More on Neil Gaiman's Composting, The Twenty One Balloons, The Diamond as Big as the Ritz and th

In my last post, I talked about the concept of composting with regard to creativity and imagination in writing. I had just read Neil Gaiman's Stardust for the first time and noticed certain similarities in my work and his. Which, ironically was something he spoke about in a speech on Writing and the Imagination included in the front of the book. If you'd like to know more about Gaiman's thoughts on composting, I suggest you pick up a copy of his book and read it for yourself. I found it extremely enlightening and well worth the price of the book. 

The funny thing is, the very next book on my "to read" list was The Twenty One Balloons by William Pene du Bois. I've never heard of this book either. It was suggested reading by a group I joined on Goodreads. As I began to look at it, the first thing I noticed was the Authors Note in front of the book where du Bois lamented the fact that his publisher had mentioned a strong resemblance between his book and one written earlier by F. Scott Fitzgerald entitled The Diamond as Big as The Ritz.     

That was interesting to me. However, things got even more interesting when I turned the page and immediately realized the illustrations reminded me of the Disney/Pixar movie Up. Though the movie's plot was unique in many ways, there was a resemblance to The Tweny One Balloons, and the similarities in the imagery to me was undeniable. It confirmed for me once again that Gaiman's views on composting and imagination as I understand them are spot on.