Mole People

[womzilla]

When sarah_ovenall was in New York last week, she asked if I'd ever read The Mole People (by Jennifer Toth, 1993) and if I knew whether it was fact or fiction. I told her that a friend of mine had read it when it came out and said that huge portions of its detail about New York, above or below ground, was wrong, and as such I'd never had a strong incentive to read it.

Neil Gaiman's journal had a recent pointer to this page of debunkery, archived at The Web Archive. For those who care.

Comments

Then There's the Straight Dope

[mattapp.livejournal.com]

It's interesting you chose this time to post about it. Just a few days ago, The Straight Dope did a column discussing the notion of mole people (http://www.straightdope.com/columns/040109.html) living in New York City. Cecil, the author of the column, was of the opinion that they do exist, albeit not in the way described in Toth's book.

[womzilla.livejournal.com]

The letter in Gaiman's blog which had the debunkery also had the pointer to the Straight Dope. The person was inspired to write to Neil because of high-concept similarities between the concept of The Mole People as described in the Straight Dope and Gaiman's Neverwhere.

So, not so much a coincidence.

[mattapp.livejournal.com]

Oops. I guess I should take the time to check the links out when they are provided.