The view from the cheap seats
Subtitle: selected nonfiction
By: Neil Gaiman
Edition: First HarperLuxe edition.
Published: 2016
Language: eng
Number of pages: 732
ISBN-13: 9780062466426
Subjects: Large type books; Popular culture
Work titles: Works
Description: "An enthralling collection of nonfiction essays on a myriad of topics--from art and artists to dreams, myths, and memories--observed in #1 New York Times bestselling author Neil Gaiman's probing, amusing, and distinctive style. An inquisitive observer, thoughtful commentator, and assiduous craftsman, Neil Gaiman has long been celebrated for the sharp intellect and startling imagination that informs his bestselling fiction. Now, The View from the Cheap Seats brings together for the first time ever more than sixty pieces of his outstanding nonfiction. Analytical yet playful, erudite yet accessible, this cornucopia explores a broad range of interests and topics, including (but not limited to): authors past and present; music; storytelling; comics; bookshops; travel; fairy tales; America; inspiration; libraries; ghosts; and the title piece, at turns touching and self-deprecating, which recounts the author's experiences at the 2010 Academy Awards in Hollywood. Insightful, incisive, witty, and wise, The View from the Cheap Seats explores the issues and subjects that matter most to Neil Gaiman--offering a glimpse into the head and heart of one of the most acclaimed, beloved, and influential artists of our time."-- Amazon.com.
Table of contents: title: Some things I believe. Why our future depends on libraries, reading and daydreaming : the Reading Agency Lecture, 2013 ; Telling lies for a living...and why we do it : the Newbery Medal Speech, 2009 ; Four bookshops ; Three authors : on Lewis, Tolkien and Chesterton; the MythCon 35 Guest of Honor Speech ; The pornography of genre, or the genre of pornography ; Ghosts in the machines : some Hallowe'en thoughts ; Some reflections on myth (with several digressions onto gardening, comics and fairy tales) ; How dare you : on America, and writing about it ; All books have genders ; the PEN Awards and Charlie Hebdo ; What the [very bad swearword] is a children's book, anyway? The Zena Sutherland Lecture; title: Some people I have known. These are not our faces ; Reflections : on Diana Wynne Jones ; Terry Pratchett : an appreciation ; On Dave McKean ; How to read Gene Wolfe ; Remembering Douglas Adams ; Harlan Ellison : The Beast That Shouted Love at the Heart of the World ; Banging the drum for Harlan Ellison ; On Stephen King, for the Sunday Times ; Geoff Notkin : meteorite man ; About Kim Newman, with notes on the creation and eventual dissolution of the Peace and Love Corporation ; Gumshoe : a book review ; SIMCITY ; Six to six; title: Introductions and musings : science fiction. Fritz Leiber : the short stories ; Hothouse ; Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451 and what science fiction is and does ; Of time, and Gully Foyle : Alfred Bester and The Stars My Destination  ; Samuel R. Delany and The Einstein Intersection ; On the fortieth anniversary of the Nebula Awards : a speech, 2005; title: Films and movies and me. The Bride of Frankenstein ; MirrorMask : an introduction ; MirrrorMask : a Sundance diary ; The nature of the infection : some thoughts on Doctor Who ; On comics and films : 2006; title: On comics and some of the people who make them. Good comics and tulips : a speech ; A speech to professionals contemplating alternative employment, given at PROCON, April 1997 ; "But what has that to do with Bacchus?" Eddie Campbell and Deadface ; Confessions : on Astro City and Kurt Busiek ; Batman : Cover to Cover ; Bone : an introduction, and some subsequent thoughts ; Jack Kirby : king of comics ; The Simon and Kirby Superheroes ; The spirit of seventy-five ; The Best of the Spirit ; Will Eisner : New York stories ; The keynote speech for the 2003 Eisner Awards ; 2004 Harvey Awards speech ; The Best American Comics, 2010; title: Introductions and contradictions. Some strangeness in the proportion : the exquisite beauties of Edgar Allan Poe ; On The New Annnotated Dracula ; Rudyard Kipling's Tales of Horror and Fantasy ; From the days of future past : The Country of the Blind and Other Stories, by H.G. Wells ; Business as usual, during alterations : Information Doesn't Want to Be Free, by Cory Doctorow ; The mystery of G.K. Chesterton's Father Brown ; Concerning dreams and nightmares : the dream stories of H.P. Lovecraft ; On The 13 Clocks by James Thurber ; Votan and Other Novels by John James ; On Viriconium : some notes toward an introduction ; So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish : an introduction ; Dogsbody by Diana Wynne Jones ; Voice of the Fire by Alan Moore ; Art and Artifice by Jim Steinmeyer ; The Moth : an introduction; title: Music and the people who make it. Hi, by the way : Tori Amos ; Curious wine : Tori Amos II ; Flood : Twenty-fifth Anniversary Edition, They Might Be Giants ; Lou Reed, in memoriam : "The Soundrack to My Life" ; Waiting for the man : Lou Reed ; Afterword afterword : Evelyn Evelyn ; Who Killed Amanda Palmer; title: On 'Stardust' and fairy tales. Once upon a time ; Several things about Charles Vess ; The King of Elfland's daughter, Lord Dunsany ; Lud-in-the-Mist ; The thing of it is : Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell ; On Richard Dadd's The Fairy-Feller's Master-Stroke; title: Make good art. Make good art; title: The view from the cheap seats : real things. The view from the cheap seats ; A wilderness of mirrors ; The Dresden dolls : Hallowe'en 2010 ; Eight views of Mount Fuji : Beloved Demons and Anthony Martignetti ; So many ways to die in Syria now : May 2014 ; A Slip of the Keyboard : Terry Pratchett.