Garth Nix – are you mad? Or an alcoholic? – meditations on growing up
This morning I realized/remembered this morning, that I first met Garth Nix around 15 years ago. Probably.
I knew an author had come to my school and talked about his book and career and publishing, but I only just pieced together that it was probably Garth Nix. Author Man had come to my school to talk about his book and about being a writer. Some of my class mates seemed terribly excited about this Author Man, but I did not recognize his name.
They said he was a fantasy writer, but I had not read him in Aurealis, so I figured he was probably not very good. He was probably a nobody, who wouldn’t go anywhere. Ah the mild mannered opinions of youth. Aurealis was my bible, my window and hope and geography in the world of speculative fiction. Around this time I was also convinced that this Shaun Tan guy was some hyped up 19 year old and the editorial raving about him in Aurealis was crap. It was the only time I remember disagreeing strongly with Aurealis. Like _that_ guy would go anywhere, what nonsense! A little green eyed perhaps? Perhaps a lot.
I was deeply suspicious of Author Man, for the sin of not having read him in Aurealis and perhaps because some of my class mates loved and adored him and I had not read any of him. I had just come from a vigorously alternative high school to one of the more conservative high schools in the region. To mess with that conservatism I was the sort of student that for a week sat on top of the lockers in a frozen gargoyle pose, tracking people with my eyes.