Exposure

Something to keep in mind for 2025

Written by James Miller of A Small Fiction

“In 150 characters or less” by @nikitagill.bsky.social

For Good Omens I've transferred all my love for it to Terry.
And for the show to David and Michael.
Good Omens is bigger than this disgusting creep

Seems like one thing people are saying helped was reading the authors who influenced Gaiman, so how about we gather some here?

@mayteramarble.bsky.social mentioned Roger Zelazny.

I can't recommend Angela Carter enough.

What else, guys? xx

Sometimes art can be a mirror.

Sometimes we need to look at ourselves and think about who we want to see looking back. A mirror can help.

Some mirrors are silvered with mercury. They're full of poison.

The image you see in them is you. It always was. 8/8

So if his stuff helped you figure some things out? Those were things about you, figured out by you.

You love mythology? Comic or dark fantasy? Imagination? Fiction?

So did he.

But so do you.

So keep loving the stuff you love. It was never his. He just accessed the same things you did. 7/

Some artists are very, very good at branding themselves so you might feel like you have to go through them to love the thing you love.

But it's just branding. People can make great use of blue, but nobody IS blue.

You stand under the same rainbow. 6/

And if you came across their work when you needed to figure some things out, and you used it to do that?

You put in the work to build yourself.

They don't get to be your identity landlord just because you both see beauty in blue. They are smaller than the sky. 5/

It was your eyes that saw the colour, your brain that interpreted it, your heart that felt its beauty.

You didn't love it because they're the Blue Artist, but because you were always a person who could love the sky. 4/

Do you like blue too? You'll find a lot of it in their work. Maybe you'll develop your love of blue looking at it. Maybe their work is where you first realised how much you love blueness.

Cool.

But they don't own the colour blue. 3/

I was never a deep Gaiman fan, so maybe I can't talk, but I do know how a certain kind of charisma works.

There's a THING people love, and someone is a star at it. Not just into it, but 'make it their own'.

Say: they don't just paint with a lot of blue, they're the Blue Artist. 2/

Nice people are struggling over the revelations on Gaiman, and something I keep hearing is, 'His work had a big influence on how I shaped my own identity.' So here's something to remember:

You did that. He didn't do it for you. 1/

If you’re afraid that books might change someone’s thinking, you’re not afraid of books, you’re afraid of thinking.