Amanda & Neil: A Horror Story in Romance Form

The recent news around Amanda Palmer and Neil Gaiman is provoking some deep thoughts around the nature of the relationship between art, most notably popular art, and artists.

Enter Sandman

I fell in love with Neil Gaiman work in college in the late 80s. I had an amazing visual arts instructor who told us to go to a GOOD comics shop and take the time to find something we truly enjoyed and could become immersed in - swept away by. The comic shop owner and I had a conversation, and he pointed me at Sandman issue 1. I was blown away. Myth and magic woven through tales that spoke to a deep sense of wonder and … reverence? I have always had for civilizations past and the tales they told. And dark. These stories were DARK in ways I hadn’t encountered before. They spoke of cruelty and murder and torture and unjust imprisonment. Of the hardships of life and death and what it might be like to be a being that in some ways transcended all these things, and in others not so much. I’ll admit it never really dawned on me that one of the threads tying the Sandman narrative together was the idea that we should pity the monster. That they can hurt too. All of this was in a disconnected realm of fantasy. An escape from the bits of my life that fit like a bad suit. And then, 3+ decades later to learn that in fact these stories that spoke to me so deeply, that meant so much to me were written by a man who is a monster in a very real sense? Well, needless to say I’m finding that hard to take.

The (Dresden) Doll’s House And What Happened There

And then there’s Amanda Palmer. I fell in love with her work through her band, the Dresden Dolls. I first saw them at Arisia, a Boston area science fiction convention, sometime in the 90s. I was blown away. Most music at cons could most kindly be called “earnest but amateurish”. The Dolls were different. They were musically TIGHT and the drummer, Brian Vigilone was and is FANTASTIC. The lyrics were darkly beautiful, and Amanda Palmer has incredible stage presence. The lyrics were also DARK, but hey, this is art, right? It encompasses the full breadth of the human experience.

Wuv, Twoo Wuv

When I read that two of my favorite artists had become “an item” and were seen after yoga eating the delicious fresh rolls at a favorite local cafe of mine, I couldn’t help but get that warm fuzzy feeling humans get when two people they like get together, even when, as in this case, they don’t actually know either person AT ALL. And for a few years, it was good.

Trouble in … Paradise?

And then the pandemic hit and the world turned upside down. Even before that, I’d heard rumors that there was trouble in Neil and Amanda land. Then, I read about a podcast where rape / abuse allegations were involved. And I am embarrassed to say I paid relatively little attention to it.