I was going to say that’s actually a G K Chesterton quote, but it turns out it’s more complicated than that. Neil Gaiman himself said it was from Chesterton (when quoting it at the start of Coraline), but he wrote it from memory and didn’t double check, so the original is worded differently. At least, that’s how my quick googling claims the paraphrase happened. The misquote is pithier than the original so… is it now a Gaiman quote, even though it originates as an attempted Chesterton quote?
As far as I can tell, the passage he was thinking of was:
Fairy tales do not give the child his first idea of bogey. What fairy tales give the child is his first clear idea of the possible defeat of bogey. The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon.
Interestingly, on Gaiman and attribution, he came out with a graphic novel, The Books of Magic, with a main character very similar to Harry Potter. This was 7 years prior to Rowlings publishing the first book. His response to that similarity was equally charitable, chalking it to creators tapping into the same unconscious material. Dude seems to have integrity. I could see another person grousing at the parallels between the two.
Interestingly, on Gaiman and attribution, he came out with a graphic novel, The Books of Magic, with a main character very similar to Harry Potter. This was 7 years prior to Rowlings publishing the first book. His response to that similarity was equally charitable, chalking it to creators tapping into the same unconscious material.
Before either you had Luke Kirby in 2000AD. While it’s debatable whether Rowling would have been reading Vertigo comic books, Gaiman wrote for 2000AD.
Interesting. When I was around 4 years old I suffered from debilitating nightmares to the point of refusing to go to sleep. Coincidentally, this was also when I came into contact with my first games (Amiga 500 at the time, I’m ancient) and somehow that “taught” my mind that you can fight back against the baddies and win. Never suffered from nightmares ever after that point.
I was going to say that’s actually a G K Chesterton quote, but it turns out it’s more complicated than that. Neil Gaiman himself said it was from Chesterton (when quoting it at the start of Coraline), but he wrote it from memory and didn’t double check, so the original is worded differently. At least, that’s how my quick googling claims the paraphrase happened. The misquote is pithier than the original so… is it now a Gaiman quote, even though it originates as an attempted Chesterton quote?
As far as I can tell, the passage he was thinking of was:
Interestingly, on Gaiman and attribution, he came out with a graphic novel, The Books of Magic, with a main character very similar to Harry Potter. This was 7 years prior to Rowlings publishing the first book. His response to that similarity was equally charitable, chalking it to creators tapping into the same unconscious material. Dude seems to have integrity. I could see another person grousing at the parallels between the two.
Neil Gaiman was close friends with the legendary Terry Pratchett. There’s no doubt he’s a better human being than Joanne.
Wait, if Terry Pratchett is just a legend, who wrote all those Discworld novels??
They probably just manifested in the library one day. That, or they are taken from L-space.
A frisbee
Before either you had Luke Kirby in 2000AD. While it’s debatable whether Rowling would have been reading Vertigo comic books, Gaiman wrote for 2000AD.
Interesting. When I was around 4 years old I suffered from debilitating nightmares to the point of refusing to go to sleep. Coincidentally, this was also when I came into contact with my first games (Amiga 500 at the time, I’m ancient) and somehow that “taught” my mind that you can fight back against the baddies and win. Never suffered from nightmares ever after that point.