## Colophon tags:: url:: https://archive.ph/O1s0J date:: [[]] %% title:: The Dark Secrets Behind the Neil Gaiman Abuse Accusations type:: [[clipped-note]] author:: [[@archive.ph]] %% ## Notes > Gaiman skipped town, breaking COVID protocols to fly to his home on the Isle of Skye — [view in context](https://hyp.is/QCy16tI5Ee-mN1cvOIhjMg/archive.ph/O1s0J) > “The years absent of touch build up like a gray inheritance,” she wrote. “I’m hungry. I am so fucking famished.” — [view in context](https://hyp.is/R5MG_tI5Ee-8-TMgStis4g/archive.ph/O1s0J) > He looked at her again and said, “Don’t ruin the moment.” She did as instructed, and he began to stroke her feet. At that point, she recalls, she felt “a subtle terror.” — [view in context](https://hyp.is/owKkQNI5Ee-v4WPmxr5jrA/archive.ph/O1s0J) > She is Calliope, the youngest of the Nine Muses. Madoc rapes her, again and again, and his career blossoms in the most extraordinary way. A stylish young beauty tells him how much she loved his characterization of a strong female character, prompting him to remark, “Actually, I do tend to regard myself as a feminist writer.” His downfall comes only when the titular hero, the Sandman, also known as the Prince of Stories, frees Calliope from bondage. — [view in context](https://hyp.is/-0i3ZtI5Ee-PhqdErMMJ2g/archive.ph/O1s0J) > As allegations of Gaiman’s sexual misconduct emerged this past summer, some observers noticed Gaiman and Madoc have certain things in common. Like Madoc, Gaiman has called himself a feminist — [view in context](https://hyp.is/C6N1ftI6Ee-PZjP2kmFrlw/archive.ph/O1s0J) > People who flock to fantasy conventions and signings make up an “inherently vulnerable community,” one of Gaiman’s former friends, a fantasy writer, tells me. They “wrap themselves around a beloved text so it becomes their self-identity,” she says — [view in context](https://hyp.is/FwXC9NI7Ee-jD--KeFXVxQ/archive.ph/O1s0J) > As soon as they began to hook up, the feeling that had drawn her to him — the magical spell of his interest in her individuality — vanished. “He seemed to have a script,” she tells me. “He wanted me to call him ‘master’ immediately.” He demanded that she promise him her soul. “It was like he’d gone into this ritual that had nothing to do with me.” — [view in context](https://hyp.is/k55q4NI8Ee-tMnehESpXtg/archive.ph/O1s0J) > I spoke with four of those women along with four others whose stories share elements with theirs. I also reviewed contemporaneous diary entries, texts and emails with friends, messages between Gaiman and the women, and police correspondence. Most of the women were in their 20s when they met Gaiman. The youngest was 18. Two of them worked for him. Five were his fans. With one exception, an allegation of forcible kissing from 1986, when Gaiman was in his mid-20s, the stories take place when Gaiman was in his 40s or older, a period in which he lived among the U.S., the U.K., and New Zealand. By then, he had a reputation as an outspoken champion of women. “Gaiman insists on telling the stories of people who are traditionally marginalized, missing, or silenced in literature,” wrote Tara Prescott-Johnson in the essay collection Feminism in the Worlds of Neil Gaiman. Although his books abounded with stories of men torturing, raping, and murdering women, this was largely perceived as evidence of his empathy — [view in context](https://hyp.is/t5doYNI9Ee-N9MMd13qfsA/archive.ph/O1s0J) > Stout had no prior interest in BDSM. She says Gaiman never asked what she liked in bed, and there was no discussion of “safe words” or “aftercare” or “limits.” He’d ask her to call him “master” and beat her with his belt. “These were not sexy little taps,” she says. When she told him she didn’t like it, she says he replied, “It’s the only way I can get off.” — [view in context](https://hyp.is/KREbWNI-Ee-cMwMfXc6qGg/archive.ph/O1s0J) > The only negative stories she found were about how he’d broken COVID lockdown rules in 2020 and had been forced to apologize to the people of the Isle of Skye for endangering their lives. — [view in context](https://hyp.is/IVj-1NJOEe-mzDMvcTU7oA/archive.ph/O1s0J) > In the years since, she had been looking for a new family, but many of the people she’d encountered in that search turned out to be abusive as well. — [view in context](https://hyp.is/cXmMgNJOEe-hYd_DIaYeRg/archive.ph/O1s0J) > It was a challenging job, to say the least. The U.K., following the example of a handful of other governments, had issued a report declaring Scientology’s methods “a serious danger to the health of those who submit to them.” Hubbard would routinely punish members of the organization who committed minor infractions by binding them, blindfolding them, and throwing them overboard into icy waters — [view in context](https://hyp.is/4WzM1tJPEe-Y1veG9GJJtg/archive.ph/O1s0J) > As a teenager, Neil worked for the Church of Scientology for three years as an auditor, a minister of the church who conducts a process some have likened to hypnosis. One former member of the church who worked with Gaiman’s parents and was audited by Gaiman recalls him as precocious and ambitious — [view in context](https://hyp.is/bAw_PtJQEe-OIPOxRhEwgQ/archive.ph/O1s0J) > When he returned, he brought butter to use as lubricant. She continued to scream until Gaiman was finished. When it was over, he called her “slave” and ordered her to “clean him up.” She protested that it wasn’t hygienic. “He said, ‘Are you defying your master?’” she recalls. “I had to lick my own shit.” — [view in context](https://hyp.is/hrA8NtJqEe-jGtuAv2i90g/archive.ph/O1s0J) > Palmer did not appear to be surprised. “Fourteen women have come to me about this,” she said. She mentioned that Gaiman had slept with another babysitter during his first marriage, and that she’d heard from other women who were disturbed by their experiences with him — [view in context](https://hyp.is/Gyh2mNJsEe-W-junUYBC1A/archive.ph/O1s0J) > Pavlovich remembers her palms sweating, hot coils in her stomach. She was terrified of upsetting Gaiman. “I was disconnected from everybody else at that point in my life,” she tells me. She rushed to reassure him. “It was consensual (and wonderful)!” she wrote. Anaru had been “triggered by something I think,” she added. “I am so glad that you messaged me,” Gaiman wrote. “I thought you were a monster.” — [view in context](https://hyp.is/zR4O1NJtEe-pUWsvoqOBIA/archive.ph/O1s0J) > In January 2023, Pavlovich filed a police report accusing Gaiman of sexual assault. At the station, she gave a formal interview about the case. After she told the officers her story, one of them told her that Palmer’s cooperation would be essential for the case to move forward. Pavlovich assured them Palmer would participate. “I said to them, ‘She’s a public feminist, and she knows what happened. She’ll want to protect me. I’m sure she’ll speak.’” When the police contacted Palmer later that year, she declined to talk with them. Gaiman never spoke with the police either, though he did provide a written statement. — [view in context](https://hyp.is/alZfTtJuEe-emLdo9uiUYw/archive.ph/O1s0J) > Gaiman’s career, meanwhile, has been marginally affected. A few pending adaptations of his novels and comics have been put on hold or canceled. But the second season of The Sandman is set to premiere on Netflix this year, as is Anansi Boys on Amazon Prime. (Amazon did not return a request for comment.) — [view in context](https://hyp.is/ohLL8tJuEe-roFuVImruNQ/archive.ph/O1s0J) > The next morning, she woke before the others, made coffee, cleaned the kitchen, and sat on the porch in the winter sun. “Am I happy?” she wrote in her journal. “No.” But she also noted that she wasn’t alone. “There is no need to feel abandoned anymore.” — [view in context](https://hyp.is/1l0cqtJuEe-QACNbQh9IIg/archive.ph/O1s0J) > Gaiman skipped town, breaking COVID protocols to fly to his home on the Isle of Skye — [view in context](https://hyp.is/QCy16tI5Ee-mN1cvOIhjMg/archive.ph/O1s0J) > “The years absent of touch build up like a gray inheritance,” she wrote. “I’m hungry. I am so fucking famished.” — [view in context](https://hyp.is/R5MG_tI5Ee-8-TMgStis4g/archive.ph/O1s0J) > He looked at her again and said, “Don’t ruin the moment.” She did as instructed, and he began to stroke her feet. At that point, she recalls, she felt “a subtle terror.” — [view in context](https://hyp.is/owKkQNI5Ee-v4WPmxr5jrA/archive.ph/O1s0J) > She is Calliope, the youngest of the Nine Muses. Madoc rapes her, again and again, and his career blossoms in the most extraordinary way. A stylish young beauty tells him how much she loved his characterization of a strong female character, prompting him to remark, “Actually, I do tend to regard myself as a feminist writer.” His downfall comes only when the titular hero, the Sandman, also known as the Prince of Stories, frees Calliope from bondage. — [view in context](https://hyp.is/-0i3ZtI5Ee-PhqdErMMJ2g/archive.ph/O1s0J) > As allegations of Gaiman’s sexual misconduct emerged this past summer, some observers noticed Gaiman and Madoc have certain things in common. Like Madoc, Gaiman has called himself a feminist — [view in context](https://hyp.is/C6N1ftI6Ee-PZjP2kmFrlw/archive.ph/O1s0J) > People who flock to fantasy conventions and signings make up an “inherently vulnerable community,” one of Gaiman’s former friends, a fantasy writer, tells me. They “wrap themselves around a beloved text so it becomes their self-identity,” she says — [view in context](https://hyp.is/FwXC9NI7Ee-jD--KeFXVxQ/archive.ph/O1s0J) > As soon as they began to hook up, the feeling that had drawn her to him — the magical spell of his interest in her individuality — vanished. “He seemed to have a script,” she tells me. “He wanted me to call him ‘master’ immediately.” He demanded that she promise him her soul. “It was like he’d gone into this ritual that had nothing to do with me.” — [view in context](https://hyp.is/k55q4NI8Ee-tMnehESpXtg/archive.ph/O1s0J) > I spoke with four of those women along with four others whose stories share elements with theirs. I also reviewed contemporaneous diary entries, texts and emails with friends, messages between Gaiman and the women, and police correspondence. Most of the women were in their 20s when they met Gaiman. The youngest was 18. Two of them worked for him. Five were his fans. With one exception, an allegation of forcible kissing from 1986, when Gaiman was in his mid-20s, the stories take place when Gaiman was in his 40s or older, a period in which he lived among the U.S., the U.K., and New Zealand. By then, he had a reputation as an outspoken champion of women. “Gaiman insists on telling the stories of people who are traditionally marginalized, missing, or silenced in literature,” wrote Tara Prescott-Johnson in the essay collection Feminism in the Worlds of Neil Gaiman. Although his books abounded with stories of men torturing, raping, and murdering women, this was largely perceived as evidence of his empathy — [view in context](https://hyp.is/t5doYNI9Ee-N9MMd13qfsA/archive.ph/O1s0J) > Stout had no prior interest in BDSM. She says Gaiman never asked what she liked in bed, and there was no discussion of “safe words” or “aftercare” or “limits.” He’d ask her to call him “master” and beat her with his belt. “These were not sexy little taps,” she says. When she told him she didn’t like it, she says he replied, “It’s the only way I can get off.” — [view in context](https://hyp.is/KREbWNI-Ee-cMwMfXc6qGg/archive.ph/O1s0J) > The only negative stories she found were about how he’d broken COVID lockdown rules in 2020 and had been forced to apologize to the people of the Isle of Skye for endangering their lives. — [view in context](https://hyp.is/IVj-1NJOEe-mzDMvcTU7oA/archive.ph/O1s0J) > In the years since, she had been looking for a new family, but many of the people she’d encountered in that search turned out to be abusive as well. — [view in context](https://hyp.is/cXmMgNJOEe-hYd_DIaYeRg/archive.ph/O1s0J) > It was a challenging job, to say the least. The U.K., following the example of a handful of other governments, had issued a report declaring Scientology’s methods “a serious danger to the health of those who submit to them.” Hubbard would routinely punish members of the organization who committed minor infractions by binding them, blindfolding them, and throwing them overboard into icy waters — [view in context](https://hyp.is/4WzM1tJPEe-Y1veG9GJJtg/archive.ph/O1s0J) > As a teenager, Neil worked for the Church of Scientology for three years as an auditor, a minister of the church who conducts a process some have likened to hypnosis. One former member of the church who worked with Gaiman’s parents and was audited by Gaiman recalls him as precocious and ambitious — [view in context](https://hyp.is/bAw_PtJQEe-OIPOxRhEwgQ/archive.ph/O1s0J) > When he returned, he brought butter to use as lubricant. She continued to scream until Gaiman was finished. When it was over, he called her “slave” and ordered her to “clean him up.” She protested that it wasn’t hygienic. “He said, ‘Are you defying your master?’” she recalls. “I had to lick my own shit.” — [view in context](https://hyp.is/hrA8NtJqEe-jGtuAv2i90g/archive.ph/O1s0J) > Palmer did not appear to be surprised. “Fourteen women have come to me about this,” she said. She mentioned that Gaiman had slept with another babysitter during his first marriage, and that she’d heard from other women who were disturbed by their experiences with him — [view in context](https://hyp.is/Gyh2mNJsEe-W-junUYBC1A/archive.ph/O1s0J) > Pavlovich remembers her palms sweating, hot coils in her stomach. She was terrified of upsetting Gaiman. “I was disconnected from everybody else at that point in my life,” she tells me. She rushed to reassure him. “It was consensual (and wonderful)!” she wrote. Anaru had been “triggered by something I think,” she added. “I am so glad that you messaged me,” Gaiman wrote. “I thought you were a monster.” — [view in context](https://hyp.is/zR4O1NJtEe-pUWsvoqOBIA/archive.ph/O1s0J) > In January 2023, Pavlovich filed a police report accusing Gaiman of sexual assault. At the station, she gave a formal interview about the case. After she told the officers her story, one of them told her that Palmer’s cooperation would be essential for the case to move forward. Pavlovich assured them Palmer would participate. “I said to them, ‘She’s a public feminist, and she knows what happened. She’ll want to protect me. I’m sure she’ll speak.’” When the police contacted Palmer later that year, she declined to talk with them. Gaiman never spoke with the police either, though he did provide a written statement. — [view in context](https://hyp.is/alZfTtJuEe-emLdo9uiUYw/archive.ph/O1s0J) > Gaiman’s career, meanwhile, has been marginally affected. A few pending adaptations of his novels and comics have been put on hold or canceled. But the second season of The Sandman is set to premiere on Netflix this year, as is Anansi Boys on Amazon Prime. (Amazon did not return a request for comment.) — [view in context](https://hyp.is/ohLL8tJuEe-roFuVImruNQ/archive.ph/O1s0J) > The next morning, she woke before the others, made coffee, cleaned the kitchen, and sat on the porch in the winter sun. “Am I happy?” she wrote in her journal. “No.” But she also noted that she wasn’t alone. “There is no need to feel abandoned anymore.” — [view in context](https://hyp.is/1l0cqtJuEe-QACNbQh9IIg/archive.ph/O1s0J)