Art Post: Death Said, Live

[minoanmiss]

I have been meaning to make this post about a WIP which will never be finished now.




My drawing of Wanda from A Game of You'

Do you remember Wanda from "A Game of You", one of the Sandman stories? Because I read Mercedes Lackey and Ursula LeGuin books as a teenager she wasn't the first GNC character I ever read but when I met her when I was 18 she was the first unambiguously transgender character I recall reading.

I still remember the last image we get of her. But I wasn't quite satisfied with it even at 18. I thought if Wanda wanted to wear a frilly dress she'd wear a frilly dress, life or death be damned.

Then I ran across this poem:

al oído, despacio, lentamente.
Me dijo: ¡vive, vive, vive!
Era la muerte.
Jaime Sabines

All of my life a voice has whispered softly in my ear.
"Live! Live! Live!"
It was Death.
-- translated by Guillermo Del Toro

I set out to draw Wanda for this poem. And then the news broke that Neil Gaiman, Sandman's creator, Wanda's author, has sexually abused at least five women and in so doing betrayed us all.

I don't think I can finish this artwork of Wanda but here it is, finally.

Death said, Live.

Comments

[dissectionist]

I completely missed all that when the allegations came out, but just did some reading about it. I was always puzzled before about what he saw in that piece of shit Amanda Palmer and why he tolerated her bigotry for so long, but now I see that he was also a fake feminist and a terrible person too, just like her. Now it makes perfect sense to me why they were together. He just did a better job of hiding his true nature.

[muccamukk]

I think the art's lovely. Thank you for sharing it and the story behind it <3 That poem is beautiful for Wanda.

[julian]

Man. Thank you for that connection, for that poem, and for that art.

[amaebi]

I want to give you a shapely tombstone for those shattered though minimal dreams of decency-- you have had a beautiful figure and supplied a righteous legend for it.

[sovay]

al oído, despacio, lentamente.
Me dijo: ¡vive, vive, vive!
Era la muerte.

I'd never seen that poem. It's lovely. So is your sketch.

*hugs*

[med_cat]

I like your artwork, and the poem

*hugs*

[sabotabby]

It's a lovely drawing. I think when an author does that shit their work should automatically become public domain.

[or_midnight]

I love this idea re: public domain. (Is it legally practicable? Who knows, but the concept is brilliant.)

[princessofgeeks]

HUGS

[petra]

I love the art, and I share the pain of betrayal.

[flamingsword]

This.

[rabidsamfan]

I firmly believe in the "death of the author" when it comes to literature and other kinds of creations. I can, for instance, still like Ender's Game, but I'm not buying anything which would put money into Orson Scott Card's pockets.

It is also why I am a fan of characters, not actors or authors.

Wanda should definitely have a frilly dress.

[or_midnight]

If you wish to expand on this theme or continue the work, it's worth a mention that Guillermo Del Toro's death is a much more complex and fully established deity-persona than Gaiman's could ever hope to be, and more inclusive/expansive, as well. Gaiman certainly doesn't own the copyright on trans women, either.

That's not to pressure, though. All of his stuff holds such a thick coating of ick and awfulness for me now that trying to do transformative work based on it would be a miserable, ethically degrading chore, and that's the last thing anyone needs in their fandom or creative free time. I love this drawing regardless, not to mention the explanation of the process behind it.

[mekare]

{{hugs}} (still coming to terms with it myself)

I love the drawing and the poem. Their facial expressions are so clear.

[pensnest]

I haven't read much Gaiman, it never quite spoke to me, so I feel less betrayed than many people. That poem, though, is beautiful.