nightdog_barks

1) Warm and horrifically humid. Ugh.

2) Finished The Son and really enjoyed it. The only problem I had was keeping everyone's genealogy straight. I think a lot, if not most readers will have to keep referring to the family-tree chart frontispiece. Well worth reading.

3) Read Douglas Smith's Former People: The Final Days of the Russian Aristocracy. I think possibly this is the book the word "heartbreaking" was invented for. On a sidenote, the book contains some fascinating pages on the work of the American Relief Administration during the famine of 1921, clearly implying that American doctors were among the relief workers. American doctors! In Russia! I'm sure everyone can see where that might lead. Well, probably not for me, but someone could take that and run with it. ;-)

4) Started Neil Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane last night and could not put it down, which means that I'm already more than halfway through (it is a fairly short book, though). Holy wow, is it good. And fucking terrifying -- there's a scene that's on the par with some of Stephen King's best. It left me deeply shaken and made it difficult to fall asleep for a long time. (For those who have already read the book, it's the "bathtub" scene.)

5) Sorting through a rec list for fic I've recommended on my DW/LJ. It is slow going, but then pretty much everything is slow going these days. Especially when it's related to writing and/or fandom.

6) Chango's tenth birthday was July 14th. :D

Six things make a post.

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Happy birthday to Chango. :-)

My own difficulty falling asleep last night was because, after I'd been gone from my apartment for 3 heat-wave days, it was probably 90+ degrees in here when I got home last night.

I'm getting ready right now to go do some painting-for-charity, helping out a family in need of a conversion van for their little boy, who's in a wheelchair. The big fundraiser is tonight and I need to be there to set up in ... eeek, about two hours, so I'd better pull self together now!

That sounds like an awesomely worthy cause!

I think so. It's funny, as much as I grumble about people hitting up artists for charity auctions, I volunteered for this one. Because I know who these folks are; the kid in question is the grandson of the woman I work for on the house-cleaning crew. He has MS and he's still in grade school and it just breaks my heart because he's never going to get better.

So I'm going to paint on-site at the fundraiser. I have the drawing already on the canvas, and folks will get to watch the painting take shape and bid on it while it's in progress. I'm using acrylics, which means it'll be good and dry for whoever wins it to take it home.

What a wonderful thing for you to do! I hope the attendees are as generous as you.

¡Feliz cumpleaños Chango! :) (Also, I'm curious about the Gaiman, but hesitant to buy because of his hand-waving excuses for execrable behaviour around him. I can understand (he was raised in Scientology, married in Scientology, his children were raised in Scientology and he's apparently broken away but not enough to be cast out from his entire family) but still. I have personal ethical conflict around whether I want to support someone (no matter how paltry my support or how brilliant the art) whose money might be going to fund Scientology shenanigans... Maybe I will buy used, and be a hypocrite but have technically clean hands. The book, by the way, was sparked by an incident in his childhood tied to Scientology.)

Oh, Jackal, if you only knew how long it took me to decide to buy Neil Gaiman's book. In my case, though, it was because ... I don't like his wife. I KNOW, I KNOW. But that's also why I eventually un-followed him on Twitter, because for a while there almost all his tweets were about her. I finally decided, "Well, he's not her, and she's not him, and it's getting really good reviews, and I liked American Gods, so okay." I did buy the Kindle version instead of the hardback, though.

:D

Heh. I don't like his wife much either. I couldn't tell you why, precisely, other than the strong stench of 'attention whore', but there it is. In some ways she seems like a good person (i.e. taking time off to look after a friend who was ill) and in other ways she seems to be to be a complete narcissist. I also don't care for her art, but that is neither here nor there. It's partially her obnoxious behaviour that Gaiman waves away (and that friend of his who killed someone while driving drunk, and his excuses for Harlan Ellison -- who is a well known sexist arsehole -- and who sexually assaulted a fellow author *on stage*). Taken as himself Gaiman seems like a very nice man -- gentle and kind and loving and wise. He's also a brilliant author. And then he hand waves away the most blatant nincompooopery imaginable because it is performed by people he loves....

Don't get me wrong, I do not hold him responsible for the acts of others. They are distinct individuals and responsible for themselves, including his wife. By condoning condoning behaviour is indirectly being supportive oneself and... no. I will not. I am capable of saying "I love X person, and will carry on caring for them and supporting them as an individual, but I do not approve of Y action, and I do not excuse it. That people are capable of wrong does not make me love them less, but does not excuse them from their own misdeeds either. Or me from mine."

And so I stand, caught, uncertain of what to do. The desire to read the book is selfish, and I know this. The ethics on this matter are also somewhat semantics, because whether I buy a book or not is immaterial to Mr. Gaiman, really. But no easy answers, yes? Maybe I will buy second hand, and then my conscience is no more guilty than for reading any other author (deceased) whose attitudes (racism, sexism, etc.) I do not support. My money does not enrich them, their causes, their heirs or their supporters, and so I do not have to wrestle with myself. In Gaiman's case, however, it's still a cop-out, and I am sensible of the fact.

I did not know he was/is a Scientologist. There's a whole raft of actors whose movies I will not watch for the same reason you cite.

Like Nightdog, I do not like his wife and wonder what the heck such a bright, likeable person was thinking when he got hitched up with her. Sometimes there is no accounting for taste, you know?

In his defense he was born and raised in the cult. His parents (his father in particular) were important people in Scientology, and his sisters are still involved, and one is prominent. He also met his first wife (who is the mother of his now-grown children) there. So it's not like he chose to join crazy, yes? And Scientology is one of those groups where it is easier to join than it is to leave. Openly distancing himself would mean losing all contact with remaining family in the cult, possibly including his children. He's walked a fine line, living independently (from what I can see) while still retaining relations.

It's his marriage to his second wife (and his excuses for her excesses such as not paying people for their genuine labour) which make me wonder if the "nice" man is a front, and Mr. Gaiman is perhaps as much a narcissist as his spouse, just a better actor...

Also, if you or Nightdog are wondering about my knowledge re: Gaiman's connection to Scientology, the connection is actually well researched.

I do give him some slack since he had no control over his upbringing and the cult is well-known for harsh retribution on those who leave it or speak out against it. I was just kind of surprised to learn that, as he has always come across as quirky and kind-hearted, especially in his many blog posts about his dogs. But I've trained my eye to skip over any mention of his wife for all the reasons you mentioned. Yes, she's a lot younger than he is, but he shouldn't be making excuses for her like she's an indulged child. That really rubs me the wrong way.

In particular I would not have thought him a Scientologist because he's ethnically Jewish (having mentioned family slaughtered by the Nazis) and British but evidently Scientology always had a longer arm than I understood, thinking it mainly confined to the Hollywood elite.

He's a Scientologist? He has a wife? I did not know these things, but then I'm not a regular reader of Gaiman either.
Happy birthday Chango! That's my niece's birthday too, she turned 15. She's going to be a pathologist (puffs up with pride).

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