The scum that is Neil Gaiman and the scum that publishes him, with an aside about Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald

Tuesday 2/3/26

What kind of monster do you have to be yourself to put out a book by an obvious monster like Neil Gaiman?

But that's publishing, though, isn't it?

And you can't look at it like, "The world would be a lesser place without this book, apart from the evil man," because that's not true either though, is it?

The work of a such a writer doesn't add anything, really, to the world, or help make it a better place. The best it can be is a diversion, and we've already basically diverted ourselves into barely existing. The antithesis of being.

Gaiman took to the internet yesterday on account that he has a book coming and thus, for this reason and no other, to say he was sort of sorry for what he did with the whole abuse and ruining of lives things, but also, well, you see, you just don't understand, hence this post, because I'm actually awfully great, let me explain, but (using inside voice now)...fuck the people who caught me, I hate them, I hate them, I hate them, because now I have to say these things and I should be banging my victims, erm, I mean, people who properly recognize how amazing I am, in the same room with my kid.

I have to say, it was something else when he was confronted with the damage he did by one of his victims where he responded by going, "Oh no! That was my autism, not me. It's my autism's fault!"

The majority of people who say they are this or that, or have this or that, do not.

It's just something they say, like everything else they say, for...you know what's coming...other things and other reasons.

Only a very good person can be a truly great writer. What I mean by a truly great writer. Because it's ultimately about what you can do for other people.

That doesn't mean you don't wish to be compensated in accordance with your abilities. But it all starts with other people. Not your ego, not so you get this or that. You have to be selfless. Empathetic. And loving. Even of people you might despise personally. It comes from a love and concern for humanity and the challenge and importance for humans being as human as possible.

People reading the above and always seeking to oppose--which is indicative of that which they'd prefer it wasn't--will want to be like, say, "Ernest Hemingway!"

He sucked. He did the same formulaic thing, over and over and over. And when the buzz wore off--because he was basically a news cycle writer, back when these things didn't turn over as fast as they do now--then he wasn't the critics' darling anymore, and panned more than praised, when he wrote the exact same shit he was writing at the start, helped in large part by F. Scott Fitzgerald, someone who was always prey to worshiping false idols and under the influence of a pathetic fan boy persona that was beneath him and ran oddly counter to his wisdom when it came many other matters in life.

A few years ago, I saw saw a quote on Facebook, back when I was on it, that someone had shared from Gaiman. He was extolling how he had never achieved anything in publishing that wasn't the direct result of someone doing something for him. In other words, hooking him. Cronyism. Other things. And wasn't this a wonderful thing about publishing? That's what Neil Gaiman said.

And you know what? All these pretend writers in the comments were over the bloody moon. Those likes kept piling up. You know why?

Because when you suck, like almost every writer in the world does right now, whether you win Pulitzers and get that Guggenheim and or that Genius Grant or your fiction is in The New Yorker or you've never written more than a page in your life but pose as a writer, the last thing you want is for it to come down to merit.

You know what? I don't think anyone else but me wants it to. It makes sense that I'd want it to. And it makes sense that others wouldn't.

There wasn't anyone in those comments who was like, "Um...this guy just said that he owes everything to a hook up...don't we want a level playing field where it's about your writing?"

And if someone had said that, the brickbats would have come out. Which is insane. People really don't want it to be about their ability. What does that tell you? It tells you that they know deep down--or not so very deep down--that they don't have any. And if it's a matter of how great what you write is, then they'll be fucked. They'll be fucked if they're Laura Van Den Berg or Tommy Orange or they'll be fucked if they decided to try for the first time today after never even reading a book in their lives.

You know what? That last person won't be worse than those other two.

People just don't get it. These people here, they're not letting you in or allowing you to advance on their watch unless you're one of them or they feel like they have no choice. Many of these people are like this person.