Of Books and Genders

Books have sexes; or to be more precise, books have genders. They do in my head, anyway. Or at least, the ones that I write do. And these are genders that have something, but not everything, to do with the gender of the main character of the story. - Neil Gaiman

The only book Neil Gaiman wrote which took him a little while to give a gender is the American Gods. I bet the American Gods is his pet project.

I kept writing, fascinated. I felt, on the good days, more like the first reader than the writer, something I'd rarely felt since Sandman days.

I am amazed at Neil Gaiman's power of imagination. He went where the mainstream writers did not dare go. In his essay, he touches on C.S. Lewis' statement that the main characters should be normal people - normal people like Gulliver. He disagreed strongly though that Alice is normal.

If you have read a Neil Gaiman book, you would agree with me when I say that his protagonists are far from normal. Each main character has always had the weirdness air which only Neil Gaiman can give (well at least the ones I already read). Fat Charlie (Anansi Boys) worked for an accounting agency and is unambitious. Richard Mayhew (Neverwhere) was equally unambitious. Door (Neverwhere) was a noble person amongst a rather murky group. The endless in the Sandman books...need I say more.

Speaking of weirdness, I would love to watch Alice in Wonderland. It would be awesome if I can watch it with Max but I am not leaving for VA til after 46 days. I always thought that Johnny Depp is lucky for playing the best and weird roles for the silverscreen fans. He played Edward Scissorhands, Willy Wonka, Ichabod Crane, the Mad Hatter and of course John Dillinger.

Ok, I am sleepy now. Good night. I'm getting better at boring myself.