While speaking to Slate for an oral history of the cabbage merchant, Sie playfully said, "Of course, now I’m more at the age of what the cabbage merchant was then. I will cultivate that little beard if they need me to. And because my face is quite expressive, I’m perfect for a live-action version of an animated show. I’m ready."
Here’s their website - Food Plant Solutions - and they can use volunteers! And $ of course. What they really need help with is connecting with NGOs/groups on the ground already working in countries, to get them access to the database. They also need help from formally trained agronomists, people good with website stuff, and people good at marketing / getting the word out about their project.
• has started hostile warfare with the shop across from us because they’re homophobic to the sweetest barista there who came out as lesbian, so he lets her hang out with us on all her breaks and also hung up pride flags in direct view of them and overall does his best to undermine them in any way possible
humans will see a soft cellulose plant material or downy animal coat and say is anyone going to twist that staple fibre in order to make a cohesive thread and then not wait for an answer
Hi, Niel. I’ve been a fan of your work for a long time now. I appreciate everything you do, as an artist and as an activist. I’m writing you about a problem I’m having with one of your works. It’s nothing to do with the work itself but my own personal context surrounding it.
My best friend of ten years loved Coraline. It was probably her favorite thing of all the things in the world. She had no idea there was a book, only that she loved the movie. I gave her my childhood copy of Coraline to read and, though she wasn’t much of a reader, she loved it. From there, I encouraged her to read more of your work. As much as she like Sandman or the Graveyard Book, she always came back to Coraline.
Cut to today. My friend of ten years has abandoned me. To make a long, painful story short, she turned her back on me after my mother’s murder, a time when I needed her most. She made sure to tell me that she never loved me, that she never wanted to be my friend all these years, that she did it because she felt sorry for me and that I’ve always been an annoyance and a burden to her.
It was hard to take, to say the least. This leads me to the problem I’m having.
I can’t stand to look at anything related to Coraline anymore. As much as I love it too, it fills me with dread to see it, because all I can think about is how badly I want to share it with my friend. I love giving gifts to the people that are important to me. I would gift my friend every Coraline related item I would see. And now, seeing the dolls, the bags and pins, and of course watching anything from the movie, makes me want to break down all over again.
It’s been almost a year since this happened but my heart still hurts when I see that yellow rain coat. I guess I’m telling you all of this because I want to know if you have any advice. I can never see my old friend again. She’s gone from my life completely but, pieces of her still haunt me.
I want to be able to watch Coraline again without crying. I want to read the book and not feel like I’m this tremendously horrible person that doesn’t deserve anyone’s friendship. I just don’t know how to go about healing that.
Thank you for your time, Niel. I hope that you’re well.
You aren’t a horrible person.
I’m sorry that your friend wasn’t worthy of your friendship. Friendships that fade and end often hurt worse than romantic heartbreak, because they don’t end cleanly, because decades later you still aren’t sure why a friendship ended.
I’m sorry about the fallout, too. As you say, the ghosts of the friends we once had still haunt us.
Coraline will always be there, when you need it, when you need her.
neil-gaiman