Anatomy and Art

Last night, I had the pleasure of seeing Neil Gaiman speak at the Long Center here in Austin.  When I was a teenager, I positively devoured the Sandman comics, and went on from there to follow other of his works.  Neil is a craftsman of story.  He paints with words.  And it was nice to hear him speak again.

The first time I saw him speak, was I think twenty years ago.  I was in college then, and he had worked with the English translation of Princess Mononoke.  People filled into the Paramount to see the screening, but even at peak fullness, we maybe took up about a third of the small theater.  Then most people left after the screening.  And he entertained questions for as long as we had them, until at the end of the evening there were only a very small number of us left.  I walked up and met him afterwards.  I only had to wait for about two or three people in front of me who had brought comics for him to sign.  It was the first time I was ever starstruck and it had been really important to me to be able to thank him for stories that had been so important to me.

Since then, he’s become more and more known a figure.  And last night, I saw a large theater full of people there to see him specifically, hanging on every word.  He even did an encore reading of one of his stories after much applause and standing ovation.  Some coworkers and I made a group outing of it.

And it was nice, to hear him talk a bit about process, and working through difficult times, and when you get stuck.  It was nice to come back to a familiar voice, now with the wisdom of the last twenty years added to what he had to say, and falling on ears that have gained their own twenty years.  And it was nice to be reminded of that particular sense of story that has been so influential in my life.  So I’m glad that we went.