Neil Gaiman betrayed us all

 A quick note about the horrific prolonged SA cases that have come out around Neil Gaiman. I have been reading his work since the age of 11. I knew 0 about his character aside from what he wrote in introductions, and wikipedia's then small background tab.

Gaiman preyed on fans, people like you, people like me. He was not who anyone thought he was. 

I have talked about Coraline (2002) as its original novel, animated film, opera, and stage versions. I can do so no longer. Whilst the posts will remain on this site I will pin to each the article by New York Magazine on Gaiman's crimes, which I will link underneath this post. 

I believe every victim who has come forward.

LINK: THE SIDE OF NEIL GAIMAN HIS FANS NEVER SAW, BY LAUREN STARKE (TRIGGER WARNINGS APPLY)

WHAT IS THE USE OF A BOOK ASTHETICS: The Night is Short, Walk on Girl by Tomihiko Morimi

The world at night struck me as a very strange place. 

Little photomontage by me for The Night is Short, Walk on Girl by Tomihiko Morimi.

I know the book takes place over a year, but I decided to focus more on the first "story" or chapter, for this collage as I found encompassing the whole book to be hard. 

Sources:

• U3K-Y
• Fashionleague.com (image altered by me)
• LonelyPlanet (actual source now defunct)
• Raven (Pinterest) (can't find original source sadly)
• Pinterest (can't find original source sadly, image altered by me)
• Pinterest (Can't find original source sadly)
• Homewetbar (image altered by me)

WHAT IS THE USE OF A BOOK ASTHETICS: Coraline by Neil Gaiman

 

NOTE JANUARY 2025: NEIL GAIMAN IS AN ABUSER, I WROTE THIS PIECE FAR BEFORE ANYONE KNEW. PLEASE READ THE SIDE OF NEIL GAIMAN HIS FANS NEVER SAW, BY LAUREN STARKE (TRIGGER WARNINGS APPLY)

These things- even the things in the cellar- were illusions, things made by the Other Mother in a ghastly parody of the real people and real things at the other end of the corridor. She couldn't truly create anything, decided Coraline.

Photomontage by me for Neil Gaiman's Coraline.

Sources: 

• P Kwang (this is the earliest source I could find) 
• eatdrinkbscary (earliest source found) 
• HELENE ATHANASIADIS 
• SoldOut 
• Brendancer97 
• Scaredybats 
• Scarlet Raven 
• Pinterest
• Dave Mackean's illustrations (altered by me) 

Photography by Boris Rappo, inspired by Vítězslav Nezval's novel Valerie and her Week of Wonders

What is the Use of a book review: Night is Short, Walk on Girl by Tomihiko Morimi

(Illustration of Otome by the blog Tsubaki)

NOTE: Apologies this review is so late! 

TRANSLATIONS NOTE: Can be read in Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Thai and now English

Otome is a new student at Kyoto University with an eccentric way of thinking and a boundless sense of curiosity. This is the tale of her wondrous, bizarre year of exploration in an unreal version of Kyoto and the many adventures she has. It is also the story of her would be boyfriend, Senpai, who cannot find the right way to approach her and becomes entangled in a parallel set of adventures as a result. 

night is short walk on girl is what you would get if you threw Carroll's Alice, Neil Gaiman's sense of urban supernatural and jean pierre Jaunet's Amelie into a blender. This novel took its time to be translated (10+ years to be exact) but it is every bit as wonderful as its 2017 anime adaptation, and which you prefer comes down entirely to personal preference. 

But there is one major difference between the book and its film: time. The book takes place over one crazy year whilst the film has everything in one dreamlike night. Again personal preference will dictate which way of telling this tale you prefer. 

On one hand the all in one night approach is more carrollian, but on the other side Morimi's novel being set over a year is more detailed and there is a sense of real companionship among the characters. Otome's friendships with party girl  Hanuki and maybe supernatural entity Higuchi feel more closer in the novel. We get more backstories and even more segments (since even though the film was a very faithful adaptation, things were left out) 

In terms of character Otome here is more eccentric and more naive about people, her naivete lessens as the year (and book) goes on and she becomes more attuned to the world around her. Senpai also has a parallel narrative which mirrors this. In this sense the novel has a coming of age function that the film for the most part lacks. 

Honestly this novel is a little glowing gem. Surreal, quirky (without being cloying) and ever so carrollian. 

NOTES:

• SiFi Enclopedia has some good notes on Morimi's other work (and is the only comprehensive guide in English) 

• Morimi's novel The Tatami Galaxy is set in the same place as Night is Short... despite only featuring Hanuki and Higuchi as returning characters. Tatami has not been officially translated... yet. 

• Although there is an anime TV adaptation of Tatami and plenty of TV and film adaptations of Morimi's other works (all are subtitled in English, for international friends, check availability) 

• Here's an awesome essay about the adaptations of Morimi's works so far. 

• This guide details the real life locations that are mentioned in the novel, including Bar MoonWalk, the very real bar that fictional Otome starts her weird adventures at. 

• I want more translations of this author's work. Just saying. Apparently a lot of them are connected in places and themes. 

Malo Komaki's beautiful illustrations for Tomihiko Morimi's The Night is Short, walk on Girl.

I gazed proudly up at the sky and remembered something Mr. Rihaku had said while we were drinking together, It made me feel so cheerful, I felt I wanted to recite it like a spell to protect me. I murmured it to myself. The night is short - walk on, girl

Neil Gaiman's Coraline, illustration by Adrián D. Solis.

I adore how accurate to the original book this illustration is! 

NOTE JANUARY 2025: NEIL GAIMAN IS AN ABUSER, I WROTE THIS PIECE FAR BEFORE ANYONE KNEW. PLEASE READ THE SIDE OF NEIL GAIMAN HIS FANS NEVER SAW, BY LAUREN STARKE (TRIGGER WARNINGS APPLY)

WHAT IS THE USE OF A BOOK ASTHETICS: Tideland by Mitch Cullin

I tried understanding the exact circumstances that brought me to Texas instead of Denmark, but nothing presented itself. I knew only that I had been on my own since that first night in the back country, and that I'd fled Los Angeles after my mother turned blue. Then I saw myself swimming through a vast underwater wilderness, going deeper and deeper, like a penny tossed into the hundred year ocean, or Alice falling very slowly into the rabbit hole. 

Photomontage by me for Mitch Cullin's distressing cult novel, Tideland. 

Tried to pick the least disturbing images I could find to fit this book. It is by no means an easy read. 

Photos are culled from these sources (1,2,3,4)

WHAT IS THE USE OF A BOOK ASTHETICS: Valerie and her Week of Wonders, Vitezslav Nezval

All that she had seen had seemed beyond belief. "If only there were a way to break the power of the spells that hold me in their thrall."

Little photomontage thing by me for Vitezslav Nezval's Valerie and her Week of Wonders.

These photos are mostly culled from public domain sources with the exception of these three photos (1, 2, 3) 

Also apologies for using the film still of the Weasel character, I try hard not to use the film version of something when doing book montages, but no other image seemed to fit.  

Jeliza-Rose by rebelflet for Mitch Cullin's harrowing cult novel Tideland

Coraline and cat by Jullianna Swaney for Neil Gaiman's Coraline. 

NOTE JANUARY 2025: NEIL GAIMAN IS AN ABUSER, I WROTE THIS PIECE FAR BEFORE ANYONE KNEW. PLEASE READ THE SIDE OF NEIL GAIMAN HIS FANS NEVER SAW, BY LAUREN STARKE (TRIGGER WARNINGS APPLY)

Valerie set off along the dark underground passage. She was exhausted and sat down on the edge of the chicken coop. “Four days now! If only these awful spells that have been victimizing me would stop.” She took another step forward, but, being so worn out, she had to sit down again. “Its as if I were in another’s power,” she said with a sigh, “I’m acting like a sleepwalker.”

Photomontage by me for Valerie and her Week of Wonders by Vitezslav Nezval 

Illustration for Neil Gaiman's Coraline by art-of-kitty-blake

NOTE JANUARY 2025: NEIL GAIMAN IS AN ABUSER, I WROTE THIS PIECE FAR BEFORE ANYONE KNEW. PLEASE READ THE SIDE OF NEIL GAIMAN HIS FANS NEVER SAW, BY LAUREN STARKE (TRIGGER WARNINGS APPLY)

Night is short Walk on Girl novella release now July... (according to the publisher)

(Image: original Japanese editions) 

The English translation of  "Night is short..." will now be released on the 23rd of July.

Weirdly amazon's UK page contradicts this, but the publisher has now stated July so... 

*shrugs*

Although its been put back I honestly don't mind as long as the translation is of good quality.

 now the release is (maybe) in July it makes for good carrollian July reading...

And of course I'll review it for this blog (alongside the film version!) 

Kurosaka Keita’s illustrations for a Japanese edition of Vitezslav Nezval’s Valerie and her Week of Wonders.

These are still my current favourite illustrations after Kamil Lhotak’s. 

Sure they lack the surreal abstract nature of the recent German illustrations and the Victorian homages of Lhotak's originals, but there's something about these illustrations that just fit the narrative.

Also love the idea of having all characters except for Valerie looking extremely grotesque. Kind of plays up the unreal, nightmarish side to the narrative. 

Vítězslav Nezval's OTHER Carrollian-style book...

“The hall of mirrors” by Toyen for a children's book by Vítězslav Nezval. 

Did more research on this recently!

The book this illustration is from, Anička skřítek a slaměný Hubert, as far as I can tell, is about two friends, one named a variant of Alice (Anička) who voyage into a strange world behind a shop mirror. 

Czech literature site defines it as "often associated with the influence of Carroll's Alice"

Vítězslav Nezval had written the adult aimed novel Valerie and her Week of Wonders the year prior to this, though it remained unpublished until 1945.  

Both novels seem to have Carroll's influence in the background. 

Would love to read Anička skřítek a slaměný Hubert, but sadly, I don't think its ever been translated! 

ARCHIVE POST: Speaking Likenesses (Flora’s story) by Christina Rossetti

Please note: this post covers only 1 of the stories in Speaking Likenesses. Although the last is also cited to have Carroll-esque inflections, I only feel that Flora’s story is Carrollian enough to be talked about.

Can be read: Via archive.org as part of the public domain. 

Written by Dodgson’s contemporary, Rossetti, Speaking Likenesses is an anthology of several loosely linked stories as told by an aging mother to her three girls. I’m going to disagree with many studies of this novella and instead go with the view that Rossetti was not using these stories to criticize or mock Dodgson’s Alice tales. If anything, Rossetti’s stories also mock the inane moralism of children’s tales similarly to Carroll, albeit in a less restrained fashion. Evidence of this can be seen in the silly, trivial questions that the three sisters ask the mother, and the mother’s often overzealous use of moralising in her tales.

With that out of the way, let’s take a look at the 2nd tale of the three, Flora’s story. Flora’s character has several Alice-based personality features. Namely her unshakable sense of curiosity and her ability to keep her sense about her during her often surreal, and in this case, rather unpleasant encounters. Although the mother when telling the story points to Flora’s imperious nature when trying to control her friends after they fight at her birthday, the mother fails to understand that Flora’s temper giving way to anger over her friends would only be natural. It’s not like she hasn’t tried to stop her friends from fighting. Overall despite her flaws Flora is generally conveyed as a nicer child than the mother’s view paints her as. 

 Carroll’s novels often play upon the uncanny via the Duchess and Queen of Hearts in Wonderland, and the train passengers, sheep and mutton meal in Looking-Glass. But their vague uneasiness is not brought to the centre. Alice moves on, barely dwelling on each encounter. Even the Queen of Hearts is just a bit player of a larger narrative. In Rossetti’s likenesses, Flora may go through a door but she does not end up in a world of wonder by any sense. Through the door is a warped version of a birthday party, where each uncanny resident is downright horrendous towards Flora.




Although the curious mirrored walls and anthropomorphic chairs recall Carroll, they are only used as operators to deny Flora of any joy. A sort of inverse form of Carrollian writing then. 

Flora is denied food by the self-proclaimed Birthday Queen, and then subjected to having pins thrown at her as a party game. Although Carroll’s Alice may suffer threats of beheading or disappearing altogether, she is never really physically harmed. But Flora very much is.


And how much does Flora learn from her experience? Other than never to fall asleep in the garden ever again? Or never to go through any unusual doors? 

The moralistic mother tells us as readers it’s for her own good. That in the future, Flora will become a proper Victorian lady because of this dream. But this statement rings entirely false. And yes, that’s the point. 

In mocking the Mother character, Rossetti aims all her scorn at moralistic adults who enforce strict rules on children and pointless lessons for their supposed own good. 

Can't help but wonder if Rosetti was inspired by Carroll's Duchess. 

Everything has a moral, if only you can find it.

Indeed! 

ARCHIVE POST: PSA: ”Bengali literature’s Lewis Carroll” …Sukumar Ray

It was terribly hot. I lay in the shade of a tree, feeling quite limp. I had put down my handkerchief on the grass: I reached out for it to fan myself when suddenly it called out, ‘Miaow!’ Here was a pretty puzzle. I looked and found that it wasn’t a handkerchief any longer. It had become a plump ginger cat with bushy whiskers, staring at me in the boldest way. 

from HaJaBaRaLa (A topsy-turvy tale)

Born in Bengal, India in 1887, Saukmar Ray’s nonsense works would go on to shape the fabric on Bengali culture, being continually referenced and parodied. in many ways the Ray-Carroll comparison is apt, as both writers wrote fledgling works for family magazines. In the case of Ray, it was one that he and his brother Subinay Ray helped set up through their father’s publishing firm. The majority of Ray’s nonsense work was written for “Sandesh” over an 8 year period. The most famous of these works being the collection of satires/poems “Abol Tabol” and the Carrollian “HaJaBaRaLa (A topsy-turvy tale)“ in which a young child gets lost in a bizarre world after following a handkerchief which has turned into an impertinent cat. 

Despite his work being cultural currency in India, sadly essays and such in the western world seem to be lacking… which I find a little odd for someone whose work is considered an equivalent and equal to Carroll. 

Both Abol Tabol and Hajabarala have been translated into English by Oxford University Press.

Excerpts and a better overview here.

1987 Documentary here. 

ARCHIVE POST: What is the use of a book review: Valerie and her Week of Wonders by Vitezslav Nezval

(Above photo: Kamil Lhotak's design for the first edition) 

Publisher (English Translation) : Twisted Spoon Press 

Content warnings: Implied sexual assault 

Well, um… this will be interesting to be sure. My fellow Carrollians you must appreciate that this is a very, very difficult book to review. Its very difficult to describe and at least half of the novel comes down to personal interpretation. But I’ll give you my best shot at a plot overview.

Valerie, a 17 year old innocent girl, lives with her decrepit grandmother in the midst of the Czech Republic in the medieval era. When she is finally old enough to be considered a woman, her earrings are stolen by a young man named Eagle and then returned to her. After seeing a vision of a horrifying vampire-like man known as the Polecat, she retires home to bed. Only for her week to become increasingly bizarre as she is approached by various vampiric villagers. The only thing that can save her from these strange encounters are herself and her magical earrings. Whether Valerie’s week even happens is debatable. It could all just be a utterly surreal dream…

First things first, if you hate confusing, surreal or convoluted plots, I would advise you not to read this. After the set up is established it becomes truly nonsensical. However, if you don’t mind, be prepared for a searingly strange yet intriguing story which shifts its tone back and forth through several genres. Is it surreal horror? A adult’s fairy tale? A Alice-like tale of a girl encountering bizarre things? Its technically all of these at once.

Valerie as a protagonist brings to mind Carroll’s Alice several times. Valerie is determined to get to the bottom of all of the strangeness that envelopes her- even if it could all be imagined. Unlike her counterpart in the 1970 film, book Valerie is often frightened by the things she encounters- but never to the point of despair. She never gives up entirely. 

And then there are the lovely illustrations by Kamil Lhotak, inspired by Victorian collages. They are stunning. 

There have since been illustrations for Japanese and German editions (the Japanese illustrations being less abstract) which are also just as interesting as Lhotak's originals.

If you’re feeling brave enough, its well worth the read. 

ARCHIVE POST: What is the Use of a book reviews: Tideland by Mitch Cullin

Content Warnings: This novel discusses child neglect, abuse, and drug addiction.

I really, really mean that content warning list, by the way. This is not for everyone. 

Even people like myself, who are used to disturbing content in novels may be unsettled by this one. Why is it disturbing? Its because its told from the point of view of a child. Its disturbing because its told from an innocent.

Jeliza-Rose is 11. Her mother has just passed away from drug addiction. Fleeing LA, she and her washed up rockstar father travel to Texas to a rickety new home. With her father on permanent “vacation” (read: on drugs) Jeliza-Rose finds she has to amuse herself. With her three Barbie doll heads as friends, Jeliza-Rose slips further into her imagination.

I did like the characterisation of Jeliza-Rose and her world in general. I also liked the personification of her doll head friends, particularly her personal favourite, Classique. Cullin’s writing perfectly captures a child’s overactive imagination and here uses it as a contrast to the depressing adult world. Yet at the same time, the line remains clear that the conversations and explorations Jeliza-Rose makes are often imaginary. It’s a reconstruction of the down the rabbit hole trope. Jeliza-Rose goes nowhere, but instead uses her imagination as a distraction. 

For us Carrollians,  Alice herself is referenced multiple times- Alice’s adventures in Wonderland is Jeliza-Rose’s favourite book, and at one point she tries to pretend that she is Alice falling down the rabbit hole, another time she imagines she is opening the door to the Queen of Hearts’s garden- which turns out to be a shaft into the house attic surrounded by fibreglass.

After a time, it becomes clear that Jeliza-Rose’s imaginings are the only thing that is shielding her from a hideous reality. Downstairs, whilst her father stares limply at a map, completely out of his head, Jeliza-Rose plays pretend and thinks about the past. The contrast is played up for all the disturbing narrative you can find. Exploring outside, she comes across two equally unusual neighbours, decrepit Dell and childlike Dickens. Weird neighbour Dell, who is terrified of bees and mistakes Jeliza for a thief, particularly brings to mind Carroll’s savage duchess. 

Would I recommend this book? Yes, but only if you can handle it. It’s a hard, often harrowing read, but one which is necessary if you wish to explore an inversion of the Alice trope.