early 1960s. it's one of the things that led him to switch parties in 1864. he was a key figure in opposing labor unions and did so alongside people at very cold water, starting in the late 1950s. ..

that the game a long process, long relationship with conservative fundamentalist and evangelical folks looking to get involved in the political process. and we need to understand his racial politics in advance of other conservative causes and issues he was very involved with the. doing so gives us a history of what strom thurmond's america looks like and helps us rethink what was going on in the south and what was going on in the national conservative political realm as well. rethinking strom thurmond helps us rethink the history of modern conservatism. too often strom thurmond is left out because we only remember him as a cartoonish racist figure from the deep south. >> you can watch this on line at booktv.org.

not all of their neil gaiman delivers the mason award lecture and dancers -- the mason awards presented honors authors make extraordinary contributions to bring in literature to wide reading public. this event was held at george mason university in virginia where the events are held. is an hour and 15 minutes. [applause] >> better than the guy who brought the correct sign out. >> thank you very much. what a lively audience. wish i could stay longer. my name is phil miller and i direct the books program festival and graduate writing program at george mason. [applause] >> i was going to say you

arrived with the intended to or not. if your arrival is accidental because you are more interested in neil gaiman than the book. we started the festival wednesday, i am following myself. the we are having a great time. we don't end until sunday. there are programs that the lobby, and this very room on sunday. [applause] >> mayor silver for and will introduce tonight's guess. we are going to keep things to a minimum. he is going to take questions from cards that you filled out before you came in and answer those and then we will do the

presentation and then we will be done but the bookstore will be open out in the lobby. so here is the mayor. [applause] >> good evening, ladies and gentlemen and distinguished guests. it has been 15 years since the possibilities of a book festival at george mason university were first discussed. the city was one of the initial founders of the festival and proud to have been a supporter of the festival ever since. in the past seven years, around the city of fairfax, and the museum and visitor center, and the city of fairfax regional library, and and george mason's

the fall book book festival. it is my honor to introduce our special guest this evening. neil gaiman was born in united kingdom and lose in the united states near minneapolis. the self-described year-old child to was born who was raised in public libraries, gaiman credits librarians with fostering his lifelong love but of reading. his first book was the duran duran biography that we commenced a right and the second was a biography of douglas adams, don't panic. the official hitchhikers guide to the galaxy companion. sorry about that. his ground-breaking series sandman. [applause] collected a large number of u.s. awards in its 75 issue run. on its city hall today and woman

said i have every single one of those including nine comic industry awards and three are the awards. in 1991 sand man became the first comic ever to receive a literary award at the world fantasy award for best short story. he won the coveted blueberry award. mr gaiman is credited with being one of the creators of modern context as well as an author whose work crosses genres reaching audiences of all ages. he is listed in the dictionary of literary biography as one of the top ten living post-modern writers and a prolific creator of works of prose, poetry, film, journalism, comex, song lyrics and drama. please join me in getting a warm george mason welcome to neil

gaiman. [applause] [cheers and applause] >> there are an awful lot of you. hello. right. so the plan for this evening. there is one. i only decided what it was about four minutes ago. there is a plan. the plan is as follows. i couldn't decide whether to

recuse something from my new novel which is called the ocean which i sent off to the publisher for good, pressed the send button and it is no longer my book at 3:30 this morning. [cheers and applause] it is as fresh as anything can possibly be. it is a novel, it keeps going. we walk out of here going what happened next. that is not fair. even if every single one of them goes and buys the book is still not out sometime next year. it is not really fair. i thought maybe i could do a very short story as well. then i thought i also have these

questions because i was given questions on cards and i have carefully separated the questions into one of i will probably answer and probably won't cancer because they are silly and doctor who. [cheers and applause] i may wind up taking one from one and one from the other. my plan is basically i am going to read you a chunk of the novel. i'm going to answer a bunch of questions, i am going to read you a very short story. they are all new things, so you shouldn't at any point windup sitting there going i know how this goes.

that is the plan. [applause] the only thing that can defeat the plan is reading from and ipad. occasionally it is really exciting because you go i have no idea how i got here. or how to get back to the thing i want to get back to. so the book is called the ocean at the end of the lane and it begins with a quote in the new yorker on september 27, 1993, when mary stand back says i remember my own childhood visit. i knew terrible things. i knew i mustn't let adults know i knew it would scare them.

it was only a duck pond on the back of the farm. was not very big. it was the ocean but i knew that was silly. come here across the ocean from the old country. it was a long time ago. is not the really old country. the really old country had blown up. and then i am going to skip the prologue. and get you straight into the story.

and our hero is about 7 years old. he is as things begin he is slightly grumpy because he had to give up his bedroom. the family is running short of money and different people are staying in his bed room. former bedroom at the top of the stairs was let out and a variety of people passed through. i viewed the mall with suspicion, and just the right size for me. there was a fat austrian lady, and architectural student, and they may leave when discovered they burn not actually married. and the oval minor. he was a south african vote he made his money in australia.

gave my sister and me a rough black rock with red fire and it. my sister liked him for this. i cannot forgive him for the death of my kitten. was the first day of the spring holidays. three weeks of no school. the prospect an endless days to fill however i wished. i would read and explore. i pull on my short and t-shirts and sandals and went downstairs to the kitchen. my father was cooking while my mother slept in. he was wearing his dressing gown over his pajamas. he always cooked breakfast on saturdays. where is my comic? he bought me a copy of smashed before he drove vote from work on fridays and i would read it saturday morning. in the back of the car.

the want those? yes but not burned. my father did not like toast. he toasted bread under the grill and usually burned it. i went outside into the drive and drowned and back into the house and pushed the kitchen door and went in. i liked the kitchen door. it's one both ways. so servants 60 years ago would be able to walk in with their arms laden with dishes. dad, where is the car? in the drive. no isn't. what? the telephone rang and my father went into the hall where the phone was to answer it. i heard him talking to someone. the test began to smoke and did the girl. i got up on a chair and turned the girl off.

that was the police. someone reported seeing our car abandoned. someone reported it stolen. we can meet them. they are toast. he pulled the pan out from beneath the girl. the toast was smoking and blackened on one side. is my contact there or did they steal it? [laughter] i don't know. the police didn't mention your comic. my father put up the burnt side of the toast, all over his pajamas and put on a pair of shoes and we walked down the lane to get the. we walked for five minutes down the narrow lanes that ran through field on each side when a police car came up beside us and the driver greeted my father by name. i gave him a piece of burnt toast behind my back while my father talked to the policeman. i wished my family would buy

normal sliced white bread. the kind that went into toasters like every other family i knew. my father had found the local baker's shop where they made thick gloves of heavy brown bread. he insisted on buying them. they tasted better which was to my mind nonsense. proper bread was white and free slice and tasted like almost nothing. that was the point. the driver of the police car opened the passenger door and told me to get in. my father rode up front beside the driver. the police car went slowly down the lane. the lane with unpaved, wide enough for one car at a time. apparently, precipitous, bumpy way, the whole thing rotted by farm equipment and time.

these kids think is funny to drive a car and abandon its. i am glad it was found so fast. past the farm where a small girl with hair so blonde it was almost white with red cheeks stared as we went past. a piece of burnt toast on my lap. it is a long walk back to any where from here. we passed a band in the lane and saw the white mini over on the side in front of the gate being into a field with tires sunk deep in the ground. we drove past it on the grass verge. the policeman let me out and the three of us walked over to the many. the policeman told my dad about crime in this area and why it was obviously the local kids had done it. my dad was opening the passenger side door with his spare key.

someone left something on the back seat. my father reached back and pulled the blue blanket away. even as the police and was telling him he shouldn't have done that i was staring at the back seat because that was where my comic was so i saw it. it was and it. the thing i was looking at. although i was an imaginative child run to nightmares. and to get to madame waxworks in london because i wanted to visit the chamber of horrors. i wanted to thrill to frankenstein's monster and wolfman. this is the endless diorama of

men and women, usually lawyers and members of their own families. who were murdered in turn by hanging by the electric chair by gas chambers. most of the plaques were depicted with their victims in awkward social situations seated around a dinner table, poised and family members expired. the plaques that explained who they were told us the majority of them murdered their families and filmed the bodies's anatomy. it was then that the word anatomy and garnered its own edge of horror. i did not know what anatomy was. only that it made people killed their children. [laughter] the only thing that kept me running screaming from the

chamber of horrors was none of the waxworks look fully convincing. they could not look truly dead because they did not ever look alive. the thing in the back seat covered by the blue blanket, i knew that blanket. it had been in my old bed room on my shelf when it got cold. that was not convincing either. it was dressed in a black suit with white ruffled church. its hair was slicked back and artificially shiny. its eyes were staring, lips were blue, but very read. look like a parody. there was no gold jane around it's been neck. i could see underneath, crumpled and then, batman looking as he did on the television, on the cover. i don't remember who said what. just that they stand away from

the many across the road and stood on my own and policeman talked to my father and wrote things down in a notebook. i stared at the mini. a links of a green garden hoses went through the driver's window. there was a thick brown mud holding them in place. nobody was watching me. i took a bite of my toast. it was burned. and cold. at home my father ate most of the toast. charcoal, good for you, burnt toast, my favorite. and eat it all up. when i was much older he confessed to me he had not never liked burned toast. only eat it prevented going to waste. my entire childhood felt like a

lie. and crumbles in dry sand. policeman spoken to a radio, they crossed the road and came over to me. sorry about this. only a few cars coming down this road. would you like to sit in the back of my car again? i did not want to sit there again. a girl said he can come back with me to the farm house. is no trouble. she was much older than me. at least 11. her hair was warm, relatively short for a girl, the nose was snug. she was freckled, she wore a red skirt, girls did not wear much. she had a soft -- dark gray blue eyes. the policeman went with a girl

over to my father and got permission to take me away and i was walking down the lane with the girl. i said there is a dead man in our,. that is why he came down here, the end of the road. and they defeated the mold. teasing killed himself. i said, we all know from a cow. she nodded reassuringly. i thought about this. never had milk that didn't come from a bottle. i think i would like that. we stopped at a small bar aware, with long gray hair and a thin

face standing beside a tall, long black tubes were attached to each of the cow -- please still some by hand she told me that this is easier. he showed me how the milk went from the cow down to the black into the machine through a cooler and a metal germ. the germs were less than a heavy wooden platform to be collected each day. the old lady gave me a cup of green milk from bessie into account before it had gone through the cooler. nothing i had drunk had tasted like that before, rich and warm and perfectly happy in my mouth. i remember that milk after forgetting everything else. more of them up the lane for the old woman suddenly and coming down with light splashing. you should get them into the kitchen and a cup of milk, the

girl said have you eaten? just a piece of toast. it was burned. [laughter] this is an stock farm. come on. she took me to the front door into their enormous kitchen and sat me down attitude wooden table that looked as if faces were staring up at me. we have breakfast here early, milk starts at first light. there is porridge. she gave me a china bowl filled with warm pour jenne lump of homemade blackberry jam, my favorite in the middle of the porridge and she poured cream on it. i switched around before i ate it, swirling it into a purple mess and was as happy as i have never been about anything that tasted perfect. a stocky woman came in, red

brown hair with streaks of gray was cut short. seattle cheeks and dark green search that went to her knees, this must be the boy from the top of the wayne. such a business going on with that, are. they will be needing tee soon. a huge copper cattle from the tax. and the cattle on to the flame. five chips mugs from a covered and hesitated. the woman said you are right, six. the doctor will be here too. then the woman cursed her lips and made a noise. missed the note. he wrote it so carefully too and put it in his breast pocket and haven't looked there yet. what is it saying? read it yourself. i thought she was her mother. she seemed like somebody's

mother. then she said, took all the money his friends had given him to smuggle out of south africa, along with all the money he had made over the years and went to the casino to gamble. only meant to gamble with his own money and only meant to dip into money that was given him until he made back the money he lost. and always dark. that is not what he wrote, squinting her eyes. what he wrote was to all my friends, i am so sorry, i hope you find it in your hearts to forgive me. i cannot forgive myself. same thing. said the older woman. she turned to me. you will admit my mother already in the milk shed. she was mrs. comstock before me so she is old mrs. comstock. misses them stock farm is the

oldest farm in this domesday book. i wondered why they were all called him stock but i didn't ask any more than i asked how they knew about the suicide note or what the opel minor had fought as he died. it was perfectly matter-of-fact. i it nudged him to look in the breast pocket. he thought of it himself. there is a good girl. they will be in there to ask if i have seen anything unusual. why don't you take the bully down to the pond. is not a pond, it is my ocean. come on, she led me out of the house the way we had come. the day was still gray. we walked around the house. is a real ocean, i asked? oh yes, she said. we came on it suddenly.

wooden shed and old bench and the duck pond, dark water with duck weed and lily pads. there was a dead fish, silver as, colin floating on the side on the surface. that is not good. i thought you said it was an ocean. it is just a pond. we came across it when i was just a baby from the old country. went into the shed and come back with a long bamboo poles that looked like a shrimping net on the end. she leaned over and carefully pushed the net beneath the dead fish. she called it out. but the farm is in the domesday book, i said. your mom said so and that was william the conqueror. yes. she took the dead fish out of the net and examine this.

it was soft. and it flopped in her hand. i had never seen so many facilities but beneath the silver was a blue and green and purple, the scale tipped with black. what kind of fish is it, i asked? this is very odd, she said. mostly fish in this ocean don't die anyway. he produce horn handle pocketknife but i could not have told you from where and she pushed it into the stomach of the fish and slice ford's the tail. this is what killed her. she took something from inside the fish and still greasy from fish gets into my hand. i dipped into the water and rub my fingers across it to clean it off. i stared at it, queen victoria's face stared back at me. six minutes, i said.

the fish dated 6 pence. is not good, is it? there was a little sunshine. showed the freckles that flustered across the cheeks and nose and some light touch her hair. it was coppery red and then she said your father is wondering where you are going to be getting back. i tried to give her sixpence but she shook her head. you keep it. you can buy chocolates or sherbert women. i don't think i can. it is too small. i don't know if it will take these. put it in your piggy bank. it might bring you luck. she said this doubtfully as if she were uncertain what kind of like it would bring. will police and my father standing in the farmhouse kitchen. one of the men told me he was a policeman but he wasn't wearing

a uniform which i thought was disappointingly defy were a policeman i would wear my uniform whenever i could. i recognize dr. smithson, our family doctor. they were finishing their tea. my father thank mrs. hempstock and said i was no trouble at all and could come again. the policeman helped us down to the mini and drove us back to our house and took us to the end of the drive. probably best if you don't talk about this to your sister. said my father. i didn't want to talk about it to anybody. i found a special place, made a new friend and lost my comic and i was holding an old-fashioned silver 6 pence in my hand. what makes the ocean different to the seat? bigger said my father. and ocean is much bigger.

why? just thinking. could you have an ocean as small as a pond? no. said my fodder. ponds are pond size, wakes on lake sized, seize our seas and oceans are oceans. atlantic, pacific, indian, arctic was all of the ocean there are. my father went up to his bed room to talk to my mom and be on the phone up there. i dropped the 6 pence in to my piggybacking. was the kind of china piggybacking from which nothing could be removed. one day when it could hold no more coins i would be allowed to break it. it was far from something. [applause]

and after that, things get weird. it actually -- it was a very strange book to write. because it really wasn't until i got to the end that i decided it definitely wasn't the children's book because on the one hand it does have a 7-year-old protagonist and three wonderfully strange magical whiches living at the bottom of the garden and on the other hand it has the scary stuff i have ever written in it. and i have written some really scary stuff in my life.

i had to sort of decide, you know, i don't call that being a kid's book. it is only a kid's book because morgan wide. which is true. morgan fury at the time was the youngest daughter, she would have been 6, my agent, merrily who is married to a nice man named brian to fury, when i sent merrily the manuscript i said here you go and she called me up and said it is not a children's book. i said i think it is and she said it is too scary and i said okay. read it to your kids.

your kids are fine with it. we will send it to the children's book editor. i will send it to and adults editor so merrily said right, she phoned me a week later and said my kids love it. i am sending it to elyse howard and that was where she sent it. about three years ago there was a musical off broadway with music by stephen merrett and it was very wonderful and the first night i wound up sitting next to morgan fury all grown-up, a beautiful, poised, 15 or 16-year-old young lady. my wife amanda was with me.

i was pleased to meet her because it was because of morgan that this was a children's book because morgan wasn't scared and morgan said i was terrified. [applause] i knew if i left on i was terrified i would not find out what happened next. so that's is why carolina became a children's book, this on the other hand, i would not feel comfortable, there is stuff in it that is very adults. so questions. definitely will ask some randomly and look at it. and actually there are others, this is an awful lot.

have you, like the famous writer victor you go ever been a villain in someone else's's story and if not how would you like to be? that it says that the bottom ominously, i am writing the story. [laughter and applause] i don't know if this is spoilers, but if any of you actually saw my appearance on the simpsons -- of a rack applause] -- if you did not see it put your fingers in your ears. i will way you when it is time to take them out. i they in your years? in the book job i turn out to be bad, which was brilliant because when they send me the script, they told me i was going to be

on the simpson then asked if i would play myself and i said sure and they sent me the script and i thought it was going to be very much at some point homer would say not even neil gaiman could come up with something like this and you are right, i couldn't but then i looked at the script and i am in here and doing stuff. i'm still in here and doing stuff. i am still doing stuff. with the end, i haven't got anything for a few pages. it was brilliant. my delight at the end that i cannot even read and write is one of my favorite moments in all television.

this is ambiguous, yes. mostly that is what it feels like. everything had took apart as a 9-year-old, like it says in these books, names like a thousand interesting thing the boy should know. and if ever i am trapped on a desert island. with television components, i will be able to watch my favorite television programs. never worked.

here is a heartfelt, if you truly are signing books, why? the answer to that is a painful one, look around you, and do a hasty head count. i am told we had 1800 people in this room between the two floors. and figure out quickly how long it actually takes to sign books for 1800 people, allowing 30 seconds per person and the last time i did a signing for 1800 people and finished at 3:00 in the morning, didn't feel like doing one of those tonight. i will come back. [cheers and applause] the best place to catch me is the national book fair where i was going to start as early as

possible and, last time i signed there were disassembling the stands around me and there were still people, 4,000 people that day and it just kept going. next question, this is as essential as it gets. why? why not? what book did you enjoy writing most? i don't know. the ones i enjoy writing most of the ones i hate writing most. the ones that are really fun are the ones with huge highs and terrible lowe's and where i get to stomp around and foam my agent and say why you let me do

this? i could have been a gardener. and she says know you couldn't. i go know i couldn't. so i don't know. i really enjoyed writing the new one, the ocean at the end of the lane. mostly i enjoyed it because i was doing stuff i hadn't done before. i love doing stuff i haven't done before. i loved writing american god's which had that huge sort of -- that was another one. it was fun and it was horrible and the lows were amazingly low. could you tell us about your writing gazebo? was already there? did you build it from scratch? i didn't build its because i am

a writer day. with very few exceptions you should not trust us near screwdrivers, crowbars and ranches. i don't even know what they do. i got some very nice people who normally build things for win fares. that was what they did. they were good at building shops and i said could you build a gazebo? how hard can it be? they built me my riding gazebo which breaks although rules but none of us knew. it is a wonderful place for writing. except for the mouse problem

which is very recent. going doctor who. maybe pullout some doctors do things in a moment. i put all the various first drafts of the doctor's wife which was mostly the house of nothing, bigger on the inside for two years and then it was called the doctor's wife for the last three weeks and i put it all in aid for and one day i opened the door and five mice came out one at a time. very grumpy and i pull out my script and said they left the script. wasn't completely e'en but i meant to give these to the library of congress or somebody. and now they will lock me.

what is your best advice to get started riding? you sit down. [applause] if you plan to write with a pencil make sure your pencils sharp. if you plan to write with a pen, fill your pen. make sure you have paid for. if you are riding on a computer, turn the computer on, activate word-processing program, have some kind of automatic saving system in place so you will not accidentally type an entire novel and pressed the wrong button and sent it off in a hyperspace. then type the first word. typing the first word may very well be writing some sort of outline for yourself or writing this of you have to write before you begin. that is how you do it.

you sit down and start and you write. people always want more than that from me. i tell them that and it is like i am trying to keep a secret from them and they look at me going -- and they want me to tell them about the post card you get sent if you are a real writer or if you want to be a writer you send to a place and get the post card and at midnight you burn a post card with a black match. it is the last of the postcard burns you will hear -- on the door and you go and openness and there is save a years and chairman aleksei and jonathan weighs them and stephen king and me and we are wearing robes.

[applause] and we say now you will learn. is easier than that. you just write. the stuff you're right at the beginning doesn't have to be very good. the trick is to keep writing. i got to teach at clarion recently. one of my clarion -- four years ago i talked at clarion which is a wonderful science-fiction five week-long six weeklong boot camp and teachers come in and go a week and i did week 4 which i was told was when everybody cries and others break down. they did not have nervous

breakdowns which was great. at one point, one of my guys -- can you tell whether your letters going to make it? and i said no. and some of us are brilliant and some of us -- how do you tell? no. ones who are going to make are the ones who write and write and write. some of the ones who are brilliant may have written brilliant stories and never write again. but the ones who get in and they write every day and finish their stories and then write the next one they will make it. i saw him four months ago in arlington as he was nominated for a nebula award and he said you know, it works. he didn't get the award but

still very proud of him. my wife and i loved the audio versions and never worked. you are such a terrific voice actor. did you have those voices in mind as you were writing the book? i suppose i did but also had to cheat because i got to steal some of the ones i liked from the tv series and the ones i didn't like, i substituted the ones that were in my head. what was your favorite book as a child? depends when. being a child was a long period of time. my tastes changed. when i was 5 years old it was a red book of short stories about fairies but that was rapidly supplanted by the time of the 7 by c.s. lewis's and arnie of books. [applause] by the time i was 8 it was thought of it.

when i was 9, rather peculiarly it became storm rigor by michael more:00. didn't know it wasn't a children's book but really liked it. then for a couple years the first two books of ward of the rings because that was all they had in the school library. ahead them as individual books published in nearly 50s and fellowship of the ring and the two towers. when i got to the end of the two towers i would go back and read the fellowship of the ring. when i was 12 i won the school english prize and they said you get a book. i said i would like the return of the king. [applause] i wanted to find out how is ended. what is your advice for someone that wants to write and be

published. right. finish things. make a really good and publishable. send them to people who might publish them. when they come back from those people with notes saying they can't publish them send them to somebody else, someone out there is strong enough or desperate enough to publish your story. then keep writing. don't actually go oh, i have finished my story, i have sold a story. i noticed a lot of your stories feature very assertive strong-willed women/girls. fox? i think you are observan ? i think you are observant.

if you could travel with any of the doctors which one? patrick trout was my doctor. the wonderful thing about doctor who for any of you who have come to doctor who recently or have no idea what we are talking about is it is an english tv show in which the hero, the doctor, a mysterious time traveling figure, less than serious but after 50 years' hard to keep the mystery. the doctor, when he dies, when he gets too exhausted, when he is physically placed in a place that would kill somebody else, or perhaps when the actor playing him decides to move on,

the doctor regenerates. you don't get a new one playing the old one. it is a different personality, a different person but very much the doctor. 0 weird continuity. in some ways the first time it happened it felt like a bug. they took my doctor away. i liked him. what am i going to do with this new guy? so you realize is the not a bug, it is a feature. this is a good thing and sooner or later you will find your doctor and patrick troutand was my doctor. the leverett feel the basic elements of your books have become too formulaic? any doubt about that? i don't really feel that. [applause]

i don't feel that because there's a point you want to reduce anything to a one line description you can reduce anything to one line description. romeo and juliet and love story have essentials be the same plot if you get it down to ten words, it is not the same thing. i am sure in some ways the ocean at the end of the lane the plot could be normal person finds something weirder and bigger on the outside and that would probably fit most of my books, but that is always what happens when i look back at what i have written. when i decide to write going in and the devil is always in the details. time for a few more questions. quite fun. of all the picturesque trees in

the u.s. what made blacksburg's tree of life special? my friends tory amos, has a family that came from a family farm. i never told anybody this before but it was pretty much the farm that i stole to put the tree of life in and the old farming from american gardens and i counted it in 1996-97 writing a tour bus in the first two days, went off down to see this strange crumbling old family farm. did you find any typos and where? yes. i found typos. you always find typos.

typos, gaiman's law is no matter how beautiful and how much effort you put into the book, when the new book arrives you will grab it and randomly turn to any page. i will go down and you will see a typo. it is now gotten to the point that i expect and almost disappointed if it doesn't happen. some doctor whos. did you know that the word hello would become one of the most tear jerking moments in doctor who history? no i didn't. i just thought it was a really good joke. i loved the idea that the first thing said to the doctor is good bye. her first line is good bye. the last thing she got to say was hello. i liked -- i thought it was so clever. i was proud of myself. i did not realize i would break

hearts. i just thought i am really clever. will your next episode features the titus as human again? noaa absolutely not. not only that but i even put one line to make sure it couldn't happen again. this is where we talked. she might be lying but that is where she talked. will i be writing another episode of doctor who? yes. [cheers and applause] the last e-mail i read before coming down here was from caroline skinner. who is one solitary cheer for caroline. who is the executive producer of doctor who, saying why can't we

have it monday? because i am getting an award. you have to be patient. i am writing one. i don't want to say anything about it because it might jinx anything i say get reported to the news. one conversation at the hugo awards for the doctor's wife which is wonderful. [applause] one conversation, with my mouth full, i literally have my mouth full and there is a journalist on the web site to says is they're going to be -- are you

sure? last one was meant to be in season 5 and then it could be the same. big budget? that gets reported as news. .. the trees are getting a little

more skeletal and it's getting a little chillier and a little wetter in shop windows start feeling the stuff i like that only happens once a year. any good giant spiders and dead things. how cool is this? and then i think, it's probably good deal of them other months of the year got boring stuff because then it wouldn't be special. and i decided in the story to create a whole new monster, one with a very scary name is called quick clock the rattle bag. before you take me up to bed, will you tell me a story?

do actually need me to take you up to bad i asked boys? he thought for a moment then with intent seriousness, yes, actually i think you do. it's because i finished my homework and so is my bedtime and i am a bit scared. not very scared, just a bit, but it is a very big house on lots of times the late to work and is sorted dark. i reached over and tasseled his hair. i can understand that i said. it is a very big old house he nodded. we were in the kitchen where it was light and warm. i put down the magazine on the kitchen table. what kind of story would you like me to tell you? well, he said awfully, i don't think it should be too scary because then when i go to battle

just be thinking about monsters of all time. but it didn't isn't just a little scary, then i won't be interested in you make up scary stories come to chew? i know she says that's what she do. shoot centuries. irate stories coming yes. nothings been published yet though. i write lots of different kinds of stories. but she do great scary stories? ghosts. the boy looked up at me from the shadows by the driver he was waiting. do you know any stories about click clock the rattle bag? adult think so. does it the best sorts of stories. to be tell them and your school? he showed, sometimes. what is the story.

he was the child was unimpressed by her sister's boyfriend's ignorance. everybody knows that. i don't i said, trying not to smile. he was looking at me deciding whether or not i was pulling his leg. he said maybe he should take the mid-bedroom until this story before i go to sleep, but it's very not scary story because i'll be up in my bedroom then and it's actually dark up there, too. i said she died leaving window for your sister, telling you how well we are? you can, but they'll know when we get that at the front door is very slay me. we went where it was chilly and drafty and dark.

i flicked late switch, but nothing happened. the boats gone the boy said. that always happens. our eyes adjusted to the shadows. the moon is almost full, shut into the high windows on the staircase, down into the hall. will be a rate they said. yes, set the boy. i am very glad you are here. he seemed less know. his hand found mine and he held onto my fingers, comfortably, trust in the sec know me all. i did not knows the feeling i had for her sister who was micro from the love, but i liked as a child treated me as one of the family. i said taller and if there was something in titling about the

empty house, i would not have admitted it. the stairs creak click clack are the best monsters either. are they from television? i don't think so. i don't think anybody knows that they come from. mostly they come from the dark. good place for a monster to come. yes. we walked along the upper corridor and the shadows walking from patch of moonlight to midnight. it really was a big house. i wished i had a flashlight. they come from the dark said the boy holding on to my hand. i think probably they're made of dark and a common but you don't pay attention. that's when they come in and then they take you back to

their -- not mess. what is worth it is like like mast, but not? house? no, it's not house. layer? he was silent. i think that's the word, yes. he squeezed my hand, stopped talking. read, so they take the people who don't pay attention back to their lair. i'm what they do then you're monsters? today the blood out of you like vampires? he snorted. vampires don't the blood out of you. they only drink a little bit, just to keep them going and flying around. click clack's are much scarier than vampires. i'm not scared of vampires they told him. me neither, i'm not scared of vampires neither.

do you want to know what click clack do? featuring kyu said the boy, like a coke. [laughter] coat is very bad for you. so the board. if you put it to send coke in the morning, it will be dissolved into nothing. that's how bad coke is for you and why you must always clean your teeth every night. i had heard the coke story at the boy and had been told as an adult it wasn't true, but was certain that a lie which promoted dental hygiene was a good live. [laughter] and they let it pass. click clacks turnkey said the boy. first they bite you and then you

go out itchy inside and not your meats and grains in everything except her bones in your skin turns into a wet look shaky status and the click clacks it out through the holes where your eyes used to be. that's disgusting. did you make it up? would reach the last flight of stairs all the way into the big house. no. i can't believe you kids make up stuff like that. you didn't ask me about the rattle bag he said. her right, what's the rattle bag? well, he said steve secunda soberly, a small voice in the darkness besides me. once your bones and skin they hate you i may hope and you rattle and the winds. so what did these click clacks look like?

even if i asked him, i wish i could take the question back in me that i mast. at that huge, spidery creatures, like a one in the this morning. i'm afraid of spiders. i was relieved when the boy said they look like which you aren't expecting, which you are paying attention to. they were claiming wooden steps now. i held onto the railing and that's how done to the right as he walked beside me. it smelled like dust and old word that high in the house. the boy strand was certain no, even though the moonlight was scarce. do you know what story are going to tell me to put me to bed he asked? it doesn't actually have to be scary. not really. maybe you could tell me about this evening. tell me what you did. that won't make much of a story for you. my girlfriend just moved into a

new place on the edge of town. she inherited it from someone. it's great they can very often i'm going to spend my first night there tonight, so i've been waiting for our or so for her and her housemates to combat the wine. see? said the boy. there is that her precious amusement again. but all kids can be insufferable sometimes than they think they know something you don't. it's probably good for them. you know about, but she don't mean. you just watch your train filling the gaps. it was perfectly dark, but the opening door disturbed the air and i heard things rattle gently like dry bones and thin bags in the slight wind. click clacks, click clacks like

that. i would've pulled away then if i could, but small, firm fingers pulled me forward, unrelentingly into the dark. [applause] [applause] a little business matter. going to turn things over. were going to present the award. donna andrews, president of the mid-atlantic chapter of the mystery writers of america. [applause] >> thank you.

ended the way, as some of you know, and the city beemer fantasy fans may not come it is the premier organization for mystery writers, anyone who just loves a mystery. and while mr. gaiman is not primarily a mystery writer, he's been known to commit the occasional crime story from time to time, including for when he was recently nominated for an award. and to present him with the mason award which is given for your extraordinary contributions towards bringing literature to avoid reading public. [applause] [cheers and applause]

>> thank you. [cheers and applause] >> thank you so much. [cheers and applause] such an honor to be given an award like this. it's also such an honor when i look at the other people who've been given the award because they are all people i consider my friends and they are people who are the guide and go, you're doing the same thing that i do from another strange direction. it's always such a delight to run into chairman alexy, stephen

king, people who love words, who love stories, who believes. an anthology. i just volunteered to add it and give my stories to invent elegy to benefit h. 26, the d.c. one. [applause] these are people who care passionately about literature, about words, about freedom of speech and about bringing good stories to everybody. and i think if there's anything i ever wanted to do, ask to some degree succeeded in obviously to some degree fell short of. it's a desire to read every kind of story that ever was and she write it for everybody. and i really do want it all.

and i really do want it all. and i really do want it all. very much for the best. [cheers and applause] >> at night. thank you so much for coming. [cheers and applause]

>> so, our book is about the rise of the anti-scientific west. we'll call it feel-good fallacy, blast and as ken said, my name is alex and i got my phd in microbiology from the university of washington and more importantly and the editor of real clear science.com. so a little bit about me, my background is entirely microbiology. in fact that's me. a friend of my three children ob/gyn. i look like an uber geek. i work at anaerobic chamber. we grew also is an extremely bacteria in that thing. i went to the university of washington 2004 and got my phd in 2010 and immediately became editor of broker science. i've been in the real world for two years. so my personal science philosophy is rather straightforward and simple. if you're not an expert on as best you except what is considered mainstream science. science should always come

before politics and that means ideology or political parties are not the young criticism. so in my view here, i play for team science. i don't come to a top playing for team red or blue. i play for team science. i think we should always try to purge anti-scientific thinking, even if it comes from friends or political allies. so then why science left behind? why pick on the last? the media is quick to cover anti-scientific elites are conservatives. in particular global warming and evolution. todd akin made some rather un- invite and comments about pregnancy and for days this was a front page story about how he doesn't understand biology. however, when someone on the far left is some income on president barack obama says vaccines might cause autism, that was ignored. and yes he did say that. we'll talk about that later in

the top. some also, there's only been several books published on the topic. if you want to find out how the righties batted science is a big market for that. to our knowledge this is the first book on the anti-scientific left. so progressive and anti-science as well. >> let's give the devil his due -- within months of yours. >> regresses or anti-science is not reported by the media. the media simply looks the other way when political allies do things that are anti-science. so who are the presses? we took david mellons chartier and kind of was able to to fit more of our political ideology today because libertarians are probably the easiest to identify. conservatives are the mainstream republican party. libertarians need to know introduction. the ron paul constitution.

the left however though it is a little bit trickier to define because i see them as splitting into liberals and conservatives -- liberals send progressives. liberals were elected tony blair, bill clinton wing of the democratic party. pro-business, but they tend to favor economic outcomes, so they want to control economic outcome. that's their main focus. to give unionized police officers officers, unionized teachers. progressives are entirely different beast. these are the typical tree hugging san francisco liberals. that's progressives. that's who we're talking about. these are people and today not just economic outcomes, but also social outcomes. was conservatives are interested in talking about drugs and sex, progressives are interested in whether or not you can put salt on your french fries and whether you can have a plastic bag or two desoto. michael bloomberg, great example of progressive.

you spending cuts in new york city. siddhartha were talking about. protecting about that ideology of the left, the progressive ideology. so what are some myths that are commonly held by progressives? we've got about five minutes and we tend to focus on the first two because those are the big juicy ideas, the bad ideas actually. one is that natural things are good. two, unnatural things are bad. three, unchecked science will destroy us. for, science is only relative anyways. and five, science is on our side. okay, the first one -- reaction one of which tend to get into these minutes. if you want to get my, you'll learn all about them there. we'll talk about the most famous progressive today, president barack obama and his resume when it comes to science. but she's to give you an idea of why this are important. natural things are good your

best behavior and its food movement. thus behind the reduction of genetically modified food. unnatural things about because the fear of chemicals, bph, the fear of chemistry, things that natural. pesticides, fertilizers. unchecked science will destroy us. how could the people build nuclear power plants? are going to kill everybody. science is only relative anyway. there's always some other scientists he disagrees and five scientists been on our side was he just talked at length, progressives believe science is on their side. so what are the results of these myths? well, protests and lots of protests. just to give you some idea of the topics we covered our boat, on the top left we have cdc stopped playing flu shots are toxic. can my degree they actually are toxic now after his experience.

so with a protester here seem that vaccines are toxic and the most respected microbiological organization in the world is lying to you about vaccines. on the right, upper right has a big baby bottle. that's the bpa movement. don't give your baby's milk for baby bottles because callbacks in the plastic baby bottles made from. and the bottom section what we wanted to put on the cover our boat. this is the anti-genetic modification book, demon corn because it's genetically modified to be toxin which kills insects, so they don't like that. we told our publisher this is the picture lot for a book and they said that's crazy, were not putting that on the cover. so there you go. that's the book cover wanted. also, basic scientific research has been opposed by members of the progressive left. the upper left corner, don't test on my friends are opposed to animal research.

keep in mind this isn't just chimpanzee research, which we probably shouldn't be doing, our primate research, like gorillas. they are opposed to almost all animal research. no mice, no route, pretty much all of our medical research comes from mice and rats and smaller primates like monkeys and cats. in the upper right corner there's a sign of the abusive episodes stop otherness otherness can we support science. you may not see what happened. this is in los angeles. there was a neighborhood of scientists that live in an area in protesters would not protest at the university. they would find out what the researchers with live and protest outside their house. and this of course is frightening for scientists. in fact, most of the university of washington can we get e-mails saying the animal rights protesters are bad. a careful, don't engage with them. because they have a history of

violence. they have a history of intimidating researchers. just to give you an idea of how loony these people are, one of these neighbors visit the sign, says stop bothering us, we support science. he was in support of his neighbor. one of the researchers crosstab science and said we support torture. that is how they view people like me and ken. for not helping people. we're not helping science, we are animal torturers. but the bottom right, lawrence summers, who was fired from harvard essentially, pushed out the door for making the radical claim that men and women might be different. he essentially put forward a very controversial, but biologically plausible idea that there is a genetic basis to intelligence and that maybe men and women are different when it comes to intelligence. yes, it's edgy, yes it's

controversial. there's some scientific evidence to support what he said, but sun does not support what he says. the point is it's biologically plausible, a worthwhile discussion to have as a geneticist and biologists. he was essentially fired or that, president of harvard. in the lower left corner is a member of greenpeace engaging and inactive ecoterrorists and peered in australia they were testing a field of genetically modified crops and they said it was toxic, so they came in and took a weed wacker and note down the entire field and complete there isn't enough testing for gm crops. >> they did the same thing with the tree fired being used to test for the sequestration of greenhouse gases. they were looking to see if they could increase the absorption greenhouse gases was the breeding of the plant. the environment is it like beckham is to be burned on the grove. >> and so this is obviously a big album for progressives because sites that production may be help global warming but

genetic modification, but they're so ideologically -- acts of eco-terrorism. energy production. as you know, the far left seems to be opposed to any and all forms of energy. in the upper left corner after fukushima a few people protesting nuclear power. angela merkel, who i respect us in the iron chancellor of germany, she decided because of the process to shut down nuclear power. now she's a nuclear physicist, so she really should know better. [inaudible] or title with a nylon time. she came into environmentalist pressure and shut down nuclear power plants. in the upper right you're fracturing causes cancer, which is not true and some guy dressed as a weasel dancing. not sure what that's about. and the lower left corner, you

have no dams. they don't want hydroelectric power. this is in the region of patagonia in the argentinian, trillion border comes to their post-hydroelectric power on the right you some typos to bring power and you may not read this, but it's classic. no industrial land, capitalism still. i'm not sure what that has to do with capitalism, but he made sure he put it in. >> it's the weasel. [inaudible] >> that might actually turn it off. >> okay. sorry. so let's review just for a second progressive protesters don't want vaccines, chemicals, genetically modified crops, research to genetically modified crops, research, gender london-based, fracturing, window power, hydroelectric power.

can someone believe all that could still be considered pro-science? how exactly do progressives thinks of scientists? probably like this, crazy people out to destroy the planet. so i know this crowd so i know this crowd so i know this crowd, but usually when i was given a talk in seattle, which they're not conservative in seattle, they would say something to the point of progressive activists of course are silly. it's really at the progressive politicians who are deriving to go conversation. they are the real pro-science people appeared okay, really? but let's look.