Gaiman: Inspired by a Gospel of Abuse?
Neil Gaiman's combination of abusive behaviour and fake social activism bears all the hallmarks of the sinister cult of Scientology within which the writer was raised and remains deeply immersed.
Let me be clear from the start. The victims in this story do not include Neil Gaiman who has made millions from his best-selling fantasy novels and who now stands accused of rape and sexual predation on women.
No one gets to blame what happened to them when they were seven for rapes they inflict (or are alleged to have inflicted in Gaiman’s case) when they are fifty seven. That’s why shrinks were invented. And morals.
If you do feel like empathising with Gaiman who has (boo hoo) had to step back from the Third Season of ‘Good Omens’ the TV series based on his books, feel free. I won’t be joining you. Apart from anything else, the collapse of the series means Gaiman now has to spend less time with the show’s two stars. Some of us would pay good money to avoid their gurning faces.
The real victims in this story are, of course, the women who came forward first in Tortoise Media last year and again last week in New York Magazine. The depravity of the assaults they describe is truly shocking.
Shocking on one level because the abuse runs the gamut from being attacked in a bath within hours of turning up at Gaiman’s house ….to being forced to swallow his putrid bodily fluids. Oh and anal rape. They’re doubly shocking perhaps because Gaiman’s total disregard for these women’s autonomy and consent is in such marked contrast to his professed views.
Gaiman has never lost an opportunity to lecture the rest of the world from the moral high horse he installed himself on. As one of the good guys. Gaiman wasn’t only a self-declared feminist (err …). His reaction at the height of the #MeToo movement was impeccably pious. Including this ode:
“I believe survivors. Men must not close our eyes and minds to what happens to women in this world.”
Surprise, surprise Monsieur Gaiman’s reaction now to the allegations against him is rather different. It boils down to an insistence we should in fact….not…. believe those pesky women. Perish the thought. On his website Gaiman …the feminist…even went so far as to repurpose the language of #MeToo; defending himself in a statement under the headline, ‘Breaking the Silence.’
But now it wasn’t abused women who were ….breaking the silence but their alleged rapist.
I was obviously careless with people's hearts and feelings, and that's something that I really, deeply regret,” bleated the man who is accused of making a woman more than 30 years his junior clean his penis after he anally raped her. And not with a wet rag.
The multi-millionaire writer who once demanded men should not close their eyes also concluded by saying in effect he was going to keep his eyes tightly scrunched up.
“I’m not willing to turn my back on the truth, and I can't accept being described as someone I am not, and cannot and will not admit to doing things I didn't do.”
It might seem pointless to try to trace the possible roots of Gaiman’s allegedly pathological behaviour and his rampant hypocrisy. Scumbags - even hypocritical ones- are two a penny after all and most of the time that’s explanation enough.
On the other hand Gaiman’s biography is so sinister I think it’s worth a deeper investigation than I’ve seen up to now. Not least because I think it sheds light on another feature of Gaiman’s public persona: his performative support for trans ideology.
The New York Magazine story about Gaiman mentioned that his parents were pre-eminent figures in the Church of Scientology, working out of its headquarters. The article only scratched the surface though of the writer’s long involvement in the organisation. Truth is Gaiman’s upbringing was entirely dominated by this neo-religion, he worked for “the Church” himself at a high level until his writing career took off….and I’ve discovered ….was financially linked to Scientology for much longer than he has ever acknowledged.
Gaiman’s formative experiences of Scientology also occurred during a period of existential crises for the cult when his parents were accused -as he is now- of deception, bullying and psychological manipulation on a grand scale. Allegations of sexual impropriety also swirled round the cult and Gaiman’s father in particular.
Let’s start our story with an extraordinary clip from a documentary about Gaiman that has been largely overlooked in recent coverage about him. The film was a bio-pic which Gaiman had editorial control over.
In this scene from ‘Dream Dangerously’ Gaiman stands proudly with two women, his mother and sister, at an event to mark the publication of what was his most autobiographical work.
What the film doesn’t mention is that both women remain among the highest ranking members of Scientology in the UK. Both are thought to donate millions to the ‘Church.’
They also own a major pharmaceutical firm which makes millions from Scientology.
Let me explain why this clip and others from the documentary may help us decode Gaiman’s dark interior world and the links that connect the ideas he imbibed from Scientology with those of trans ideology.
As well as…. Gaiman’s abusive behaviour.