Also, the two creators recently got married. Neil Gaiman has wedding pix up on his blog for those interested. Those are some truly fabulous wedding duds.

In fact, the trajectory of the characters is in direct opposition to the world around them (a mirror image, as it were). As the book opens, the world is ordered and sane, but the characters are troubled and broken. As they move towards sanity, the world outside begins to break down.

One of the little touches in the story that I really like is the fact that Moore has created a maiden-mother-crone triad with the characters, even though he never explicitly says so.

I got Lost Girls in the mail on a Friday and, instead of going out, read it from cover to cover. The thing that kind of sparked an epiphany in me was the concept of sublimating your sexuality and replacing it with fantasyland while coming of age. I think it really hit home for me in a way that I imagine a lot of other women who withdrew into a world of books while growing up would also experience.

I’m glad you explained the context for the victorian incest porn, I was kind of ignoring it- it made me pause for a bit but I’m glad I kept going because the end of the book is fantastic.

Also, I don’t like the wizard of oz musical/hollywood movie but love the oz books, and I thought Dorothy was spot on. And I actually respected Wendy for the first time ever- never understood that whole ‘mother’ thing where she is the lost boys’ ‘mother’- it always weirded me out. Liked that bit much better in Lost Girls, it made more intuitive sense than the original (to me, anyway).

dead

insane from their experience

unable to tell the world the whole truth, which is why the tale ends up in a 10-cent pulp magazine instead of the front page of every newspaper in existance.

A, you remind me of this quote by Dr. Christian Barnaard:

“Suffering doesn’t ennoble. Healing does.”

I started reading a couple of books about the philosophy of Taoism, especially one called “A Path and a Practice” by William Martin. I found it really helpful reading about the practice of accepting yourself exactly where you are, how you are and who you are, not waiting you are improved or even trying to improve yourself. I can’t explain it very well, but somehow it helped break an impasse, and things DID improve then.

I always had a picture in my mind of two equally-strong wrestlers locked in a fighting embrace and getting nowhere. Somehow, I gave up in a way and said, “Yes, Ok, maybe I AM a permanently damaged person who hates myself, so what?” And it felt like I drew a big breath and was able to start liking myself more that way. And I started to get a little less afraid of other people seeing me for what I am.

I know it’s very different for everyone and they will find different ways to integrate the experiences they had. It’s very hard because you want to be that whole person, not just a victim or a damaged person, but you have spent your whole life fighting against an internalized stigma and being ashamed of who you are.

I don’t know if I’m saying this well, but I guess I am saying, do what works. Fight it, and be that healthy whole person, if you can, or do the opposite, and accept the damage and work around it, if that is what is necessary. I tell my husband, who is always being a perfectionist, that saying, “The perfect is the enemy of the good.”

Top Ten is fucking amazing. I’m going to commit an act of INTARWEB PIRACY just for you, because Top Ten #8 is a fantastic fucking issue rated Number 1 in the weighted-towards-mainstream-but-pretty-damn-accurate list of “Wizard’s 100 best single issues of all time.”

the list is pretty good, though. Moore is pretty heavily represented, especially toward the low end.