To be really sad that Amanda Palmer and Neil Gaiman have separated.

[blueglassandfreesias]

Officially cabin fevered now but I have followed both of their careers and always felt slightly that Neil Gaiman held all the power since AP had their child 4 years ago. She posts often about how much she loves him, he never does this.
They were in lockdown in New Zealand together then suddenly he left to hid house in Scotland.
I feel really sorry for her stuck in a country with their child, heartbroken and unable to face to face sort it all out with her husband.

I’ve never got round to reading anything by him, but the TV series of American Gods is bonkers-genius, so I probably should.

I kind of know what you mean OP. I felt a bit sad when I read that Emma Forrest and Ben Mendelsohn had broken up (prompts another round of “whhhhoooo???” A British author and Australian actor) as I admired their work as individuals and thought they seemed like an interesting couple. The fact that she wrote quite a lot about their marriage made it feel more like people I knew.

@12345 I've heard of Terry Pratchett but I'd say he's pretty well known and sadly, particularly because of his illness. However I've never read anything by either of them. It is possible to be an avid reader of fiction and have certain authors pass you by, especially if they're writing in a genre that's not your thing.

@KotoMoto as a lot of people have already said - he doesn’t really just fit into the fantasy genre though; he is just extremely well known in general, or so I thought. Maybe i just know people who read a lot though!

I met him by chance a couple of years ago, nice guy and friendly enough but he was surrounded by a lot of young women hanging off his every word.

Like I said @ilikebooksandplants I do read a lot. I read a book a week, but usually classics or contemporary dramatic fiction. As I said, I'd vaguely heard his name but couldn't name one of his books. Just pointing out that it doesn't make a people somehow ignorant if he's not on our radar. Just different areas of interest.

I’m surprised at how many people don’t know who Neil Gaiman is. Do people not read?

I don't read fantasy or sci-fi novels, no. They don't interest me at all. The only reason I've heard of Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer is because my DH likes them.

Amazed by the number of people who expect everyone to have the same tastes as them. Can you not just accept that not everyone likes the same books as you? There are hundreds of thousands of "famous" authors in the world and you can't expect every person to have read or even heard of every single one of them.

One of my friends loved her and her music, I just couldn’t get into it at all. Apart from Map Of Tasmania which was quite funky, everything else seems like it’s trying to be Fiona Apple, but rubbish.

People trying to be clever by saying they don't know who a very very famous and celebrated author is and proving their own ignorance instead is very amusing.

I hadn't heard of him til ds (24) mentioned him. I ahd heard of Terry pratchett as both my late fil and ds love/d the discworld series.

I don't suppose many people have heard of Jim Butcher, who could equally be said to be famous and celebrated. Not everyone is interested in the genre Gaiman writes.

@NurseButtercup, fair enough 😊

I've never heard of either of them which is normally the case when someone posts about a supposedly famous person on here. Therefore have zero reaction to them divorcing.

I've just gogled him and see he wrote American Gods which I loathed so no surprise.

Always so bizarre when people post ‘who?’, including after a description of the person has been posted several times. Why bother going into a thread about someone of whom you’ve never heard?

Although how embarrassing to not only have done that, but also clearly assumed it was about some kind of kardashian-type figure about whom one could smugly do the whole ‘goodness I must be old/intellectual as I have no idea who this vacuous person is’ thing and then it turns out this is a well known author with decades of critical and commercial success behind him.....

Cringe-worthy.

Although how embarrassing to not only have done that, but also clearly assumed it was about some kind of kardashian-type figure

Nobody has "clearly assumed" anything. A load of people just wrote "Who?" with no reference to Kardashian types.

@Mrsfrumble when you mentioned Emma Forrest I immediately thought 'the 16 year old who had a newspaper column?' Didn't realise so much time had passed..

@thegcatsmother I know Jim Butcher! Feeling better now.

It's sad they have broken up, didn't have any idea about the open marriage, makes sense though. I have read a few gaiman books and not that fussed although love good omens. Loved the Dresden dolls too,even saw them live, her crowd sourcing makes more sense if they were married in principle rather than in real life.

"I’m surprised at how many people don’t know who Neil Gaiman is. Do people not read?"

I'm also surprised. And cringing for the people who wrote "I've never heard of him" like it's some badge of honour.

I'm not really into fantasy so he's not my cup of tea. But his children's books are wonderful.

I've liked his writing since Good Ones came out, and that was probably 30 years ago.
However, he went down considerably in my estimation, as a person, when I read about him leaving his wife and three children for someone so much younger (AP).
It's not surprising he's left AP, is it, really?

Good Omens. Sorry- fat fingers!

I do know both Amanda and Neil personally. Interestingly pretty much all the speculation in this thread is wrong. Especially the bits about the “balance of their relationship”.

If nothing else this thread has taught me how utterly pointless it is too wonder about the relationships or personalities of people you don’t know in real life. Social media accounts are generally poor reflections of people’s true lives and personalities. Published interviews often tend not even to be good reflections of what was said in the actual interview!

We just can’t “know” people, unless we actually know them. And we can’t know what goes on in their relationships, unless they tell us - and often not even then.

I will say that the use of the term divorce seems like a bit of a leap at this point.

Ash has two incredibly devoted parents and has most definitely not been abandoned by either of them, some of you will be pleased to hear.

I understand that people who are fans/followers of either or both Amanda and Neil may feel invested in their relationship, but this thread makes it quite clear that you just don’t know and can’t guess - so perhaps it’s not worth trying?

Neil Gaiman was on an episode of Arthur a few years ago, do y'all not get Arthur? I first heard of him because of Coraline. American Gods has been a series on HBO since 2017, and Amazon did Good Omens last year. I've never read any of his books, but I've heard of him. I'm really surprised other people haven't, at least in passing.

I thought the "who?" posts were funny because I went "ahh, someone I have actually heard of"

Well I love them both, fully respect them as artists, thought they were well matched and I am gutted.
Lockdown is a pretty intense time. Maybe they will sort things out once they have a bit of space from each other.
I always thought Neil seemed a bit introverted although never met the man. I follow them both on insta. and somehow got the impression he was doing social media because his agent told him to and was slightly awkward about it whilst Amanda is naturally an open book as part of her personality and image.

I know who both are, and feel nothing about it.
Not a particular fan of either.
Couples break up all the time.

I’m a big Neil Gaiman fan - he has an excellent Masterclass out if anyone is interested. I don’t know much about Amanda Palmer although I did used to listen to the Dresden Dolls.

It’s sad that their marriage has broken down. I probably won’t follow it further though - best not to know too much about the private lives of your artistic heroes. Ted Hughs for example, one of my hero poets, but was an arse... artistic or literary genius doesn’t make you a palatable personality.

YABU because it's not your relationship. You don't know anything about them or their relationship. You're projecting your ideas onto them.

Tbf I am not sure I’ve heard of Jim Butcher. But if you started a thread about him I wouldn’t come in and comment ‘who? ’ and pretend I was incapable of googling him, and that I was confused as to why someone might be interested. If I was interested and had a spare few minutes I’d google, then comment if I cared enough or I’d just ignore the thread. If there isn’t an element of snobbery and ‘faux-confusion’ why someone would care about a celeb marriage (I do think people were not expecting them to be a very famous writer and an artist) then why do people do that? I think that’s what the poster who mentioned the kardashians was referring to, really. And I don’t think they were far wrong - I don’t care about the kardashians at all and I’ve never watched their show - I know who they are though because they’re part of the cultural landscape of the country in which I live - whether I want them to be or not! It’s the same with NG and AP.