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azteclady

1 year ago

azteclady
1 year ago

#NeilGaiman #TanithLee #Plagiarism #Exploitation

Because misogyny knows no boundaries, and abuse takes many forms.

First part of four social media post by Matthew Boroson:
This is about Neil Gaiman.

Ta-Nehisi Coates' _Between the world and me_ is a great book. Insightful, beautifully written, profound. Coates modeled his book on James Baldwin's _The fire next time_. We know this because Coates was open and upfron a bout this fact.

George R.R. Martin's Game of Thrones, A song of Ice and Fire is a great series. Martin modeled his books on a series by a French author named Maurice Druon. WE know this because Martin was open and upfront about this fact.

Viet Thanh Nguyen's _The Sympathizer_ is a great book. He modeled it on a book written in Vietnamese, whose title escapes me. We know this because Nguyen was open and upfront about this fact.

Neil Gaiman's The Sandman is a great comic book series. Gaiman modeled his series on Tanith Lee's Tales from the flat Earth_. But you wouldn't know this, because Gaiman has never given her any credit.

second of four parts; continuation of Matthew Boroson's social media post:

But you wouldn't know this, because Gaiman has never given her any credit.

Despite the fact that the main character--a Byronic, pale, otherworldly, deity-like character--is the prince of night and darkness.

Despite the fact that every time people see art depicting Tanith Lee's main character Azhram, they think it's Morpheus from The Sandman. How bad is this? When people see depctions of her character, they say *she* must hae ripped *him* off.

Despite the fact that the dream lord's younger sibling is Death.

Despite the fact that other members of his family include Delusion, Delirium... They are not gods but beings older than gods, and when the gods die, Dream, Death, Delusion and Delirium will remain. This family of immortal, eternal, unchanging beings, who each embody an eternal abstraction starting with the letter D.

Someone else on the internet, noticing the similarities, flipped open the third book in Tanith Lee's series to a random page, and lo and behold, there's a description of a character who was clearly the inspiration for Gaimna's Mazikeen.

The prose, the characters, the narrative strategies, the mythology, the story structure, all of it: Gaiman found it all in Tanith Lee's writing and never gave her any credit.

continuation of Matthew Boroson social media post, part three of four:

Final part of Matthew Boroson's social media post on Neil Gaiman:

He became rich and famous profiting from her ideas. People effused over his amazing imagination, when the ideas they praised him for were actually created by Tanith Lee. And, while he was building his name and fame, she was struggling. In the 1990s, toward the end of her life, she complained in an interview that magazines weren't buying her stories anymore.

A simple, "if you like The Sandman, you should really read Tanith Lee's books" from Neil Gaiman would have meant so much to her career. To the livelihood of a struggling, less-privileged writer, whose amazing imagination was actively ripping off.

People praised The Sandman comics for their depiction of gay and trans identities. Bu in the original material, Tanith Lee was far more progressive about LGBTQ+ identities, and that was twenty years earlier.

I first read Tanith Lee's books _Night's Master_ (the first in the Flat Earth stories) in mabye 2005, ten years after first reading The Sandman. I looked to see if Gaiman had credited her for "his" ideas; as far as I could tell, he never had.

And for the susequent 19 years, whenever I see a new Neil Gaiman interview, the first thing I do is search to see if he mentioned Tanith Lee. And he never has, that I've seen.

I have no difficulty believing the accusations against him.

Continuation of Matthew Boroson's social media post on Neil Gaiman, part 4 of 4:

I have no difficulty believing the accusations against him.

Because I know--KNOW--that he has felt entitled to take what he wants from a woman, without her permission, and without any acknowledgement of her contributions.

And, finally:

If you loved Neil Gaiman's stories, if you are heartbroken to learn the storyteller you loves is apparently an abuser, here is my suggestion:

Track down Tanith Lee's Tales from the Flat Earth books. Her prose is more xquisite and imaginative, her ideas more original, her empathy real.

/end

#plagiarism #neilgaiman #exploitation #tanithlee

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