I’ve been a fan of
Neil Gaiman’s writing since my early teens. Surprisingly, I discovered him
through his novels and not his comic book work. I say it’s surprising since I
fell into the world of American comics in just a couple years later. No matter,
I’ve followed him across genres since I first finished American Gods and I’ll continue to read anything I come across that
has his name on it. I’ve rarely been disappointed by this decision.
Sadly, as life
takes it course you sometimes find yourself with a shortage of spare time. When
that happens, things like picking up any new book by a favourite author don’t
always happen as planned. It’s for that reason that I’m only reading Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and
Disturbances now. I’ll be reviewing each story and poem here as a series of
post for Short Story Sunday. This is the first one of these posts.
“Making a Chair” by Neil Gaiman
Read in Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and
Disturbances (2015)
First appeared in
print in Trigger Warning (2015), but
previously appeared on the CD An Evening
With Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer (2011)
I’m not sure how to
review poetry. I don’t know enough about their structure and the different kinds
of poems to write about with any success. It’s not even a form of writing that
I read a lot. I rarely even encounter poetry unless you consider music a form
of poetry. I guess you easily could, but I often don’t simply because I
consider it music and leave it at that. Still, the fact remains it’s not a part
of my brain I utilize often. It’s nice to find a poem by an author I know and
like as it encourages me to actually read it rather than skip over and move on
to the good stuff (re: prose!). Gaiman mentions in his introduction to a
previous collection Fragile Things
that the poems included in the book are free. He reiterates that in his
introduction to this book. I like free things. Sure, let’s read the poems.
Trigger Warning opens with “Making a Chair” which, you guessed
it, is a poem. It’s a neat little poem, actually. It tells a story, which is my
favourite kind of poem as it gives me an easy way in and I tend to understand
them better. This one is appears to be straightforward, but actually plays
around with some significant themes. Gaiman writes about the act of assembling
a chair and weaves some other ideas into the mix.
Among them is the
idea of creative process and how it’s a difficult beast to tame. Some days,
inspiration is there and you spend your writing time actually writing. Other
days, you’re doing something else that seems unrelated at first but later can
be identified as something similar to writing. Here, the author builds a chair.
It takes a couple hours and some of the warnings on the instruction sheets
could also be applied to writing and even reading.
Ranking: 3 stars
It might be a
little too straightforward, but my rookie poem reading skills can appreciate
something like that. Especially when the story being told includes depth to go
along with the simple imagery. This is by no means a throwaway tale, but
doubtful that it will stay with me for more than a few hours. Still, that’s
long enough to consider it a success. It also serves as a good introduction to
this collection at it flirts with the themes that Gaiman alludes to with the
book’s title and his introduction.
“A Lunar Labyrinth” by Neil Gaiman
Read in Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and
Disturbances (2015)
Originally
published in Shadows of the New Sun:
Stories in Honor of Gene Wolfe (2013), edited by J. E. Mooney and Bill
Fawcett.
It delights me that
writers have specific styles and pet themes that imbue their work with a
certain feel or tone. When you read an author’s body of work you usually
develop a sense of what to expect. With some writers its learning their
formula, seeing how they depend on it more and more as their careers progress
and with others its seeing their faults more clearly which each additional
work. The good authors, like Gaiman, those you learn to cherish for reasons
that range from the general to the personal, you develop a sense of familiarity
and comfort with their work. You build expectations that are built more on
style and tone than on content, yet all elements are enjoyed with each new
story you read.
“A Lunar Labyrinth”
is a good example of that. This reads like a Neil Gaiman story. Gaiman is
particularly good at sneaking in old things, magic from an age gone by, into
the familiar setting of our world. There isn’t much plot here and there doesn’t
need to be any. It’s almost an artifact in the way it’s composed. The reader
learns about the lunar labyrinth right along with the main character from
information given to him by his tour guide. You’re completely enthralled by the
labyrinth, its history, and the little mysteries surrounding it. The whole
thing ends with a bit of a twist, but there is enough malice included earlier
on that it’s not surprising at all. It’s not entirely welcomed either as up to
that point the labyrinth seemed like a grand place to visit. Still, Gaiman is
the kind of writer that doesn’t shy away from the darker truths of magical
things and it was unavoidable that the labyrinth’s mystery be revealed.
Ranking: 4 stars
This is a classic
Gaiman tale in the mold of one of his most important influences, fellow author
Gene Wolfe. I really liked it. It’s an unusual subject but it’s presented in
such a way that an entire world is created. There is some lovely imagery and
I’m sure that some of the details (rosemary bushes, the moon, etc.) would
likely reveal more depth to this story. Gaiman has written about old places,
old people, and old magic for decades and it shows here. The only reason it’s
not a 5 star story is because it’s perfectly content being a 4 star story.
“The Thing About Cassandra” by Neil Gaiman
Read in Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and
Disturbances (2015)
Originally
published in Songs of Love and Death:
All-Original Tales of Star-Crossed Love (2010), edited by George R. R.
Martin and Gardner Dozois
I liked the idea
behind this story more than the execution. In it, a young man is confronted
with a made up girlfriend from his teen years. As it’s to be expected with a
premise like that, things aren’t as they seem and it kind of put me on guard.
The resulting effect (which I’m sure was unintended) was that it pushed me out
of the story.
My initial reaction
to this is that it reminds me of another Gaiman penned story, “Calliope” from Sandman issue #17 with art by Kelley
Jones and Malcolm Jones III. In that issue, a man buys Calliope, one of the
Muses from Greek mythology from a retired writer. She has brought her capture
(the retired owner) plenty of fame and success as a novelist. That’s exactly
what her new captor wants, too. It’s quite a good issue, one that always sticks
out in my mind when I think of Sandman.
I thought of
“Calliope” the entire time I read “The Thing About Cassandra”. Maybe it’s
because both stories deal with creation of stories and people. Maybe it’s
because they both focus on a women with names from Greek Mythology. Or maybe
still it’s because both stories deal with certain thematic similarities. Either
way, I enjoyed both stories, but “The Thing About Cassandra” a lot less.
Ranking: 2 stars
It feels like
Gaiman is exploring ideas he’s done better elsewhere but there is enough craft
on display to make it enjoyable. The story doesn’t overstay its welcome, but it
doesn’t make itself memorable either.
Next week: I’m taking a little science fiction
detour before getting back to Trigger
Warning.
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