ever doubting you.
As was always my attitude before reading short stories (and because I am too lazy), I would ask my friend to enumerate to me the stories which she liked best. Only too happy to finally see me pick up her favorite author, Wila pointed out four: The Queen of Knives, Troll Bridge, We Can Give it to You Wholesale and When We Went to see the End of the World. All these shorties can be found in Neil Gaiman’s book, Smoke and Mirrors.
Before this book, I already had a pre-judgment of Neil Gaiman as to what kind of author he is. He wrote the story of Coraline and Stardust (which were adapted for 3D movies of the same titles). If you have watched or gained knowledge of what these two movies/books are all about, then you might already have a taste of Gaiman, figuratively of course.
Here are, more or less, summaries of how I understood the plot of some of his shorties:
Queen of Knives: A boy goes into the circus and loses his grandmother to a live magic show involving a big box where the magician’s assistant. led her. She was never found.
Troll Bridge: A boy encounters a troll who wants to eat his life. He pleads, three times, and ages. When he returns to the bridge for the last time, he allowed the troll to eat him and they exchanged lives. He becomes the new troll who lives under the bridge.
We Can Give it to You Wholesale: A man enlists the help of an assassin who gives him package deals. As someone who never passes off an opportunity to bargain, he accepts and makes a list of the people he want killed (he originally wanted only one, but the number went up to everybody), eventually having himself dead too.
When We Went to see the End of the World: An 11-year-old girl who went with her always arguing parents to see the end of the world.
What I like about not having to discover great writers on my own is that it saves me from wasting time. Neil Gaiman is one of those discoveries. He is very imaginative. I would even like to think that he never outgrew his childhood. Another thing which I found amusing is that he tweaks traditional and predictable stories into something very unconventional or unpredictable.
He has the weirdest combination of disturbing plots and characters. He would put together two people from different worlds (the leave-me-alone, I-am-quite-contented-with-my-life Mrs Whittaker of the 20th Century and the no-retreat-no-surrender knight, Galahad of the Medieval Period) and still get away with it. Weird he is, but very original and creative. In the Troll Bridge, he makes the troll a bit scary but not too ‘villanous’.
Lastly, he inspires people. He made possible the Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards on Comics Anthology. He showed interest for the local folklore and recognized the talents of Filipino writers (some of which also inspired him to venture into comics). He was also the inspiration for Trese, a comic series written and drawn by Budgette Tan and Kajo Baldisimo, respectively.
Neil Gaiman has the magic, wit and humor. I knew only a few writers who can cook something that will stay long even when it is not refrigerated. He is one of those. For sure, he, both as an author and a person whose flair for graphic novels and short stories never reach the end of his pen, has a long way to go.
This is dedicated to the person who introduced Neil Gaiman to this blogger.
(Aside from the second paragraph, all the rest are true. Neil Gaiman also authored The Sandman Chronicles, though I am not really that familiar with it. ;D)
