Okay listen up on Neil Gaiman I'm going to speak to something very specific.
All humans who love books or music or media, will encounter a point in time where their beloved, or someone they REALLY love, turns out to be a craptastic or worse person
I'm still in 'wait and see' land. BUT
BUT BUT BUT
Me neither. Then with the Incarnations of Immortality series, it became crystal clear he was an ebiphile apologist and probably an ebiphile and I was like
no no no no no
But you and I ... we read those books and the Xanth stuff in good faith. It's not our fault the writer did not write in good faith. We missed the evil, because evil wasn't in our hearts.
It's a dogwhistle for those who can hear it.
reads as a kid: ohay punworld
remembers the series as i got older: ohay wait this is fucked up, on an upward-sliding scale the more i grow as a person
learns about the author: ohay and this is why it's fucked up
If you think the Xanth series is creepy, try the Apprentice Adept series.
I mean, the concept was pretty neat and despite criticism, he was good at building compelling worlds.
But... well... he kinda hangs his entire ass out in that series.