Neil Gaiman

I bought a book of his last year over Christmas season. One I gave to a friend, another I kept for myself.


I've heard of Neil Gaiman from a friend in high school and the first work of his that i got a glimpse of (but was not able to read more than a phrase or two) was Smoke and Mirrors. So from then on, that was everything I knew of Neil Gaiman. But I did find the few phrases that I read to be absolutely amazing and have wanted to read more of him. It wasn't until recently that I was able to buy a book.


I bought "Fragile Things. Short Fictions and Wonders"


It took me sometime as well to read it because of exams but anyway, I was able to finish "A Study in Emerald".


Good read. Reminded me a lot of Sherlock Holmes, not that I've read Sherlock Holmes. 


I saw in Wikipedia that it is a Sherlock Holmes/Cthulhu Mythos pastiche written for the anthology Shadows Over Baker Street.


So, new word: pastiche. Pastiche is a literary or other artisitic genre that is a "hodge-podge" or an imitation. 


I liked the story, the general tone and flow of the plot was quite easy to follow. The imagery of Neil Gaiman was kind of new to me as I had not really read fictions that deviated that far from reality. Maybe I'll start my month of blogging with him and fictions related to his genre. :P

The Long Awaited

Recently I found myself regretting a whole lot of things that I had not done. I was watching How I Met Your Mother, I think... that for the 4 years I spent in college, I had done nothing to expand my understanding of writing, of music, of whatever art form which might just about be the single most relevant reason as to why I feel so detached from myself. The opportunities to enjoy a good read or two, I have to admit, is not so scarce but I had not made any attempts to maximize them at the time.

Indeed during those 4 years I had joined the local writer's guild in our university. During the first few years, I was lucky enough to have sat in a workshop delivered by F. Sionil Jose and some of the best young writers produced by our university.  But time was not kind to me; my schedules wouldn't meet with workshop dates and during the few times I could come, I felt too alienated and detached from the people, the activity, and the art to even take something profound away.

So feeling too stagnant with regards to any artistic endeavor, I took up the violin. Still not moving forward with it. Trying to but since I don't have anything simple to play and I don't have a lot of people to play it with, I'm feeling a bit lost.

And then there was my friend, now she was immersed in her art. It was lots of fun hearing her talk about Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Monet, Manet and more. I envied her. I envied the fact that she explored how her art developed to where it is now. It got me to thinking, why don't I go and do some research on the art forms that I like? So here it is. 

The plan is to read the books I have stocked in our house and comment on them as well as research things about the author and get people talking about it... get suggestions for the same art forms and probably, hopefully write something. Same goes for music and visual art. This is really amateur work so don't expect too grand of wordings or too deep critics... I am just here to enjoy, learn, and hopefully find people who will help me grow and who I can help grow in this sense. 

So, enjoy... as I try to explore and expand my artistic knowledge one short entry at a time.