Friday, December 02, 2005

... Dammit. My favorite author Neil Gaiman is going to give at talk at the 92nd Street Y on January 9th about, you know, creativity. I don't think we'll be down in New York that long.

Having written that, I wonder what I'd get from going to a talk about creativity. Oh yes, Neil Gaiman is one of the most creative writers I know. Possibly the most, in some sense. But I doubt he can tell me how to be more creative. It comes from somewhere in his soul, and from somewhere in mine.

So, possibly, this is just the fanboy in me. Normally I keep him locked away, but he surfaces from time to time. For example, I bought the entire run of Sandman starting from issue #8 (#1-7 were just too expensive even for my inner fanboy, and honestly not as good as the others, I felt). I rarely dig them out and read the books -- for that one can borrow the graphic novels from the library. I just wanted to own a bigger pieces of Sandman, I guess.

That is, I guess, why there are fan conventions.

It's an impulse I try to quash because I feel it leads nowhere. I'm a bit of a fanatic about leaving something behind. I have trouble enjoying a work of art or entertainment unless I feel it is something I can use. Fortunately I have an extremely broad definition of "use." You never know when March of the Penguins might trigger something in the back of the soul, and if nothing else, Harry Potter tells you the state of contemporary computer graphics. But I'm obsessed with making new things, with making ripples in the pool, I guess as a struggle against mortality.

Well, speaking of which, a small person is objecting to going to day care, so I've got to go help...

Tags: screenwriting; writing; film

8:29 AM

4 Comments:

Alex,

This may help soothe the pain: http://www.neilgaiman.com/exclusive/essay03.asp

It's a short essay Gaiman wrote in 1997, titled "'Where do you get your ideas?"

By  Webs, at 9:50 AM  

Reading ANANSI BOYS now. I'm assuming your inner fanboy bought it September 20th or you had a friend of a friend at a bookstore that got you a copy a week before it was officially released.

By  MaryAn Batchellor, at 11:37 AM  

Downloaded it as an audiobook to my iPod! How's that for major geekage?

By  Alex Epstein, at 12:19 PM  

I thought reading it on the iPod was "in", "cool", "hip", "pimp", and all those other trendy phrases that are actually out of date. Reading my harcover version is probably geekdom. Either way, geek ahoy!

By  MaryAn Batchellor, at 12:30 PM  

Post a Comment

Back to Complications Ensue main blog page.