I have admired Neil Gaiman for a long time, partly because we have similar hair and partly because while he was with Amanda Palmer, they presented as a sucessful artistic power couple that could do anything. Who doesn’t wish to be that?

Oh, and he was a pretty good writer too.

Gaiman’s works have also been extraordinarily successful in being adapted into alternate media forms. Coraline, American Gods, Sandman, and the incredibly beautiful and witty Good Omens are what so many writers dream of their works becoming.

But it is the way of the world for role models to fall from their pedestals, though that does not make it any less sad when it happens. Due to the recent allegations, it appears time to find myself a new author to admire; however, before Neil Gaiman leaves the current zeitgeist, I want to discuss the one skill I still hope to imitate.

The intertwining of the supernatural and the mundane

The premises of many of Gaiman’s works center around a normal person thrown into supernatural events, including American Gods, Coraline, The Ocean at the End of the Lane, and my personal favorite Neverwhere. In each of these books, Gaiman creates a perfectly believable and ‘normal’ universe and then adds magic. It is one of my favorite tropes, and his writing brings the connecting of worlds together in crisp color.

The devil is in the details, and Gaiman does this well. His writing draws attention to the mundane and makes me feel like his stories could literally happen to anyone. His writing seems to straddle a spectrum between magical realism and gritty urban fantasy, where foggy London alleys and ordinary nostalgic ponds become so much more when glimpsed from a new perspective. And his singsong narration adds a magic that increases this illusion.

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At the end of the day, I am devastated that successful men so frequently take advantage of their positions. But there is a silver lining when role models fail, and that is this: their absence provides opportunity for the next generation.

There are so many authors I have not read, and truly, I am excited to find someone new.