In "Pages from a Journal Found in a Shoebox Left in a Greyhound Bus Somewhere Between Tulsa, Oklahoma and Louisville, Kentucky", there is an entry for "Friday the 32nd". As far as I can tell, only one calendar, the Jalali Calendar in the 11th century has months that occasionally have 32 days.

So does that mean the main lady/man in the story was Islamic?

Then in "Fifteen Painted Cards From a Vampire Tarot" the deck SKIPS around a lot. Not sure why...just those were the most interesting 15 to talk about?

Hi Binston, welcome to the board. As you will see if you read the FAQs, Mr. Gaiman doesn't read these boards and so will not be answering your questions, interesting as they may be.

Re your first question: You might be right -- it wouldn't be the first time that Mr. Gaiman has explored the Islamic culture in his works. However, the entire story is rather surreal and seems to bend time and space in interesting ways and maybe that's what he is doing here.

Re your second: I can only offer conjecture that those cards were the ones Mr. Gaiman wanted to write about, that for whatever reason(s) they are the ones who associate with things already on his mind and about which he had something to say.

Hope you get a chance to explore other parts of the board.

quote:

Originally posted by Binston:

Then in "Fifteen Painted Cards From a Vampire Tarot" the deck SKIPS around a lot. Not sure why...just those were the most interesting 15 to talk about?

From the introduction of the UK edition of Smoke and Mirrors, where Neil has this to say on the story:

Fifteen Painted Cards From A Vampire Tarot

One day, perhaps, I'll finish the major arcana: seven cards and seven little stories, still to go. And then there's the minor arcana. You can draw your own pictures.

The last sentence is one to live life by.

As it's a Vampire Tarot, before reading the intros, I'd always taken it that the cards in the story had eaten the others.

Thanks for the replies. Yeah I saw he doesn't read them, but still. They are his message boards and I assume he reads them some. Imagine there are no replies as then everyone would expect them, and that is too time consuming. Still, if he does read them at least, then maybe he would see mine and finish out that Vampire Tarot deck. Loved the Magician Card. Thanks for the insights!