From the Neil Gaiman: Dream Dangerously :) (you can watch here in US or with US vpn :) <3) (or just this bit on youtube here :))
Terry Pratchett: Neil once said, 'Your fans all look jolly. And my fans all look as if they're about to commit suicide. Wouldn't it be nice if we could get them to marry?'
Since I am always seeing posts about how lovingly (and lustfully) Aziraphale looks at Crowley, I decided to offer you the other perspective. Here are my favorite “Crowley staring at the love of his life” moments.
1- In the Beginning. Love at second sight, one might say.
2- Wishing he was the fork.
3- It’s the softness of this one for me.
4- This one makes me blush every time, he was ready to jump on him.
5- The “I knew you would do the right thing, you really are special” look. Bildaddy serving love and trust!
6- The “If we are both Godfathers together, does that mean we’re married?” look.
7- May I tempt you to lunch? (He is so flirty here I could die)!!!
Neil Gaiman and Sir Terry Pratchett at the Audie Awards back in 2005. (With Jennifer Brehl, their editor).
Yes, 2005. Also yes, legend has it that they finished plotting what they had originally started plotting of the Good Omens book sequel back in Seattle (1989) here. @neil-gaiman
Yall already know I'm An Old™️ but join me now because I'm indulging in a little foray into my Oldness.
I don't think "hipster" has been a thing for a while, but I assume we all understand that hipster is defined as "someone who is a pretentious snob about something innocuous." It's the sneering superiority of a "I liked it before it was cool, you hadn't heard of it". Right? Ok so now that we've defined our terms, we can move on.
So, I allow myself the luxury of being a hipster about precisely two things, and two things only. Because I actually did like them before mainstream culture got a hold of them, and I never won't be a tiny bit giddy when I think of where we started vs what it is now.
Good Omens is the first one. I wouldn't be diagnosed with adhd until my mid-thirties, which I mention because it should carry some weight when I say that this novel remains the only book I ever read cover-to-cover eight times. If I had to shortlist five my favorite novels, Good Omens would easily make the cut. The show is the ultimate book-to-screen adaptation of all time, including Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings," and I've got a little tent and plenty of rations and I am ready to die for my cause on this hill. My beloved first edition and its crumbling dust jacket are prized possessions. I am so proud to have known her when.
But the second one, oh I'm proud of that one too.
When I was a teenager, I read a book by an author named Gregory Maguire. I couldn't put it down. It was captivating, painting a picture of an innocent life borne of a drug-using, neglected and neglectful mother. A life lived as best they could under unending prejudice and cruelty, which produced a person so misunderstood that even their attempt at social good was painted as evil, even when they were only trying to protect their paraplegic sister. Whose oldest friend put ambition and homewreckery before a friendship that stretched back into adolescence. A person who lost absolutely everything and then their life, only to live on in the infamy of a twisted and maligned legacy. The story of a girl born with horrible birth defects: deathly allergic to water, and skin the most peculiar shade of green.
I had never before read a story told from the villains point of view, especially not one that corrected me so firmly on my definition of "villain." It changed me.
Anyway, Wicked is finally getting its movie after easily a decade of murmur and rumor. I wish I could tell you all how giddy and handflappy and feet-kicky I got when the trailer aired unexpectedly. I don't even care if the movie is hot trash, I will be happy to see its evolution regardless. Because after all, I know the truth, I was there at the beginning..... I liked it before it was cool.
By the way, and I'm sorry to be This Guy, but if you've only seen the musical then you have missed half the story, because the original ending could not be fit into the format of a stage musical. They had to Disney-fy it in order for the story to work (a choice I do not begrudge them.) The original ending ripped out my soul through my teeth. I still think about it.
J. K. Rowling and Neil Gaiman are such a funny contrast to me, like
Rowling: Oh, and by the way, I put gay characters in my books.
People: Is there anything... showing that?
Rowling: No. Also trans women don't deserve respect
People: wtf
Gaiman: Here are some immortals that transcend all human concepts of gender and attraction who use a variety of pronouns, and also some clearly canon human queers.
People: Are the immortals queer?
Gaiman: That is an entirely valid way to view them.
Other people: Ugh, pushing a modern woke agenda. It used to be-
Gaiman: Fuck you
Sir Terry Pratchett: on writing Good Omens with Neil Gaiman
I love the whole interview but this little snippet most of all:
Terry: “You can usually bet, and I’m sure Neil Gaiman would say the same thing, that, uh, if I go into a bookstore to do a signing and someone presents me with three books, the chances are that one of them is going to be a very battered copy of Good Omens; and it will smell as if it’s been dropped in parsnip soup or something in and it’s gone fluffy and crinkly around the edges and they’ll admit that it’s the fourth copy they’ve bought”.
what baffles me is that crowley is actually good for aziraphale. not in the sense that the good actions he does are done for aziraphale, but in the sense that crowley teaches aziraphale to be good to himself
in s2ep4 when aziraphale is looking for a magic trick to do, he first says that he can't go to the magic shop because he's not a professional conjuror. crowley disagrees, convincing him that he's a professional as he is "about to perform on the West End Stage"
afterwards when the shopkeeper calls aziraphale a "talented amateur", it's aziraphale himself who makes a point in proving that he's no such thing as he's "booked to appear in the West End"
and then when they're backstage talking to furfur aziraphale clearly calls himself a "working professional magician". over a few hours, crowley makes aziraphale confident in his own identity
not only does crowley love aziraphale (in whatever way he expresses it) but he literally makes him better. crowley, who believes he is incapable of doing good, manages to make an actual angel, better