Writing Atmosphere and Literary Milieu

   As a child, Neil Gaiman was exposed to different religious views, as his mother was jewish and his father a public relations official for the Church of Scientology. Not only did his father's position cause Neil Gaiman to be blocked from a boys' school in England, but it may have also affected his writing. Scientology beliefs incorporate the idea that humans are immortal spirits who are currently trapped in a physical body, while in their past lives, before their spirits arrived on earth, they were part of an alien culture. They also believe that extraterrestrial beings are responsible for shaping events in human history. While Gaiman does not subscribe to this philosophy, it is possible that his father's beliefs influenced his writing, as his stories are often about how supernatural beings try to become average people, or how average people become gods or other higher beings. Also, as Neil Gaiman read J.R.R Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, who were popular at the time he was growing up, may have influenced the creation of many of his fantastic and strange worlds, while when he was older, his readings of authors such as Alan Moore and H.P. Lovecraft may have contributed to his dark, and complex plots and characters. While Tolkien had Middle-Earth, and Alan Moore had his iconic character "V", Gaiman has his London Below from Neverwhere, and his dark character Dream from The Sandman. As a modern author, he writes about the ever advancing technology in our society. In American Gods, a war is brewing between the old gods, like the Norse gods, and the new gods, which are personifications of technology. Basically Gaiman is using these characters to point out that we may depend on technology too much, that we've become too dependent, that technology is almost like a faith too us.

      The modern trends are making fantasy and horror novels more popular. With the appearance of all the shows about ghost hunting, like Ghost Hunters, Ghost Adventures, etc. and the presence of two major cabe channels dedicated to horror, which are Syfy and Chiller, there has been a great resurgence in the horror genre of literature. Also, with movies being made from J.R.R Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and The Hobbit, and C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia series, there also been a great resurgence in the Fantasy genre of literature as well. This is evident since a couple of Neil Gaiman's books have been made into films, Stardust and Coraline. Although it does seem that there a lot of new authors are writing supernatural romance stories these days, like Twilight, or The Black Dagger Brotherhood Series. It seems that that genre, along with Horror and Fantasy are currently enjoying quite a bit of spotlight.