Gaiman and Entering the Forbidden South

For the past 10 years, I have often wondered why so many awesome entertainment tours and events have passed over the state of Alabama. Of course, I have a simple answer to that question. Inhabitants of Alabama are stupid. Their IQs are barely 70 at best. Also, once they reach a certain age, thinking becomes a high-class luxury yielded only to the rich, college educated, or financial power players. Ok, this is just an uneven, biased, belligerent, satiric statement. These preconceived notions that Alabama is a state full of uneducated hicks is a reality to foreigners to the state. However, those views only represent a miniscule section of the state’s populous. The state of Alabama has a host of individual forward thinkers that have not stepped one foot into a classroom. They read, write and have thoughts that are defiantly not inherent to Bama. Wow, really ?!!! As such, I bring all this up in the mist of a recent author’s visit to Alabama. Neil Gaiman, acclaimed author of graphic novels and books The Sandman, Coraline, and American Gods visited Tuscaloosa, Alabama last Thursday to a packed house at the Bama Theater. This was his first foray into Alabama and a surprising one at that. 

 

As Gaiman recounts,

“And all I know is, the first batch of tickets for my reading in Alabama were gone in 120 seconds. (Literally. We thought the website had crashed.) The few leftovers, released later in the week, went at the same speed. A 1078 seat theater sold out in minutes, and they could have filled it twice or three times over. People had driven 4 hours to get there and more. Everybody there seemed hungry for words and stories and literature” (Gaiman, 2010). 

This reaction is not surprising to me. Publishers typically stereotype the south because their motivation is the bottom line: money. These preconceived notions that people in Alabama do not read or listen only to country music are ludicrous. Granted, it does not help the situation when the scene of individuals who truly have natural, variable, methodical intellects are over shadowed by age-old stereotypes of ignorance and limited education. It just flat out makes me mad. From this whole experience I felt invigorated knowing that people fought hard to get past publicists’/agents’ assumptions about an area in order to show such geographical elitists that they are totally wrong.

Gaiman, Neil. "Of course, in Alabama the Tuscaloosa, but that is entirely irrelephant...".

    . Retrieved from http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2010/02/of-course-in-alabama-tuscaloosa-but.html