The Sandman creator Neil Gaiman has reaffirmed that the classic DC/Vertigo comic book that inspired the live-action Netflix series of the same name has always been "woke." However, if the author had his way, the word "woke" would be replaced with the phrase "treating other people with respect."
"When people are accusing me of being quote-unquote 'woke' for Sandman stuff that I wrote 35 years ago, I-- it's like, 'Well, yes,'" Gaiman said in an interview with Times Radio. "I remember when instead of calling it 'woke,' they called it 'politically correct.' And then you talk about 'political correctness gone mad.' And I remember once reading a book where they started talking about political correctness and the fact that you could no longer make jokes about people's ethnicity or religion in the same way. And I thought, well, actually, that's just-- that's not 'political correctness.' That's just 'treating other people with respect.'"
The renowned author continued, "So, I started changing things. So, I'd just think, 'Okay, that is treating people with respect gone mad.' And I would love to just sort of substitute-- have a little thing on my computer that substitutes the word 'woke,' whenever it turns up, with just 'treating other people with respect.'"
The word "woke" originated as meaning "alert to racial prejudice and discrimination," with this definition later being broadened to account for other social inequalities. In recent years, however, the term has been co-opted by those who would seek to turn it into a pejorative, often using it as an insult to describe people or pieces of media they perceive to embody, as Gaiman put it, "political correctness gone mad."
One popular phrase among such individuals is "go woke, go broke," or some variation thereof. This is of note, as this phrase has been used by detractors of Netflix's television adaptation of The Sandman, which premiered earlier this year. In response, Gaiman simply said, "Sandman went woke in 1988 [the year the comic debuted], and it hasn't gone broke yet." The writer continued, "Whatever it was then, it's the same thing now (not so much ahead of its time though, because time has caught up)."
The Sandman Hasn't Gone Broke
The original Sandman comic book series written by Gaiman was critically acclaimed, becoming one of the first graphic novels to appear on The New York Times Best Seller list, alongside such titles as Maus, Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns. Netflix's live-action adaptation has similarly been a success, drawing massive viewership numbers and garnering predominantly positive reception from fans and critics alike. That said, the jury is still out regarding whether or not the streaming giant will order a second season.
The Sandman Season 1 is currently streaming on Netflix.
Source: Twitter