The Independent sit down with Neil Gaiman: Parisian fanarchists, meanwhile, want to talk about his novel Neverwhere, which takes place in a subterranean shadow-London. “They use it as a kind of ur-text,” he says, “because there is another Paris below ground. People go catacombing; they offer to take me down there. They steal keys, they can get anywhere in Paris at night, but their whole thing is about leaving things the way you find them. So they took over an old Victorian swimming pool and brought in a film projector, and they all got into the pool and watched films projected on the side of the wall at 4 o’clock in the morning, and then it was all just cleaning the place up afterwards, leaving it, disappearing.” The article claims that Gaiman has a website dedicated to his hair, but I think they mean this article on Susan Henderson’s Lit Park. See also, How to Talk to Girls at Parties, an audio of his Hugo nominated story (via BoingBoing) * How many fish tanks/sharks has Steven Hall been photographed in front of now? I think I’ve seen at least four, but here’s another, to accompany an article on The Raw Shark Texts does America. [If you haven’t read TRST yet, I’d heartily recommend it] * Dark Matter turn up a lost interview with Douglas Adams from 1979: “The SF writers I like best are the ones who are funny, and there are not many of them.” * China Mi éville meets Bat Segundo. * I’ve waited years for season two of David Lynch’s Twin Peaks to be released on DVD. Typically, when it drops, I’ve no money to buy the damn thing. Solution: I’ve dusted off my TP collection on VHS and am reading this interview with Kyle MacLachlan to console myself: “I did [an ad] in Japan directed by David Lynch for Georgia coffee. Did I use the catch-phrase? You bet.” * Nat Finkelstein’s photographs of Andy Warhol’s Factory are showing in the Redferns Gallery, London ’til 12th May. * Also for the Londonians, the White Cube are exhibiting new work by Andreas Gursky. * Artkrush review a pricey book on recently anointed Royal Academician Tracey Emin. Emin has produced a wallet for the Arts Council The Art in Your Hand project, to be given away free to rail travellers. * Dear Gustave, the current Paris Review runs Flaubert’s account of the death of Alfred Le Poittevin, from letters to himself. * AL Kennedy’s Day goes down a treat with Katy Guest. * As Mark Sarvas notes, an original illustration from Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s The Little Prince [James Dean’s favourite book] has turned up in a Japanese museum. * We sold you a rare book by mistake (via fade theory) * We cancelled your funding, London Magazine, by mistake. * Sean Walsh on Paul Ewen’s London Pub Reviews: “The important thing is that it’s funny; however, the funny thing is that it might be important.” * 3:AM’s Tao Lin was interviewed for Hyphen magazine. He’s posted the article on his magnificent blog, reader of depressing books: “Today I would not allow myself to be published by anything except an independent press. But I think maybe if Knopf wanted to publish my next novel for $2,000,000 I would do it. I would get the $2,000,000 and start my own press and tell people not to buy my Knopf book … And I would use that money to do things that would reduce pain and suffering in the world. Or I would give that money to Melville House.”
