Neil Gaiman Speech Analysis

At some point in life, everyone will find themselves in front of a computer screen, a looming deadline in the back of their minds and yet, nothing on the screen. Sometimes, life can be like this. We’re placed in a position where we have to decide where we will go for the rest of our lives at a time where the future is a pool of the vast unknown and nothing seems to come to mind. While your pencil taps against your desk as the paper deadline nears, and as your shoes tap against the floor at graduation where you have no idea where you’re going once you walk across the stage, Neil Gaiman is here to remind us that when faced with the unknown, make good art. In his commencement speech to the class of 2012 at the University of the Arts, Neil Gaiman effectively reassures the graduates that even when you fail, art will be there to guide you down your path.

One person can consider art an oil painting on canvas, while someone else may believe it’s scattered words on a page that will one day become a novel. Sometimes, art is just an idea. In his speech, Gaiman advises that if you have an idea of where you want to go in life, go for it. But to those who fail, he offers this piece of advice “You need to be thick-skinned, to learn that not every project will survive.” Art shares a key principle with life: failure. Failure is inevitable; it is a looming black cloud over each of our heads that will one day open up and rain. When that day comes, in the midst of one’s confusion with life, Gaiman instructs us that the problems of success are often equal to the problems of failure. With success, life often becomes monotonous and mundane, and one gets trapped in a cycle of responsibilities and work. According to Gaiman, that’s “more of a tragedy than failure” and he is correct. Complete and utter failure won’t always occur, but everyone makes