Questions tagged [neil-gaiman]
Question about the works of Neil Gaiman (born 1960) or his life as a writer. He is known for his book 'American Gods', and the Sandman comics.
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In 'The Graveyard Book' by Neil Gaiman, why is one 'Jack' named for a historical person
The book features a group of characters who are members of a fraternal organization, and call themselves:
the Jacks of All Trades, or the Knaves, or by other names. We go back an extremely long way. ...
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Who "dribbled a lot and wasn’t allowed anything sharp" in "Good Omens"?
While reading Good Omens by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman, I stumbled across the following quote, in which Aziraphale’s calculations are described:
But these other calculations were of a kind no ...
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Did Gaiman and Pratchett troll an interviewer who thought they were religious fanatics?
TVTropes says:
In real life: Gaiman and Pratchett did a radio interview when the book came out, and slowly realized that the interviewer wasn't aware that the book was fictional, and thought they ...
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Who are the main characters of "A Study in Emerald"?
Neil Gaiman calls his "A Study in Emerald"* a Lovecraft/Sherlock Holmes fanfiction. And indeed it is exactly that: it uses the narration and story structure pretty characteristic to one from ...
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What does Wednesday mean by "the flowers in your hair are optional"?
When Shadow is trying to tell Wednesday about his dream with the thunderbirds, Wednesday gets quite angry and then says they're heading to San Francisco:
"I dreamed of thunderbirds...," ...
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Why is Adam's name completely capitalized in the Good Omens character list?
Before Good Omens has even started, officially, on page xiv in my copy, there's a list of characters. These include...
SUPERNATURAL BEINGS
God (God)
Metatron (The Voice of God)
[...]
Satan (A Fallen ...
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What does Mr World represent in the American Gods book?
The American Gods Wikia site claims that Mr World is a personification of globalisation. That definitely seems to be true in the TV series (see the creepiest rant ever made about salsa), but in the ...
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What is the origin of Dream's helm in Neil Gaiman's "The Sandman"?
The Wikipedia page states that it is the head and spine of a defeated enemy:
In battle he wears a helm made from the skull and backbone of a defeated enemy. This helm, which resembles a World War ...
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What are the different names of Fenrir / Fenris Wolf?
In the book Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman (2017) both the names Fenrir and Fenris Wolf are used.
Example, from chapter "Ragnarok: The Final Destiny of the Gods":
Fenrir, the great wolf, will free ...
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Why is there so little character to the character of Shadow in American Gods?
I recently finished American Gods by Neil Gaiman. Among the criticisms I felt fair to level at it was that Shadow, the central protagonist, is very much a blank slate. We rarely get any insight to his ...
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Why is Sergeant Shadwell obsessed with nipples?
One of the many recurring gags in Good Omens is Sergeant Shadwell's obsession with nipples. For example:
One of the first questions he asks Newt when recruiting him to the Witchfinder Army is how ...
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What's the joke with "Best of Queen" in Good Omens?
A recurring joke in Pratchett and Gaiman's Good Omens is that all the music tapes in Crowley's car are songs from Queen, which is apparently a British rock band. From near the start of the book:
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Is the name Crowley in Good Omens a reference to the famous occultist?
The main demonic character in the humouristic-apocalyptic story Good Omens by Pratchett and Gaiman goes by the name Anthony Crowley - a name which instantly jumped out at me because of its similarity ...
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Why is the Omani trinket salesman story "female", and what does female mean here?
American Gods contains interludes named "Coming to America", which describe how certain gods and other entities arrived to the country. One of those stories features a djinn (a fire spirit, sort of), ...
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Why was an American diplomat's family considered the best place for the Antichrist?
In Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, the original master plan (foiled by dumb chance and human incompetence) was that the newly born Antichrist should be brought up in the family of the ...
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Does Neil Gaiman's "Mouse" criticise abortion?
The short story "Mouse", collected among other places in Smoke and Mirrors, is about a man who is buying a trap to get rid of the mouse in his house. He doesn't want to kill the mouse, so he buys a ...
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Why Night and Time?
In The Sandman - Overture #5 we learn that
two entities who were not seen before (in the original run). If there was any doubt that Night and Time are the parents of all the Endless, this post by ...
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Why are the magicians who captured Morpheus "rubbish"?
Neil Gaiman is on record saying the people who captured Morpheus in issue #1 (i.e. Roderick Burgess and the Order of the Ancient Mysteries) are
completely rubbish, English, sort of Crowley-esque, ...
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What was the purpose of Sam Black Crow in American Gods?
In Neil Gaiman's novel American Gods, many of the characters Shadow encounters turn out to be somehow part of the world of the gods, even those like Low-Key Lyesmith who'd seemed innocuous. Most of ...
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What is so satanic about Manchester?
The demon Crowley, living on Earth was as long as it existed, has long been weaving plots to aid Hell in the coming Armageddon. Though, of course, it doesn't seem that good an idea when it starts, ...
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Why does Ishtar insist on being called "Ishtar"?
There are many characters in Gaiman's Sandman stories that have multiple names; Morpheus is one of them. For the most part, they usually don't mind if someone calls them by one name or another. The ...
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What is the explanation for the two versions of Lucifer's fall from Heaven in "The Sandman" and "Lucifer"?
In Season of Mists, the fifth book of The Sandman series, in chapter 2, Lucifer explains that rebelled against god, and was cast out of Heaven to Hell, along with his lieutenants.
This version of ...
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What is it with British occultism and Brussels sprouts?
Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman's Good Omens is set in England, and one of the characters is Madame Tracy, who makes her living by doing "occult" seances, either by using a crystal ball or a Tarot ...
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Why does Lucifer mention Raguel and Sandalphon as possible rebels among the angelic host?
In chapter two of Season of Mists, Lucifer mentions the angels Raguel and Sandalphon as angels who could rebel [against God]:
Why those two angels?
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Why is The Dreaming a simple place compared to Hell?
In chapter 2 of Season of Mists, Lucifer says the following to Morpheus, when trying to explain his burden of ruling Hell:
I cannot say I see Lucifer's point here. In some of the further stories it ...
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Is the heart in "The Hunt" associated with Desire?
One symbol that is repeatedly associated with Desire is a crystal heart. This appears in several Sandman stories, including in each Endless member's gallery. (Each Endless has a gallery, containing ...
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What does it mean that different parts of humans are created by different gods?
While looking at Norse Mythology to write this question, I read a passage of the book more closely than I had before, and noticed something interesting. When humans are created, the brothers Odin, ...
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Are man and woman like ash and elm? How?
In Neil Gaiman's adaptation of the Norse myths, Norse Mythology, it is sometimes clear that certain elements are used in the stories as a way for the Norse people to transmit useful information and ...
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Did young Dream and Death really look like this?
In "The Parliament of Rooks" (The Sandman #40), Abel tells a toddler Daniel Hall a "children's story" about how he and Cain came to live in the Dreaming (pages 18-20). In the story, Dream and his ...
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Are the new gods not aware of the appearance of this character?
There will be very heavy spoilers - do not read further if you haven't finished the novel.
Mr. World is the leader of the new gods, though his exact area of influence is left somewhat ambiguous in ...
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What exactly was Shadow's crime, and what was Laura's part in it?
There may or may not be unhidden spoilers from the novel here.
While watching the fourth episode of American Gods, where Laura and Shadow's mutual history has been revealed (to be the first major ...
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Which traits of Milton's Lucifer from "Paradise Lost" did Neil Gaiman carry to "The Sandman"?
Lucifer Morningstar, the Vertigo Comics character, was created by Neil Gaiman with influence from John Milton's Paradise Lost - at least that's what is written on his Wikipedia page, and even on the ...
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Do "The Sandman" and "Lucifer" deliberately share the number of published issues?
Neil Gaiman's The Sandman ran for 75 issues; there was one "special" issue which told Orpheus' story, but it's not numbered. According to Neil Gaiman in The Sandman Companion, he was intending to end ...
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Is it implied that anyone can cause a storm with their will, or was it something about Shadow?
There will be unmarked spoilers from American Gods here.
Pretty much the first job Mr. Wednesday and Shadow pull together is the ATM job; before it, Wednesday asks Shadow to cause a snowfall - by ...
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Were there any clues given about Shadow's father?
The protagonist of American Gods, Shadow Moon, has never met his father. His mother had refused to share information about his father with him as well:
— Tell me about my father.
— He’s dead. Don’...
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Are the guardians of Dream's palace based on mythology? Are they symbolic?
In chapter 3 of Season of Mists (The Sandman #24), there are three creatures shown guarding the gates of Dream's palace (left). The lion refers to the whole group as "Gatekeepers" (p 20-21).
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Why does Morpheus look like Neil Gaiman?
I'm probably revealing my ignorance about The Sandman and comic books here. Why does Morpheus look like the writer who created him, Neil Gaiman?
On the left - younger Neil Gaiman (src); on the right -...
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Why are Delirium's eyes of two colors?
In The Sandman #21, some of the various members of the Endless families receive short biographic descriptions. Here's part of Delirium's (p 10):
For Delirium was once Delight. And although that was ...
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What's up with the colors of Delirium's speech bubbles?
In the prologue to Season of Mists (The Sandman #21), the Endless are gathered for a family meeting. Each of them talks with a different typeface, to help differentiate their manners of speech and ...
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In "The Sandman", what are nightmares for?
What purpose do nightmares serve in the world of The Sandman? In the second volume of The Sandman Library (The Doll's House), Dream spends most of his time tracking down and dealing with a number of ...
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Is the story of "Tales in the Sand" (or its form) faithful to traditional African stories?
In the prologue to The Doll's House (The Sandman #9 "Tales in the Sand"), Gaiman tells the story of Queen Nada. Neil Gaiman is not African, nor (as far as I could tell) were any of the people who ...
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Does part four of Doll's House add to the narrative of the volume?
The second volume of The Sandman tells the story of Rose Walker and her relationship with Dream as the vortex of the modern era.
While I was reading the volume, I was initially confused about how ...
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Why does Night say Desire and Morpheus are alike?
In The Sandman: Overture #5, Morpheus speaks with Night while paying a "social visit". There, Night claims Morpheus and Desire are very much alike:
Click for the full resolution
I tend to agree ...
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What's the significance of the witches' name change in Sandman?
As mentioned in another question, the three witches are very significant in The Sandman. While that other question asks for their significance in general, I have a much more specific question to ask.
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What does Dream's ruby represent?
In Volume One of The Sandman (Preludes and Nocturnes), Dream is held captive for 70 years. After escaping and taking vengeance on his (only surviving) captor, he returns home, to the Dreamworld. ...
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In Neil Gaiman's "The Sandman", what do the Three Sisters represent?
The Three Sisters - the Hecatae, the Fates, the Kindly Ones - are ubiquitous in Neil Gaiman's The Sandman (and in other works). They appear in the first volume to give Morpheus three answers:
and ...
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Was Neil Gaiman influenced by Heinrich Heine?
In my experience, Neil Gaiman's understanding of mythology and literature is exceptionally profound, and he is able to render stories with mythological resonance surpassing the work of most of his ...
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What is the reason for partial highlighting in "The Sandman"?
I was just re-reading Preludes and Nocturnes, the first volume of Neil Gaiman's The Sandman. In the story titled The Sound of Her Wings, the following conversation takes place:
Death: You are ...
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Was Neil Gaiman's Stardust influenced by C.S. Lewis?
A central theme in Neil Gaiman's fantasy novel Stardust is that stars, when they fall from the sky, take on the shape of human beings. One of the main characters is a fallen star who ends up living on ...
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