Neil Gaiman continues his futile defenses

Variety reports the disgraced Neil Gaiman has written one more snoozer of a defense after at least a year since he previously tried to counter the sexual assault accusations made against him by at least 9 women:

“The Sandman” and “Good Omens” author Neil Gaiman released a lengthy statement Monday in which he once again denied sexual misconduct accusations that were originally made against him nearly two years ago.

This marks the first time Gaiman has spoken out about the accusations against him in almost a year, during which time Gaiman had stepped back from the public eye after being dropped from a series of TV and film projects based on his work, including Amazon’s upcoming final season of the “Good Omens” TV adaptation and the streamer’s new “Anansi Boys” TV series, press for last year’s final season of Netflix’s “The Sandman,” and development shutting down “The Graveyard Book” movie at Disney.

In his new statement, Gaiman says there was a “smear campaign” waged against him and that “actual evidence was dismissed or ignored” during this time.

[...] In a court declaration, Gaiman stated that he and Pavlovich had bathed together and engaged in consensual sexual activity, but that they did not have intercourse. He denied the lurid rape and abuse allegations raised in the lawsuit.

Surely that isn't a contradiction? Sexual activity is intercourse, so what's his pathetic point? Nothing new under the sun here. If he's not willing to attend Scarlett Pavlovich's lawsuit if it does go ahead, whether in New Zealand or the USA, he's not proving he's willing to prove his side in court. But he sure is desperate to find anybody willin to defend him. According to the Los Angeles Times:

Gaiman’s most recent statement comes just days after an unidentified Substack user who goes by TechnoPathology posted the latest in a series of articles over the last year defending the fantasy author.

Gaiman claimed he hasn’t been in contact with the anonymous user but would “like to thank them personally for actually looking at the evidence and reporting what they found, which is not what anyone else had done.”

He said “the actual evidence was dismissed or ignored” by most reporting, including “mountains” of “emails, text messages and video evidence that flatly contradict” the claims.

The author also announced in the statement that he’s been working on a book throughout the “strange, turbulent and occasionally nightmarish year and a half.” The project is his longest since the 450-plus-page “American Gods,” he said.

I wonder if the Substack writer is Gaiman himself? Reliance on an anonymous/pseudonymous source doesn't hold up well, because anybody could set up a site serving as apologia, and it doesn't automatically confirm innocence or guilt. And who does Gaiman expect will buy the new book he claims to have written in mass numbers? Perhaps he's hoping any addicts he still has left lacking a moral compass will buy a few copies, hoping even just a handful will provide "proof" virtually everybody's still finding a thrill with his books, comics and film/TV adaptations? And even then, what self-respecting publisher will make a printing agreement with him? That's something he certainly hasn't clearly addressed. It's worth considering that, when the awful Gerard Jones was working on a book writing deal, it was cancelled soon after his arrest on child porn charges. I remember that the title Jones' book was said to have had was "A Nation of Faith and Flesh: the Moral War that Shaped America", as if he couldn't have been hypocritical enough. I'm sure nothing of value was lost when his publishing arrangement was canned.

Anyway, I think Gaiman would do well to just stop blabbering and perhaps go into seclusion for many years now. His comics were worthless and overrated, and I'm sure his novels are too. And he's not doing any good by keeping on with his pitiful defenses. If Pavlovich's lawsuit goes to court officially, and Gaiman's other victims choose to testify, he'd best attend the proceedings and prove himself on public record. His continued refusal so far won't salvage his now tattered reputation.