Neil Gaiman

1. Neil Gaiman

2. About the Author • Born in England in 1960. • Two sisters • Married in 1985 to Mary McGrath • 3 children: Michael, Holly and Maddy • Divorced shortly after Maddy’s birth. • Currently live near Minneapolis, MN with dog and youngest daughter. • Married to Amanda Palmer, singer for The Dresden Dolls. • @neilhimself on twitter.

3. Awards • Neil Gaiman is the winner of 3 Hugos, 2 Nebulas, 1 World Fantasy Award, 4 Bram Stoker Awards, 9 Locus Awards, 1 British Fantasy Award, 2 British SF Awards, 4 Geffens, 1 International Horror Guild Award, 2 Mythopoeic Awards.

4. Literary works • Gaiman’s list of literary works is near exhaustive. He has written novels, articles and comics. • For the sake this presentation I will be focusing on two of his works: • American Gods – a novel • The Sandman – an award winning comic book series.

6. American Gods • Gaiman’s fourth novel. • Published in 2001 • American Gods combines Native American Mythology with traditional European/Greek/Roman mythology to expand on and create a new version of the Archetypal story.

7. Plot • The central concept is that gods and mythological creatures exist because people believe in them. Immigrants to the United States brought dwarves, elves, leprechauns, and other spirits and gods with them, but their power is diminished as people's beliefs wane. New gods have arisen, reflecting America's obsessions with media, celebrity, technology, and illegal drugs, among others.

8. Plot • The book follows the adventures of ex-convict Shadow, who is released from prison a few days earlier than planned on account of the death of his wife, Laura, in a car accident. He discovers at the funeral that the car crashed because Laura was performing oral sex on Shadow's late friend Robbie, who was driving. Even before learning of the death of Robbie, who was to give Shadow a job, Shadow has been repeatedly offered work as a bodyguard by a confidence man called Mr. Wednesday. Shadow accepts Mr. Wednesday's offer and they both travel across America visiting Wednesday's unusual colleagues and acquaintances.

9. Plot • Gradually, it is revealed that Wednesday is an incarnation of Odin the All-Father (the name Wednesday is derived from "Odin's (Woden's) day"), who in his current guise is recruiting American manifestations of the Old Gods of ancient mythology, whose powers have waned as their believers have decreased in number, to participate in an epic battle against the New American Gods, manifestations of modern life and technology (for example, the Internet, media, and modern means of transport), who are controlling a black hat Secret Services organization (according to the goddess Eostre, similarly to the old gods, the new gods exist because "everyone knows they must exist"). Shadow's wife Laura comes back in the form of a sentient animated corpse due to a special coin Shadow had acquired and placed on her coffin at her burial, not knowing the effect it would have.

10. Shadow as a hero • Here I would talk about Shadow being an archetypal hero. And go through the steps of his journey.

11. The Sandman

12. Overview • The Sandman's main character is Dream also known as Morpheus, the Lord of Dreams, who is essentially the anthropomorphic personification of dreams. At the start of the series, Morpheus is captured by an occult ritual and held prisoner for 70 years. Morpheus escapes in the modern day and, after avenging himself upon his captors, sets about rebuilding his kingdom, which has fallen into disrepair in his absence. Gaiman himself has summarized the plot of the series (in the foreword to Endless Nights) as "The Lord of Dreams learns that one must change or die, and makes his decision."

13. Overview • The character's initial haughty and often cruel manner begins to soften after his years of imprisonment at the start of the series, but the challenge of undoing past sins and changing old ways is an enormous one for a being who has been set in his ways for billions of years. In its beginnings, the series is a very dark horror comic. Later, the series evolves into an elaborate fantasy series, incorporating elements of classical and contemporary mythology, ultimately placing its protagonist in the role of a tragic hero.

14. Overview • The story-lines primarily take place in the Dreaming, Morpheus's realm, and the waking world, with occasional visits to other domains, such as Hell, Faerie, Asgard, and the domains of the other Endless. Many use the contemporary United States of America and the United Kingdom as a backdrop. The DC Universe was the official setting of the series, but well-known DC characters and places were rarely featured after 1990. A notable exception is Lyta Hall, formerly Fury of the 1980s super-team Infinity Inc., who figures prominently in the "Kindly Ones" story arc, and her superhuman abilities are not ignored. • Most of the storylines take place in modern times, but many short stories are set in the past, taking advantage of the immortal nature of many of the characters, and deal with historical individuals and events.

15. Women of Sandman Death

16. Death • Gaiman challenges the roles of women and their importance in our mythology by casting Death as Morpheus’ older sister. • By having Death take on a female persona, albeit an athletic, “tom boy” female, Gaiman makes Death both fierce and gentle. He forces his readers to rethink their notion of Death and, in doing so, their notion of the nature of women.

17. And so on… • There are multiple women in The Sandman that I could, and would, talk about.

18. Works Cited • You need to finish your presentation with a MLA formatted works cited.

19. Author Presentation  Author Bio Information included ________/10 Presentation between 8-10 min. ________/10 Information on at least 1 story and 1 theory included _______/10 Works cited included _______/10 Visuals included _______/5 An attempt to persuade or dissuade audience to read works by Author is present ________/5 Total_______x2 _______/100