Neil Gaiman

Introduction

Author Neil Gaiman isn't just liked by his readers—he's adored by them. With a Twitter audience of more than 1,480,000, he has a daily following that hangs on his every word. But his writing strikes a chord that extends beyond fannish obsession. Its appeal has everything to do with Gaiman's uncanny grasp not simply of the mechanics of storytelling, but the spirit and joy of it. 

Gaiman has a Jungian grasp of archetypes and an encyclopedic understanding of both mythology and the modern novel, from fairy tales to Wodehouse. He draws on that knowledge to write compelling stories that cross the divide between what are often blinkered categorizations of genre and age group.

Gaiman has a style that is hard to pin down. As a long time reader of his, I have what I consider a certain "Neil Gaiman voice" in my head.  I was amazed to see that assumption undone as I revisited his body work—the comics, short stories, poetry and novels. Each effort, while obviously by Gaiman, is uniquely its own thing. He is a writer in a constant state of growth, experimentation, and restlessness.

Gaiman was one of the first names on my very long list of authors who I had hoped would contribute to this blog. As I’ve said before The Hypothetical Library was born from many of sources: Jorge Luis Borges, Stanislas Lem, cartoonist Dylan Horrocks, and many others, but most directly Neil Gaiman. 

In Gaiman’s comic book series The Sandman, his main character has an entire library of books that were dreamed into existence by their authors, and which only exist in that library. I have a very specific memory from the late 90’s of reading an issue of  The Sandman where the Dream Library is mentioned, and I thought that someone should design the covers of those books. The idea stuck with me for years, a blog waiting to happen. 

Which brings us to this week's entry into the Hypothetical Library. It is going to be a little different from the previous ones, because author Mr. Gaiman provided a very different kind of proposal. Here it is as I received it.

"The trouble with imagining a book I would never write is that when I think of it, I think 'but I could WRITE that...'

So it would have to be a book of books I would never write. A book of ideas I would never have. A book of things I would never do in prose or in fiction. A book of things that should have remained unwritten, fragments and dreams and moments. Secrets too terrible to be learned. Things that would destroy me if I knew them, or hurt my friends. It would contain the secret name of God, and tell you how to pronounce that name.

It would be called IF YOU READ THIS BOOK THE WORLD WILL END."

At first I thought this email was a cleverly worded rejection note, but after the second reading I took it to be what it was—a challenge. How do you design a cover for a book that should never be read? The idea you will see below hit me right away, but knowing that the first idea is not always the best one, I kept sketching. Rather than get different cover ideas, my train of thought expanded into other places—what about an audio book (for which Mr. Gaiman’s dramatic readings are famous), or what would an eBook that you should never be able to open, be like?

So I decided to do a 3 part, 2 week long entry for If You Read This Book The World Will End. Todays entry is the book cover. On Thursday I will post the audio book, and on Monday the 23rd I will post a very special kind of e-book cover.

If You Read This Book The World Will End—the cover

  
How do you design a cover for a book that should never be read? You drive bolts through it, wrap it in steel, and put a padlock on it so it can never be opened, that's how. With the help of sculptor Kevin Johnson we did just that. The image above is a still life, taken by photographer Seth Kushner of the actual book that was fabricated for this post. The bolts are real, as is the metal band. The padlock is an antique from 1906, and has the perfect logo for this purpose—Raven. 

It is the sincere hope of this blog—and Mr Gaiman—that this book never be opened. After the photography session, the book was moved to a secure and undisclosed location. Mr. Kushner is recovering nicely from what the good doctors at Bellevue referred to as an acute bout of "the nerves".

Credits

I couldn't have pulled this project off without the help of many talented people, so I will be giving credit where credit is due for each entry.  

After I designed the cover art, the physical dust jacket was printed by Alex Rader and Kevin Mutch at POD Gallery (they also publish the comics anthology Blurred Vision). The book was then delivered to Brooklyn based metal artist and sculptor Kevin Johnson, who drove the bolts through and wrapped the metal around it. 

Photographer Seth Kushner then captured the whole thing on film (actually, digital pixels), and we shared retouching duties. On a related note, the current author image of Mr. Gaiman now running in The Sandman books was shot by Seth, a fact that I was unaware of when I asked him to help out. You can see his work work at his official site, blog, and at Graphic NYC.

Finally, Ellen Lindner edited the text for these three blog entries. Ellen is a London, England based cartoonist and you can see her work here. Ellen is one of three editors that help keep me from sounding illerterate illiterate. Hypothetical Library pals Susanne Reece and Shanna Compton have also helped me in the past few months. Shanna is a poet and the publisher of Bloof Books.

Thursday May 20: If You Read This Book The World Will End—audio book

Comments

[Michele]

I absolutely *want* to read that book, now I've seen the cover! (The forbidden is always tempting, yes?!)

[Marjorie]

Awesome! And I can imagine Neil writing a book (or maybe a short story) in which an author is trapped writing such a story, and being faced with whether, and how, he could prevent it getting out.

In fact, Neil mentioned (on twitter) that he is being menaced by deadlines just now. Maybe the 'dead' part of that was more literal then we thought..

I want to read that book.

[Serena]

I would buy this book in an instant. Found you through a link and am in love with this idea. Wish I had known about you sooner. I can't wait for parts two and three.

[Jennifer]

Love it. And yes, I would try to break the seals so that I could read it. Unsatisfied curiosity vs end of the world? Hmmmm... Decisions, decisions.

[Melissa]

I can see a book being written ABOUT this book. Theme: Group of authors jokingly create a book entitled, "If you read this book, the world will end" and unwittingly create a door to the apocalypse...

[Alex Nautilus]

Looks like John Carpenter's "In the Mouth of Madness". :)
Bye,
Alex Nautilus
http://twitter.com/alexnautilus

[Melonie]

This is very cool! What a great idea, and you executed the concept beautifully. Thanks for sharing!

[Carroll Home]

Hmmmm - this should be the first book in a trilogy (with a bonus volume):

Vol 1: "If You Read This Book The World Will End"

Vol 2: "If You Read This Book The Universe Will Be Rent Asunder"

Vol 3: "If You read This Book The Entire Space-Time Continuum Will Implode"

Bonus Volume: "Chicken Soup for the Imploded Soul That Has Been Rent Asunder"

Nice work on the image!

[Akayers]

What a great cover toa book that willnever I exist that I'd immediately read. LOL. Nice job.

[RockingJamboree]

Wizard! Too Much Awesome! Brilliant in concept, proposal and execution. Thank you. Thanks to everyone involved in this project. Rock on!

[Joan Stradling]

Love it! I know a lot of work must have gone into the creation. Genius. =D

[Mary Beth]

Wonderful! Really just perfect! Congratulations on a job very well done! Looking forward to the next two installments!

[shanna]

Astoudingly awesome...even from you! xo

[Kris]

No no! Now I WANT to read it! The bolts and padlock are only a challenge.

If I wanted to insure that no one would read it I would call it Instructions or Letters from my Mother in Law or Recipes for a Bland Diet... any of which should ensure the book ONLY garners dust.

[Ana]

Can I suggest that people are more interested in reading what they're not allowed to than what they are allowed to? Therefore, I infer that, thanks to some clever lock-picker, the world will end pretty soon.

[Patrice]

If you'd read that book, I have an apple to offer you. Take a moment for a little snack here in this lovely garden...

[__Celtic__]

I like it. Neil recently posted a link to footage of an old Canadian interview - during which Neil gives details of something already in the dream library and which it would be good to see the cover for here in the Hypothetical Library- a Sandman story that he will never write ...

[Synthetic Joel]

It's probably beyond my reading level anyways, so i wouldn't even try to read this book. It would however make a stylish display item, so sell these plzzzz

[Beth Surdut]

Loving a curious mind doing curious things, I find your work...thrilling. But I must comment about Raven,Bringer of Magic and Messenger, with whom I have an intimate relationship. (Yes, whatever that image brings to your mind is true.) A few days ago the Wunderkammer blogger let me know she was posting my drawing The Ravens of Truth and Memory in honor of the American Gods Twitter read.
I assure you, the cleverest corvid Raven can pick that lock.

[Charlie Orr]

I just wanted to thank all of you for the kind comments. I am truly overwhelmed by the response to this project, and I hope you'll like the next two entries as much as this one. Be sure and check back on Thursday for the audio book version—it has flies and laughing demons in it.
—Charlie

[kmkat]

Love it! I expect that the audiobook will be in some not-yet-and-never-to-be-invented format. MXq3? WOV? AXX?

[Stormy]

I followed a link to this entry and have now been through the archives. This is such a fabulously intriguing idea, these books that will never be written. And now I so want to read them all, mostly due to your skill with evocative covers. I look at them and feel the story within. Or the story that could be within. I'm not sure if I should thank you or curse you...

[Miss Method]

A library with such volumes in it would require a very special kind of librarian to take care of the collection and keep curiosity seekers from unleashing the eldritch horrors within. Yes, you would need *dramatic pause* Ninja Librarians of the Apocalypse! Our motto: "Creating Order Out of Chaos Since Time Began".

[Rowyn]

Hahaha! That is awesome, well done. :)

[Devremülk]

i like to read your posts. thanks for this one.