Neil Gaiman on the humble button

In this odd and eminently enjoyable little video, Neil Gaiman waxes rhapsodic about buttons. It's all in aid of tying in with his new movie Coraline, which opened last night.

Koumpounophobia HD

Previously:

Coraline box 42/50 -- treasure in the mail - Boing Boing

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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Trent Hawkins

being scared of buttons is silly. Now zippers on the other hand… those can be terrifying.
Gilgongo

I used to work with somebody who had a fear of buttons. It didn’t seem to be debilitating, but she was quite senior in the organisation and the mention of buttons was frowned upon. At first, I didn’t believe it, but observing what she wore after a few days convinced me: I never saw her wear anything with buttons on it, and once, when somebody used the word in her presence, she swiftly changed the subject.
Tavie

Hurrah, a thread on buttons. Almost as good as buttons on a thread.

I used to save buttons and once I sewed them all along the edging of a black wool coat like so.
Stefan Jones

Another thumbs up for the movie.

Really, if you want to freak out of random kids, bring some big coat buttons with you to the movie and squinch them over your eyes and stare around the theater as the credits roll.
Jason Rizos

Sorry. That was tripe. “…deserved to be acclaimed?” This is a professional writer?
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  Professional writer â‰ grammar pedant.
jere7my

Aw, shoot. I thought this meant Neil has had a button installed that he can press to keep himself humble, and was going to tell us how to get our own. (His seems to work very well, as I’ve never seen him get a big head. Big hair, yes. Big head, no.)
Takuan

oooH! good idea Stefan!
mgfarrelly

The funny thing is, you might think this is a promotion for the film, but actually, this is just how Neil Gaiman answers his door.
Kytsune

<3 buttons!

I collect buttons. I have bottles, boxes, jars, bags, pillowcases of buttons. They're awesome. Buttons are love.
Anonymous

This reminds me of Alfred Hitchcock’s trailer for “The Birds”. It’s a little bit long, but I think you’ll agree it accomplishes its goal very neatly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uELFbRBEvw&fmt=18
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  This reminds me of Alfred Hitchcock’s trailer for “The Birds”.
  
  If PETA had Alfred on their side, they’d be a major political player.
imajication

#17: Oh the horror!: http://hiddeninfrance.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/2007/10/22/tdbluffsd.jpg

Send this around the office, you’ll be senior VP in no time!
The Thompson Five

I took the kids to see Coraline this afternoon, it was awesome. There were children crying in the theatre, but no one left early.
KidDork

And we get to see Cabal running around, so it’s all win.
KidDork

#6–Sorry, my bad. I thought this was another Neil-centric Coraline piece. Cabal can be found in that, as well as Neil’s awesome library.
Pasketti

On reading this headline, the first thing I thought of was a button that, if pressed, would make something humble.

I think I’ll go make some coffee now…
noen

I saw Coraline last night and throughly enjoyed it. It was beautiful all the way through and the music really made the film. Very nice, kind of quiet. None of the hyperactivity that you see in some other stop motion films.

It’s very sweet, a little scary in places so maybe very young children shouldn’t see it. Neil certainly has the mother/daughter relationship down.
Bender

And Neil keeps his thermostat turned down so low that he has to keep his coat on. Very environmentally conscious.