Early this morning I traveled all the way to Portland and wandered the cozy labyrinth of Powell’s City of Books. Rounding the end of an aisle I ran into Neil Gaiman who engaged me in conversation most warmly and graciously. I expressed my appreciation of Coraline and he pitched his forthcoming sequel, Coraline Goes to–. So, she would have a series of her own and find her place among adventuring girls like Alice and Olivia and Madeleine and Nancy Drew, I thought. And I told him that Coraline would surely be my favorite such character.
I felt somehow compelled to mention my own adventures in Italian Studies at UC Berkeley, and he was terribly impressed by this. Internal barometer sensed that familiar storm of self-denigration brewing in the mind of my dream self. She was on the verge of mumbling some lame description of perceived grad school failures, when that knot of tension simply unraveled and fell away. I guess I figured if Neil Gaiman is digging it, I oughta accept the compliment and bask in its light a while.
Katie, if you were in Portland saturday morning I hope it was because you somehow managed to sneak off to the David Byrne concert the night before. I heard this was a fabulous show – probably much like the one I saw in Jacksonville.
Somehow I feel like I should have heard of this Neil Gaiman guy before, but I haven’t. Coraline does look interesting though – on the list it goes! By the way it doesn’t matter if you’re talking to Mr. Gaiman or the Queen of Sweden. You have every right to at least be humbly proud of your Italian Studies endeavor. I’m not sure what to make of the main photo on the IS department’s website though. To me it looks like some thug about to get whacked for running off with the mob boss’s gifts. Yeah, that must be feel they were going for.
I agree wholeheartedly with Scott – you have every reason to be proud of your Italian Studies degree — I am. Focus on the positives, here, my friend; you’ve no reason to be ashamed.
I have Coraline in my stack of books that are waiting to be read. I must admit that I’ve owned it for at least a couple of years, but have yet to read it in its entirety. You see, I think I started reading it late one night – I do remember thinking it was kind of spooky (yeah, I’m a pud) because I shelved it and never revisited it. I guess I should try it again sometime when I’m not feeling so lame.
That’s quite a dream–I love Powell’s (the best thing about the too-clean Portland!), and of course Neil Gaiman. I look forward to reading Coraline, having recently finished Gaiman’s 10-book series Sandman. Having never been a big fan of fantasy literature, and not understanding the many literary references, I still loved the Sandman, and recommend it to anyone who thinks comics are for kids, and for people looking for a great read.
As for the Italian Studies home page, I have a hunch that Tamao had a hand in selecting the great photos, many of which are Fellini stills. 8 1/2 still gets me every time!
A dream? I was certainly fooled if so. However, it is so close to being real, why not make it so? Venture up for a visit and we can check out Powels, track down Mr. Gaiman, drag him off to forest park, and force him to read scary Coraline stories to us around a campfire. After such overwhelming fan devotion, surely we’d be featured on the man’s blog once he escaped in the wee hours of twilight.
(sigh) Oh, to be a famous writer with hordes of loving fan(atic)s!
Kelly, you’re not a pud. Actually, I haven’t heard that in years, and had to laugh and wonder, what’s a pud? The top hit on the Yahoo search engine pulls up this great website, run by a guy who also calls himself Pud. Don’t worry, despite what you may think “pud” might connote, this site is safe for innocent eyes who don’t mind bad language. It’s more on par with Michael Moore. I especially like the Lucas memo, which may explain why the funding for a job I applied for was cut. Post production for Episode 3 must be costing zillions.
thanks for the vote of confidence. I vaguely remember my brother calling me this as we were growing up in what i’ll refer to as our very volatile period, when both of us were always seconds from clobbering each other. each of us was on a never-ending search for new, demeaning nicknames for each other; i remember “pud” was one of many that he picked just for me (”smelly kelly” was the all-time fave). I’ve always associated the word “pud” with being wimpish, though i’ve never looked up it’s actual meaning – but i mean, what did it matter? if he used it on his pukey little sister, it couldn’t have been good…
Ok, from the cornfed Hoosier naif who knows that you drove by Jay Leno the other day on the way to work, here is confusion. It sounds like this is a dream, and the locust who should know seems to think so, too, so clarify before I go off in streaks of colored light as vivid as the dragon over the party field. Neil Gaiman? Really? I am like totally so wow, girlfriend. Have you read Snow Glass Apples? The all time most incredibly cool short story. I cut it (oh yeah) for a speech team piece. Some judges dug it, but most were weirded out, so we got mixed results with it. But we smart people all loved it. Neil Gaiman. Wow. I don’t know the book, but have a collection of short stories. Power oozes from this guy’s literary pores. Tell it was a dream.