every artist who has ever attempted to satirize masculinity i am so sorry

Hello Neil! Watching Doctor Who- there’s an episode where David Tennant’s doctor meets Shakespeare… they’re at the Globe theatre. Is that the same set that you used in Good Omens? it looks very similar, but of course it would… 

I can’t attach pictures of the Doctor Who set, I’m on mobile, but it’s season 3 episode 2, if that helps any. Thanks a tonne!

Yes, the Globe Theatre in the Doctor Who is the same Globe Theatre we shot Good Omens in. It's this place:

I think it's cool that you wrote Coraline :)

So do I.

Every single time I see a take that amounts to "if you write about X happening, or like fiction where X happens, you like X" I'm reminded of this one time I was at a casual friends house as a young kid. We were in her room, pretending to "be orphans" escaping from an evil orphanage and having to take care of each other and fend for ourselves. It was all very Little Orphan Annie/All Dogs Go to Heaven and based on the 80s pop media.

And this girl's mom comes in, hears what we're playing and gets all MAD and UPSET. She says that if we play act something, it's because we want it to happen. So her daughter must WANT HER TO DIE.

First off lady, we were 6 year year olds, so take it down several notches. We barely had a concept of mortality for fucks sake. She made us feel so guilty and ashamed, because she was taking our game personally.

Now I have a 5 year old. And sometimes she looks at me and says "pretend you're dead, and I have to -" Whatever it is. Some adult task she's assigned herself.

And it's just so transparently obvious that she's practicing the idea of having to do things on her own. Which is exactly what 5 year olds are supposed to do. I actually find it very flattering that the only way she can envision me not being available to help her is to be literally deceased. Otherwise, obviously, she wouldn't have to do scary hard things alone.

It's a natural coping mechanism. She's self-soothing about what would happen if I wasn't there by play-acting independence in a perfectly safe environment. She's also practicing skills she needs, and making up excuses for practicing them on her own, without taking on the responsibility of being able to do them by herself all the time yet.

Humans mentally rehearse bad this in their brains all the time. We can do that by ruminating- going over worries over and over again, which tends to lead to anxiety and helplessness and depression. Or we can do it with a sense of play- by recognizing that the fiction is fiction and we can dip our toe into these experiences and expose ourselves to bad things without actually being injured.

My daughter does not want me dead. And I don't want bad things to happen in real life. But fiction and pretend help me face the horrors of the world and think about them without collapsing or messing myself up mentally.

I do not ask this lightly, the Missouri AG’s office has started a site to build a list of trans people. Clog the system. That’s the life of a trans kid who gets another day on this earth. Spam the fuck out of it, it’s not sophisticated. You don’t need to use a real email. Post as much as you’d like

I want everybody who’s calling Ken a Trophy Husband to know that he’s actually a Trophy Boyfriend, because when Ruth Handler invented Ken in the 1960s, she was adamant that he would never marry her and instead be her “handsome steady”, so that Barbie remained a figure of independence for the little girls and was never put in the position of housewife.

Her house is hers. She bought it and furnished it with money she made in her own job. In STEM, in politics, in healthcare, in fashion, in academy, in customer service. Her credit card is in her name (women in the US couldn’t have their own regardless of marital status until 1974). And it’s all pink and fashionable because femininity and badassness aren’t mutually exclusive. No matter who you are, you can be anything.

That’s why Barbie’s slogan is “you can be anything”. Teaching these ideals to little girls is why Barbie was created. Empowering women and empowering femininity is the original meaning of the Barbie doll. It’s not that you have to be all this to be a woman, but if you are all or some of this, you too are awesome.

And somehow pop culture deliberately changed that narrative. Sexualised, bimbofied, and villainised her, when she actually isn’t responsible for the impossible beauty standards — people are, she’s just a stylised, not-to-scale toy like most others.

Men are frothing because he’s just Ken and I guess they were expecting her to be just Barbie, but that’s exactly what Ken is. Canonically. A badass woman’s himbo boyfriend.

This movie has the potential to change the way we collectively see Barbie radically into what Ruth Handler’s intended, I’m so very excited

Neil I need poetry recommendations!

There is an old man at work who has decided he wants to have a poetry reciting contest with me.

It's nice that for once someone thinks I'm smart and it also makes me want to throw up but I agreed to it immediately because I am a go-getter.

So if you have a minute I would greatly appreciate a few suggestions that would impress a poetry fan.

P.S. I haven't smoked at all since I asked you to tell me it was gross a year ago.

(Well done on the smoking)

These are all things it's fun to recite and easy to learn.

1) Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll.

2) Robert W Service - the Cremation of Sam McGee

3) the love song of J Alfred Prufrock - T. S. Eliot (skip the opening Italian bit)

4) Keats, La Belle Dame Sans Merci

5) Tennyson, The Lady of Shallot

6) Masefield, Cargoes

7) personally I love the poetry of John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, but it's mostly NSFW.

8) WE Henley Invictus or Madame Life's A Piece in Bloom.

9) Yeats Song of the wandering Aengus

That's a few to be going on with.

so... in an attempt to make my best friend watch the sandman, i created this powerpoint

in conclusion... please watch it

links to the memes i used in the presentation:

Anthropomorphic Personification

Everyone vs. Dream

Mr. Brightside

Comfort Character

Hello dear Neil. I am in Iran . I'm sorry to be here, but... I don't have any questions... It's just... it's 4:00 AM here. And after two days the internet is connected. But not for any of my friends. There is no one to talk to. Everyone is upset and angry. We are going crazy in this situation. Excuse me for being here, but... I had to talk to someone from the outside world😭🫂

Hullo. Well, I'm here for you and everyone in the comments and in the reblogging tags is here for you as well.

(I don't think people realise that the Internet can simply be turned off. In 2009 I was in Xinjiang in Western China, and the Internet, all text messages that weren't local, and foreign phone calling was turned off. I was sending messages, and nothing was getting through.)

Thinking of you all in Iran, and hoping for better days for you.

Hi Mr. Gaiman

They arrested my boyfriend. Iran's police arrested him at the protests yesterday. I closed and deactivated all his social media accounts for security reasons. They told us his name is not registered in any detention center and I have no idea where he is. I don't think there's anything you or your tumblr followers can do but to ask your governors to stop their diplomatic relations with Iran and fire Iranian ambassadors. University students should not be in jail. Demand their freedom.

I wish there was something we could do. And yes.

Help us by spreading information

Hi Neil, I'm a great fan of your work especially sandman (I really enjoyed Season of mists) and I've just finished watching the show and I must say that even that it was pretty good I was shocked when I saw your casting choices. I've started watching and it was nice and great but then I saw what you did and went "what?" Because I couldn't believe you'll do that to your character. I just cant believe Dream have a square chin. When I saw the first episode I thought "no, that can't be Dream", because it really didn't look like him and the vibes were all off, now don't get me wrong I have nothing against actors with big chins but you really didn't have to do that to Dream of the endless, which a big part of his character was the pointy chin. I don't mean "don't cast square-chinned people on your show" because I have nothing against square chinned people but at least you can make them new and original character or maybe you should have drawn them with a square chin in the comic? Because now it just seems wrong and it really throws me off every time I watch the show, and I really hope that for next season you can recast Dream to be more comics appropriate and fix what you did wrong because even that I have nothing against the actor or his chin I don't think he should play a pointy chinned character like it wouldn't be the other way around right? I hope you understand your mistake and choose the next time the right actor for the show thanks.

This is beautiful. Thank you.

“Note, by the way, that all the Shakespeare and Marlowe dialogue is in iambic pentameter.” - Neil Gaiman in The Sandman episode 6 watch party. (x)

he also mentions that again when Dream and Shakespeare were talking, at the end of the 1589 scene.

(and Ferdinand Kingsley’s response: “Do you know, Neil, it took me only 15 years to realize that, which is weird considering I’m from Stratford-upon-Avon and I only speak in iambic pentameter.” lol)

also found an ask where Neil said “It’s easier to hear than it is to see on the page.”

I just love these details!

wretched and disgusting how society forces girls to wake up early and go to work

i just think that there is no scrapped album…. anywhere….. between any albums

orin scrivello from little shop of horrors is the most frustrating character in theatre. just conceptually. because an insane sadistic dentist who laughs himself to death on nitrous oxide is so sexy. but i can’t crave that energy can i? because he had to go and be a domestic abuser as well. for fucks sake