(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
Failed Writers Journey: Gaiman, Lynch, Uecker: It is Better to be Kind [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-01-17
David Lynch and Bob Uecker have both passed away, both far too young, even if they were 78 and 90, respectively. Others have talked eloquently about Lynch and Uecker, so this is not going to be a eulogy for either man. Instead, I want to focus on something that made them better artists, better people, than Neil Gaiman: kindness.
Bob Uecker was a comedian who never seemed to make others the butt of his jokes. When he wasn’t mocking himself, or his chosen profession of sports announcing, he was laughing with his fans, not at them. By all reports, he treated those he worked with with respect. None of his humor suffered for putting kindness at its center.
Lynch was much the same. He was a refutation of the juvenile notion that an auteur should be allowed to treat other people poorly in service of his art. Lynch wanted all of his sets to be fun places, he wanted people to be glad to come to work. He explicitly rejected controlling the set by fear, understanding that fear led to unhappiness, which leads to anger, which leads to less helpful, open, actors and crew members.
Compare, then, to Neil Gaiman. His artistic reputation is probably somewhere between the two men. But because of the horrific accusation of abuse by him to woman who worked for him, Gaiman will forever be associated with gross cruelty. Gaiman could have chosen to be kind, like Lynch and Uecker. But he chose to abuse, to take advantage, to leverage power and money and fear to get what he wanted. And now no one will ever know him as anything other than yet another piece of cruelty in an already cruel world.
Kindness is sometimes portrayed as weakness, as naivete, as cowardly. It is none of those things. Kindness is strength. Kindness does the hardest thing, lifts the heaviest weights. Kindness takes our cruel world and makes it a little better, as the work of Lynch and Uecker shows.
I am sorry we lost them so early, but I am glad we had their example at all.
Weekly Word Count
7400
Not quite as much as last week, all in the but six out of a planned twenty-eight chapters down. All of the work is in the “woman defeats anti-abortion tech” novel. Six out of a planned twenty-eight chapters, and I am enjoying both the characters and plot. No idea if anyone else will like them, no beta readers so far, but I am enjoying writing the story.
Have a great weekend, everyone.
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/1/17/2297366/-Failed-Writers-Journey-Gaiman-Lynch-Uecker-It-is-Better-to-be-Kind?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web
Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/
