@AK_Becky, I had the same thought about Unity's confidence with Dream. It's supported at the bottom of page 8 of "Lost Hearts": "And then she gives in to sleep, her breath shallow and halt. Dying, in a world she finally understands… Unity dreams." She wouldn't know Morpheus except from her childhood dreams, before his imprisonment, but she'd be at home in the Dreaming. She also had something over Dream: understanding about this vortex, and a bit about what made it different from others.
Regarding Dream's waiting to destroy Rose (and in the meantime using her to find the missing arcana), the impression I got was that he couldn't act until the vortex actually became manifest and she began breaking the barriers between dreamers. It's in the way he talks about it to Matthew in part six: not "Well, I've put this off long enough," but rather "So it begins, once more."
"London, England. Unity Kinkaid tosses between linen sheets. She dreams of a tall, dark man. His eyes burn like twin stars in her head."
Dream's eyes are full of stars, but Desire's eyes are also bright burning orbs. Did Desire's plan start before his capture? Could she have been involved in his capture?
@Joi, that's a fantastic Chesterton quote about the glass. It brings to my mind the contrast between Desire and Despair. I love that the two are twins, that as soon as living things knew desire they also knew the despair of not having what they longed for. Desire, with a glass heart that can shatter. Despair, with flesh that can be injured but remain whole.
And yet, though we're focusing a great deal on Desire's glass-heart sigil, Desire's self-portrait is the Threshold, which is "built from the fancy of Desire out of blood, and flesh, and bone, and skin." Hm…
@Daniel, the same language is echoed just before Unity falls asleep for the last time. (More parallelism in those panels: "Lost in a world beyond her understanding, Unity dreams." "Dying, in a world she finally understands… Unity dreams.") The eyes as twin stars is a motif regularly applied to Dream. Those early dreams serve to illustrate Unity's close connection to the Dreaming, the full extent of which is revealed (to her and us) in this volume.
That said, it's fair to ask when Desire's scheme began to take form. The conversation between Desire and Despair is puzzling.
One more little thought before I turn in for the night, regarding "Men of Good Fortune": Morpheus leaves in a huff in 1889 at the suggestion that he might be lonely, but returns in 1989 freely calling Gadling his friend. Having seen hints at how proud Dream could be in the past, do you think he would have gone to see Gadling again if he hadn't gained insight from the events of volume 1?
Firstly, @Totz_the_Plaid, regarding Brute and Glob. I think they had an easy time setting up shop in Jed's mind because he would likely also have been affected by the strong pull of Dream passed down generationally. I don't think it was because his sister was the vortex specifically, but that both Jed and Rose have "residue" from Dream having such sway in their bloodline.
Did anyone else notice Mad Hettie's return? She showed up in the first volume to Constantine, and again here with Hob Gadling. Just as a sidenote. A little breadcrumb. And the smallest reference ever goes to "Blood" a few frames earlier: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brother_Blood. I don't think there are any spoilers in that link.
And to answer a question: Hob Gadling. That's the first story that really drew me in. Death is a mug's game. Other than that i don't have much to offer in this volume. It's been well addressed by those before and it's not one of my favorites.
Most stories have an "everyman" or "everywoman" central character, or at least supporting character, to help the reader connect to the action. Someone who is a bit normal, a bit of a blank slate, to help us know how to read the situation -- when to be surprised, appalled, etc.
Gaiman switches so quickly between his supporting cast, and they're such an odd lot in general, that we don't get a lot of that voice.
Rose seems to be one of the first that we spend a substantial amount of time with. Constantine to a lesser degree in Vol. I, and Hob a bit, though we only catch them occasionally. We get a few shocked passers-by, and stories told by storytellers, temporary narrators, like the Nada tale. In certain moments Dream seems to help out, but mostly he's very alien and other. Gaiman just doesn't seem especially interested in giving us that common literary device to anchor us to any sort of reaction we ought to have.
It's mostly just us and the author and the strangeness of his world.
I'm trying to keep my eyes open for things that are staples of other stories that Neil is leaving out, as well as all the interesting things he puts in.
Thinking more on this, I suppose that frequently he shows us glimpses of the reactions of people totally irrelevant to the plot, like Ellie and Juan Bustamante in the beginning of Vol. I, and the TV anchors and people suffering outside the diner during 24 Hours. These glimpses are so brief, and they give us a very different almost unsettling feeling, like they could be us, they could be our neighbors, in reality and not just in the narrative. They don't help us witness and to react appropriately so much as they scare the real possibilities of the story into us.
The big question this book poses for me is: when is suicide OK? But first, some dancing...
A very amazing idea: was Nada a dream vortex? I figured she was just a pawn pushed by Desire and Despair. The vortex is something for me to consider. I did notice the 2 heart shaped glass pieces and this may portend that Desire might have moments when it is actually good and misunderstood by M.
When stories are handed down, eventually noise gets into the signal and they change. How much of this male version of Nada has been distorted? It is not until later that we get more clues of what happened between Morpheus & Nada and even then we only get clues- that like dreams - have deeper significance that we can either take at face value or look for deeper meanings.
The rest of this book for me deals with M engaged in overdue mopping up exercises.
I read it as M finds that Brute & Glob have gone rogue and were selfishly disobedient on a very limited scale because they are not very wise to begin with. Basic idiots. So their false dream (to run and hide themselves in) is a relative easy clean up. But it has huge consequences later.
The Corinthian has gone as bad as a nightmare can go. His dream goes external and people die. I love the scene where C is giving his speech on the importance of his work and in the middle of it, his creator stands up and says: No, I don't think so. Does M unmaking one of his rebellious creations count as a murder? It felt more like: thank goodness M finally got out of that jewel to stop C.
Completely caught me off guard that Gilbert was a place. But M gives him hardly a slap on the wrist. Just wants to know why? Later Gilbert still is willing to stand up to his creator and fight for what he thinks is an unjust situation. Now there is an amazing piece of real estate. Because M appears to be caught off guard by Unity's actions, I took it as either a grandmother's love and willingness for self sacrifice or the meddling of Desire (or both), were wild cards that M did not expect.
So when is suicide acceptable? The piece of glass found in the desert (Nada's heart?) is a sad blue, and Nada is too young, broken hearted, overwhelmed with regal responsibility and her failure to her people (if the "male" story is correct). Rose's glass heart that she shares with her grandmother is a more healthy red, Unity is old (and we are never told directly how fulfilling her life of dreaming has been but she must have learned something there) and she is having horrible complications in the hospital, and Unity saves her grand daughter and the world.
Very heavy shit... er, I mean, story elements there. Or at least for now, that is how it appears to me.
@SkepticalPete - Hi! I think it's okay if you don't have "as much to contribute to any sensible discussion." While it's fun pulling out specific elements in the story and the art, and I'm loving the way people are kicking around ideas and refining or redirecting them as they pass from comment to comment, part of why I joined this discussion group is that I didn't have that immediate, visceral reaction to the series that so many others have had over the years. So I for one would not mind at all to see the occasional comment thread lead off from a "I love this part!" or "this bit still kills me." Emotional responses can be as interesting as intellectual ones.
A note on Nada's glass heart: it's not blue, it is green, and almost certainly a reference to Libyan desert glass, a very particular kind of meteorite glass: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libyan_desert_glass
@Ginger, funny, not all of us are talking much about our own reactions to the story, mostly picking apart the details and meanings.
I was thinking this morning about how struck by the house full of roommates I was. It feels a little like a caricature of the people in my life, as someone who has lived in a lot of strange cohousing situations and always been in league with somewhat odd people.
It's a bit of a spooky house, but for someone like me, it feels like home. Or at least like a funny chance to see a very different housing history, like mine, in a book. It was weird and welcoming, as someone who has spent a lot of time in alternative lifestyles (where living arrangements are concerned).
When Dream finds out what Brute and Glob have done, and he goes into "how dare they" mode and dresses for battle, I always get the craziest chills. Ennio Morricone score required.
Hm. The glass looks blue in the recolored edition, Joi. Is it green in the original? If so, that's a great connection to Libyan desert glass, and it's a shame that detail wasn't preserved.
Marian, that's a good observation about the lack of an "everyman" main character to relate to. I think it partly comes from the fact that the work as a whole is about Dream (literally) and stories (thematically), neither of which *can* be fully and properly experienced by any one person. They are diverse, and the myriad perspectives we receive inform that diversity. In addition, if this is all an essay on storytelling, then I think Gaiman has to commit to telling a story, and trust his audience to hear it. Giving us a character to follow who reacts the "right" way would be cheating. What's universal about the story he's telling will be universal, and what's unique has to be free to be unique.
But now that I think about it, maybe we do get a little bit of a blank slate sidekick after all: Matthew! He's the new kid on the block, as are we, so through him we get to learn some of the ins and outs of the Dreaming. His presence is limited, to be sure, but he's closer to Dream than most who try to make sense of him. And since he's recently dead and ready to move on from his old life, he's about a blank a slate as we can hope for.
And yes, Dream geared for war is fantastic. I love how the flames climb higher up his robe in his anger. Of course, for me anyway, the *real* payoff is his reaction to Hector "The Sandman" Hall. The way he cracks up, and how his voice so quickly softens. He usually takes himself so seriously, but Hall just completely shakes that.
It took me a while to see it, but you could say that there's a theme of dreaming itself being a sort of "doll's house" that recurs through the whole book. A dollhouse is a house-within-a-house, and an ideal, play version of a grown-up house. For many of these stories, the dream (or delusion) is sort of a dollhouse that they live in to retreat from/deny their own reality. The residents of Rose's rental house have their dream worlds they retreat to, but they also have retreats in their waking lives, or shells that they hide behind. Ken & Barbie have their perfect image, Hal has Dolly, and Chantal & Zelda have their veils. Meanwhile, the killers at the convention not only have their names, but their delusions that Dream eventually shatters. Maybe the stories we tell ourselves, and the shells with which we wrap ourselves, as well as the dreams we retreat to... maybe they're all little houses we live in, sheltered from a larger reality.
One thing I keep coming back to and don't quite get is that Dream is smiling when we see him in Unity's dollhouse -- smiling more broadly and seemingly happily than any other time we see him. Is it just that Unity is telling her story, and he loves a good story and loves storytellers? Is it that he's happy they're reunited as a family? Because he really seems delighted, and while it's a lot of fun to see him seemingly carefee and really enjoying a moment, it seems odd, since the story itself is, to me, a very sad one. Unity's whole life was taken from her.
Oh, and on that note, it occurred to me that one of the reasons Unity is so self-assured and unafraid with Dream is that, for emotional and psychological purposes, she's 17 years old. I think all your instincts that it's more that she's spent more time in Dream's world than in the real one are probably more right. But it did cross my mind that, essentially, she is still ultimately a beautiful, rich, incredibly well-cared for teenager, and there are few recipes for unshaken self-confidence that are better than *that.*
@MarianCall - The house of roommates was pretty outside my experience. I've had roommates, but no more than one at at time and mostly they were already known to me.
The real world inspirations for the Collectors' Convention, on the other had, are very familiar. Including the way badges and policing of conspace versus public space fosters both the acceptability of one's desires/interests and a sense of exceptionalism compared to outsiders. It's a very heady feeling - but one that does not necessarily survive contact with the wider world. Post con drop is also a feeling I'm familiar with.
But the first time I'd read this volume, I really hadn't attended any sorts of convention as an active participant. (I'd gone to a comic con a few times, but somehow never even realized that panels were a thing one could attend. Mostly, I wandered Dealer's Rooms and stared at the lines to for autographs.) I think I'm finding it both funnier and creepier thanks to the familiarity.
"The residents of Rose's rental house have their dream worlds they retreat to, but they also have retreats in their waking lives, or shells that they hide behind. Ken & Barbie have their perfect image, Hal has Dolly, and Chantal & Zelda have their veils." by @jillybob -- this is wonderful!
As for the smiling- Maybe the vortex is reminding him of Nada, but the good times. Or, maybe he's seeing the vortex ebb, and he won't have to kill her after all.
Or maybe it's a sarcastic smile- a "Really, Fate? This is what you're doing to me?"
Unity may be 17ish in the waking world, but in the dream world, I would place her closer to 900. I would expect her to have lived many full lives in the Dreaming. Perhaps that's why she is so authoritative with Morpheus. Everyone else has told her all the gossip and secrets while the boss was out of town.
Or maybe it's just to further point out how little he understands of what is going on. It's all happening in a language he wasn't taught, and is too wise to now learn.
Svithrir: interesting! It's definitely green in my edition, and I'd always just assumed the connection to the Libyan glass was understood. Would love to find out for sure on that; can someone check an annotated edition?
As to why Dream is smiling, maybe it's because he's figured out Desire's game? But then, why would he still attempt to kill Rose? Will have to think on this one.
Not to mention Hal, aka Dolly, is the landlord. So it's literally Doll's house.
Dream appears generally rather cheerful in this volume, up until the point he finds out what Brute and Glob are up to. I think it's that he has renewed purpose after the end of volume 1, and he's taking satisfaction in putting the Dreaming back in order. There's a vortex, but Dream already knows who she is, so he can easily keep an eye on her. There are missing dreams, but the vortex will help him find them. Dream feels in control, probably for the first time in a while.
I'm going to have to sit down and put my thoughts together on "The Collectors" next. It's my favorite part of this volume, I want to make sure I do it justice!
@joi, no mention of Libyan glass in the annotated edition. But there are also no colors, so I can't tell what color it is! My regular edition shows it to be blue.
Based on the idea of making it "easier to read", I think it was intentionally green, and then changed to blue so more people would understand it as glass.
Here's the edited version: (Linked from avclub.com). Not only is it no longer green, the lines were filled with reddish-brown shading.
@jynx I was under the impression that the "Blood" mentioned was http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Blood, which would make more sense seeing as Jason is an exceptionally long-lived human who's tied to the mystic (and made an appearance as Etrigan in vol. 1), while Brother Blood is more of a legacy title. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The desert glass is definitely green in my copy. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- @Svithrir Your name is hard to remember. But more to the point, I agree with you that Morpheus's change in attitude toward Hob is the result of his experiences in the first volume. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- @reo_1963 You bring up an intriguing question about suicide. I don't agree with how you phrased it, though. As someone who had a nervous breakdown that became a suicide attempt, I've been to the edge. Suicide is what happens when pain (psychological, emotional or physical) overpowers the ability of the person feeling it to keep going. It's always a tragedy, but despite the active element on the part of the person committing suicide, it's basically the same as giving up and letting yourself succumb to a wound or disease.
That said, I don't agree that Unity's sacrifice counts as suicide. If it does, then Spock's death at the end of Wrath of Khan does as well, or Obi-Wan letting Vader cut him down to allow Luke and the others to escape during Star Wars. While Unity is obviously in far worse physical shape than those two at that point, but it's still a heroic sacrifice.
(A note: I didn't plan my suicide attempt, it was purely the result of my loss of control during the nervous breakdown. I've had more abortive follow-ups during breakdowns since, and it's a terrible symptom of my bipolar disorder, but I've also experienced bouts of such severe depression that I've had numerous periods of passive suicidal ideation [that's where you don't want to kill yourself, but rather hope that outside forces beyond your control will do it for you].)
This is getting interesting. Totz, I am sorry for the crap you have gone through. Life is complicated. But if you can live through it, it does make you stronger. It made me stronger after darn near killing me too.
My story is long and complicated. Even longer than I have written here. When I was very young, I had bad asthma and spent a lot of the time very sickly. Too sickly for school some weeks. I have a sort of Klingon style breast bone from when I think my breathing stopped as a baby and it was pressed on in an effort to get me breathing again. Nothing huge but it throws off cheap EKG machines. Eventually, I got stronger (swim team, playing saxophone, martial arts) and I do not look sickly. When I was 12, my father divorced my mom and she went back to work. I was the eldest and more of the dinner making and dish washing fell to me than my younger brothers. I was an altar boy for a couple years. We moved to Chicago and lived with our very religious grandmother and an alcoholic uncle. In the middle of 3rd year in high school at a prep seminary (and taking way too many college prep classes, Latin, physics, pre-calc, etc), I got into the habit of staying up until 1am to complete homework assignments... and started having visual and audio hallucinations. Somewhere in there I also started having memories of being fondled by a priest back when I was an altar boy. Throw in some raging teenage hormones and a bad breakup, and I had written a note in my own blood using a steak knife on my wrist and an ink pen. But blood coagulates, it clogs the pen, and it turns a muddy black when it dries. I threw the note away. Just dumb. And I went back to the school work. Life got better. Found a fantastic new girl friend. A month or two passed and I told my mom about the note. I was in for psychological testing within the week. And within a few days, I was in a psych unit for 8 weeks. This was back in the very early 80's and times have changed for anyone staying in such a place for so long. I learned all sorts of stuff (good and bad). And it was good training for later life. 2 of the girls there, Anorexics,
both had had fathers that had raped or had sex with them at 14 or some disgusting age. (I later lived with a woman who neglected to tell me until we were living together for a year that her father had slept with here a bunch of times when she was 12. Made sitting down with him at family holiday dinners rather interesting at times.) I was visited by a ghost who told me everything would be OK, this was just a bad phase, things would get much better, but I was never going to be communicated to via a spirit again. (Which has been true for the most part with the exception of my grandmother's spirit who did come see me in college in the hour she died. Was a bit strange telling my Mom she had died before she told me but you roll with these things. She died very peacefully after a long life.) I never told a doctor about being visited by ghosts because I figured they would throw away the key. And I saw it as that was not my problem. I wanted to know more about my father. So I focused on being productive.
Eventually I was released. And I was told the doctors had made a mistake with me. The hardest part for a while was just me dealing with the "Acute Schizophrenic" label that had been laid on me. And life went on. Went to a more normal co-ed high school to finish out Sr year while I lived with my dad, brothers, and step mother. My step mother made a big deal about getting me some dancing lessons and this has proved a very valuable skill indeed. Engineering college was just a matter of time management. And life keeping moving on.
Once in a while I've spent time thinking about suicide too, and wondering why am I here. But in the end I have found 2 things: 1) When you are driving through Hell, do not stop & do not get out of the car until you reach safety. 2) Negative ideas eventually end. (The negative vortex eventually destroys itself) Positives go forever.
Not all suicides are categorically bad. Some are heroic sacrifices. Spock sacrifices himself for the good of the many. Obi-Wan advances to some Force essence realm after Vader strikes him down. Unity takes the heart and becomes the dream vortex. A soldier dives onto a live grenade to save his/her buddies. I've read various stories about characters who make deals with the Devil / Lucifer so they can unselfishly provide resources to others (when all other options had been exhausted) and sometimes the character who made the deal can get their life back and sometimes they cannot.
I wanted to bring up the topic as suicide does come up very specifically in this book and in some of the later stories too. I think "Sandman" attracts deep people and that we can all learn from each other. There may be others here who have similar stories. The key is (and I love how Marian put this) we have to be excellent to one another.
I need to check what color the desert glass is in my version of the book. I have one of the early versions of the "Doll House" trade paperback that begins with #8. Later editions start with #9.
Thank you both for your intensely personal statements. I'm a psychoanalyst & have worked in community health clinics. I've also seen the aftermath of my first love shooting herself in the head, living to tell about it and having to live with the aftermath of that and her earlier attempts at ending her (psychic) misery. May she now rest in peace - natural causes but way too soon.
The questions of dying for "a cause" as opposed to ending personal suffering is one that gets moralistic here in the West because of the Abrahamic traditions/religions, in which martyrdom is OK but "suicide" is not. Martyrs get remembered as noble, suicides as taking the "cowards" way out. Yet who is braver? The martyr may believe and be willing to give up but also knows that she/he will be thought of positively. The person who ends his/her own misery, to me, is the braver, less "selfish" (another interesting word - a discussion for another time perhaps) person because s/he doesn't know what's on the "other side." Will there be less misery? What will people think? Will they care? Will this suffering end? All those questions are subsumed into the answer that "I can't stand this". Brave. I'm not recommending it but I don't condemn it.
I didn't know how personal anyone's posting was going to be on this list, but now I see that some of us feel safe to share. I had been thinking of posting something about the difference between Death and Dream, stating that one of the differences is that we dream every night, often many dreams, but usually only die once. I heard a song recently titled "You Only Die Once But You Live Every Day," which was meant to be an answer to the statement that's summed up as YOLO. My answer to that song is that we don't necessarily only die once. I've already slipped off this realm and into Death's grip a bit over a year and a half ago while I was being treated for a heart attack. It was gentle. I thought I was going to sleep and starting to dream. I only found out later that I went past Dream's domain and into Death's when the doctors told me that the reason my chest was sore was because of the compressions and hitting me with the paddles. I'll gladly wait to have that experience again, though I will say that I had fun of sorts in the ambulance and, up until I got bored with being in the hospital, had pretty much fun in the cardiac ward. I was happy to be alive. Manically happy.
My first love sent me a message in a dream two nights ago. I was listening to the radio (in the dream) and her voice came over the air calling me out by name and telling me to call her at a phone number. By the time I woke I lost the number. I wonder what would have happened if I had remembered it and called her? Who would I have gotten? Would it have been disconnected, a dead number?
I've been dreaming more, or aware of dreaming more, since I've started reading about Dream. Coincidence or have I called his name and he's visiting?
OTOH, to "tell on myself, it took me several days to get the gag about the Cereal Convention. I was looking for some deep meaning to the word "cereal" because the books have so much symbolism & mythology. I tried all sorts of things about breakfast (didn't work,) grain (cereal=grain sort of worked if I thought about the Collectors as harvesting but it felt to forced,) and then went to Ceres and sacrifice (nowhere near any sort of fit.) It wasn't until I said the word out loud in my mind that I had my eureka moment. D'oh, to quote Homer (Simpson.)
But still, there is something going on with the Collectors, isn't there? What is that about the Grimm tale of the Little Red Riding Hood (a tale of sexual awakening) and the child molester wearing a wolf on his t-shirt. And The Corinthian - from whence his name? I looked (Wikipedia & Meriam Webster Online) and came up with an historical fiction romance novel written by Georgette Heyer titled "The Corinthian" in which "One of London's foremost Corinthians [fashionable sportsmen], Sir Richard Wyndham, is walking home drunk, and brooding despondently on his forthcoming betrothal. Suddenly, from an upper window, a young stripling drops into his arms. He quickly discovers that the young stripling is a actually girl dressed as a boy who is escaping from her Aunt's house and determined to return to find her childhood sweetheart," (from the Amazon.com review by A. Woodley) Meriam Webster online defines a Corinthian as "a profligate man" or "an accomplished amateur sailor." I'm guess that the "fashionable sportsman" and "profligate man" applies. He certainly is "fashionable" when we see him as Lucien is making his accounting of who's missing.
Ah, I had the same question! Why is he named the Corinthian? (Maybe the annotated edition has some insight, or would that be cheating? :P)
The best connection I could come up with is to the Bible, 1 Corinthians 13:12: "For now we see through a glass, darkly." (Note that "glass" in this context may mean "looking-glass" or "mirror.") After all, Dream says he intended for the Corinthian to be "a black mirror, made to reflect everything about itself that humanity will not confront." The symbolism is further reflected (heh) in the character's ever-present sunglasses.
Also, speaking of Biblical names, I constantly need to remind myself that "Nimrod" is NOT synonymous with "doofus." That's what one gets for first being exposed to the word as a sarcastic epithet for Elmer Fudd.
Back to the subject of the Corinthian, the way he's presented throughout the volume is masterful. The first time he's mentioned we're shown what his schtick is: he has teeth for eyes. But the next few scenes with him are always shot from his perspective. Our eyes are inside his head, which has all kinds of implications. We can see his victims react, we can even hear his eyes chewing, but we can't see *him*, which somehow makes it all the creepier. We're finally shown his face when Jed gets in the car, but still his eyes remain hidden until Dream comes for him. I love the way the comic manages to build suspense and horror around this nightmare in a way that has nothing to do with the shock value of seeing his eyes, and everything to do with his character.
(I have more thoughts about Collectors that I was going to dump all in one post, but I think it makes more sense to break them up a bit. More to come!)
As long as we're thinking about names, let's think about why "Collectors." On one level, it reflects what motivates them as killers: they have an appetite that cannot be sated. As the Corinthian says in his keynote, they aren't out for wanton destruction, nor do they use killing as a means or replacement for some other desire (wealth, sex, etc). They "kill to kill," and curate their collections under their aliases. Some keep physical trophies (Nimrod's chest freezers, the Doctor's neckties), while others collect experiences and memories (the Connoisseur, the real Bogeyman).
Beyond that, "Collectors" directly references the 1963 novel (and 1965 film adaptation) "The Collector," and here's where I did a bit of Wikipedia surfing. The novel depicts a particular kidnapper, one who (quoting Wikipedia)
rationalises every step of his plan in cold, emotionless language; he seems truly incapable of relating to other human beings and sharing intimacy with them. He takes great pains to appear normal, and is greatly offended at the suggestion that his motives are anything but reasonable and genuine.
The killers in our comic appear to fit a similar profile: they consider their proclivities to be perfectly rational, justifiable, even admirable aspects of their lives.
The threads wind deeper. In the novel, the young woman who is kidnapped compares her captor to the character Caliban in Shakespeare's "The Tempest." "The Tempest" is about a magician who conjures a storm to bring several important characters to his island, where he uses illusion and intrigue to restore himself and his daughter to their rightful place. There are echoes of it here, I think, such as the cold wind carrying the collectors to and from the convention, and the vortex drawing the missing arcana to Dream. Shakespeare himself even makes a brief appearance! (Be on the lookout for more Shakespeake in the future, maybe even more of "The Tempest" specifically.)
Oh, and the magician's daughter in "The Tempest" and the young woman in "The Collector" are both named Miranda. As is Rose's mother.
Meanwhile, that reminded me of an earlier page in this volume. When Morpheus is approaching their hideout, Glob pitches him to Hector as "The Nightmare Monster. It's a terrible creature from the, uh, under-- Id." That's evocative of the 1956 film "Forbidden Planet" (Ostrow: "Monsters, John. Monsters from the Id!"), which itself both draws comparisons to "The Tempest" and deals with products of the mind made real.
We're racking up quite the reading/viewing curriculum, here, if we want to keep up with the author. :P
I remember 'Pan's Labyrinth' director Guillermo del Toro talking about how he designed his character the Pale Man for that film, a ghostly figure whose eyes are in his hands. He said something like (I'm paraphrasing) "As children, what are the first monsters we imagine and create? We trace our hands and draw an eye in the middle of them. We put mouths and noses in the wrong places. We displace body parts, because as children that disorder represents nightmare and terror. So with the Pale Man I am trying to access the most primal childlike terror."
That is, for me, a great explanation of why the Corinthian is so scary. It's a very nightmarish monster in that it's primal, the sort of creature a child would scribble.
I find Hell is also populated with a lot of those monsters. Well done, artists.
Warning: spoilers to "The Corinthian" in Sandman and in his own DC comic spin off can be found in this link (and you will have to click the item that has the word "(comics)" about half way down the page if you click this). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corinthian_(comics)
But for those who just want to know what Mr Gaiman says is in the "Sandman Companion" (white text)... According to an interview with Gaiman in The Sandman Companion, the Corinthian takes his name from the mode of behavior; specifically, "a Corinthian" was another term for a rake: a devil-may-care, ne'er-do-well. And there you have it.
One more thought from me about "Collectors": There's some great use of dialogue in this section. For instance, Gilbert's line "…and may God have mercy on us all" is immediately followed by a cut to the religion panel: "I am a merciful God and a just God." And a page later, "Needs must, when the devil drives," is immediately followed by asking the Corinthian "Do you always drive like that?"
And of course, there are the constant little death-themed turns of phrase in the pre-convention small-talk. It's simultaneously goofy and unnerving, great for setting the tone of the convention. Later, it makes it even more chilling when Rose says, "I could MURDER a grapefruit." It's as if the psychic residue of the Corinthian and his converts is starting to contaminate her.
Gosh, okay, that's enough from me for now. Sorry for prattling on and taking over the thread so.
Many thanks to twodogs9 for sharing your story. I hope you liked hearing your 1st love speaking to you again. It sounded like you did. Forgetting the phone number she gave you may have been very wise.
The color of the heart from the desert in my edition of "Doll House" was green. In multiple panels it appears green. Sometimes colors are different in evening light versus morning light. But in all of them, the heart was green.
I went looking for some reference in "The Sandman Companion" for if Mr Gaiman had made a comment that Nada was a dream nexus. I have yet to find one. But I still like the idea that it is a possibility and it goes to show the creativity of this group to suggest and toss it about. One of the things I enjoy about literature is finding uncommon (or new) interpretations of stories or passages. I also like it when people find new things (to me) in the stuff I have written... and it makes me wonder: "How did that show up? Never expected that when I wrote it." Doesn't happen very often. I think this may be one of those.
There doesn't have to be consensus as to whether Nada was a dream vortex or not. I think it's open, and the notion that she could be is intriguing. I don't think we get to know for sure. And I'm okay with that.
Even the annotated version calls attention to the passing-of-the-heart frames, indicating that they're identical, but not giving any clue as to why. I get the impression that we're supposed to draw the parallel between Nada and Unity, and I'm okay with walking away thinking "Maybe she was a vortex. Maybe she was the first vortex. Maybe she was a vortex Dream created. Maybe she was none of the above."
@Totz_the_Plaid, i think you're right about the Blood reference. Makes much more sense.
I'm another post-suicide. My story isn't interesting. I disagree with reo on point 2 though. My negative ideas have never ended. I still want to kill myself every day, 20+ years and a half-dozen attempts later.
Jynx, yes, I could be wrong. Some of my ideas are great & fantastic and some are quite silly & dumb. And I spend a large chunk of my day thinking of what can wrong on the computers I program and what can I do to keep them & the Users out of trouble. It helps that I have fantastic "bad luck" where I can get things that usually never fail, to go completely to shit.
It also sounds like you have no idea how strong you have become. From time to time, I go check in with someone but it's more on an "as needed basis". As an adult, you have to judge engaging in that type of self-maintenance for yourself.
I may be making tons of mistakes in everything I have written here and told you and I profoundly apologize in advance if I have.
I believe you will eventually find at least one story (and it will be interesting) in your tale. In the meantime be good to yourself. We still have a lot to cover in our discussions that you may find useful. If you have not already found them, I hope you find some useful things here (and elsewhere) that help you learn to help yourself.
Back to questions about this volume of Sandman: Are the Endless subject to each other's domains/powers? We see from Nada's story that Morpheus (Dream) is subject to Desire. We also see by his behavior in captivity that he's not subject to Despair, at least over being bound as other's might be, as he was able to just wait for his chance to get free. Do the other endless sleep? Do they dream? Can they die? Which other of the Endless are subject to Desire?
Yeah, I also didn't know what the Corinthian's eyes were. Compound eyes, some sort of fancy shades, no clue. It wasn't until I saw the panel about him biting his assailant's fingers off with his eyes that I began to suspect something was up and not until later when I looked back at the panel in which he's first shown and said, "Oh, right." But then how does he see?
twodogs9, you ask some excellent questions! If this were a book, the descriptions would be definitive. But because it's a graphic novel, we are forced to figure out: what the heck is going on? (My opinions anyway...)
The Endless do not appear to sleep.
The Endless do appear to be subject to each other: they can assist and mess with each other. Or at least, they can attempt to. Some of the Endless are better at keeping their balance than others. We get more clues and examples of this as the series goes. So far in Preludes it was Death who pointed out to Dream that he could have called her for help when captive but he didn't because he was being stubborn. It may have been that Despair was messing with him then - with the net result being he just got angry (or angrier).
Beyond that, we are collecting clues.
And I saw the Corinthian's eyes as teeth. A big part of his M.O. is to hide his eyes until the he goes after someone, the victim goes into shock (or stops for a moment and tries to figure out what those things are in his eye sockets), and that is the one and only opening the Corinthian needs. The first time I saw his eyes in a panel, I was momentarily stunned.
The encounter at the end between Dream & Desire reminds me of a scene towards the end of the movie "The Prophesy." Lucifer tells Gabriel that his (Gabriel's) war against heaven is wrong because "...it's arrogant. That makes it evil, which makes it mine." Similar to Dream telling Desire not to mess with him and his again.
Seems to me that supernatural beings get possessive about their realms, at least in fiction.
This really belongs in the vol. 1 discussion thread (since "The Sound of Her Wings" is in all editions of Preludes and Nocturnes, but only the first edition of The Doll's House), but since the point was raised here, I think it was a complex mix of emotions that prevented Dream from calling on Death while imprisoned. Pride/stubbornness, sure, fury, most definitely, but I think he was also concerned for his sister. The two of them are rather close, as can be seen by their interactions.
I read that part differently, I don't think Death could have helped Dream during his imprisonment. I think she was talking about helping Dream recover his articles of power. Rather than let his siblings know he had finally escaped and needed help, Dream stubbornly went at his quest alone, and that's what has Death ticked off.
I love how very "sibling" they are, beginning in "Sound of Her Wings." I know Dream mentions that Death is a "her" and maybe his sister when he first escapes imprisonment, but I didn't much notice it, I think -- and when I realized that Dream HAD siblings at the end of the book, I was stunned. He seemed so alone in his quests. And the idea of him (or Lucifer, or any of this book's pantheon) having family felt funny at first.
And I absolutely love how "The Sound of Her Wings" is reflected at the end of Vol. II when Dream visits Desire. It's still the sibling dynamic, but a completely different one. Again, the older sibling talks down to the younger, correcting like in Vol. I, but their relationship, their personalities -- and the lessons -- are entirely different.
I think most anyone who has siblings can see in the Endless reflections of their own siblings' relative temperaments.
@twodogs9 I am curious about their power over one another as well. Can Dream make his siblings dream? If they do dream independently, are they in his domain?
I especially wonder about this where Destiny is concerned, though that becomes more interesting in Vol. IV and following.
I think that's an awesome point, wondering how the Endless affect each other, as far as their domains are concerned. I feel like Morpheus is more the Keeper of Dreams (rather than the one that makes people dream - with a few exceptions) but even so,...the question still remains, do the Endless dream? It seems like they must tell their own stories, in some way, but maybe Dream isn't privy to them BECAUSE they are Endless? I dunno, definitely something to think about.
This next part is in white text - not 100% spoilery, exactly, but definitely leads into a discussion for the next volume (which one might not think of if one hasn't gotten there yet).
I get the feeling that they can die, and that it's implied that they WILL die, eventually, leaving Death as the final member of the Endless...but I think that's more of a discussion for volume III (as that's when we first see it mentioned), so maybe not for this thread.
Comments
Gaiman switches so quickly between his supporting cast, and they're such an odd lot in general, that we don't get a lot of that voice.
Rose seems to be one of the first that we spend a substantial amount of time with. Constantine to a lesser degree in Vol. I, and Hob a bit, though we only catch them occasionally. We get a few shocked passers-by, and stories told by storytellers, temporary narrators, like the Nada tale. In certain moments Dream seems to help out, but mostly he's very alien and other. Gaiman just doesn't seem especially interested in giving us that common literary device to anchor us to any sort of reaction we ought to have.
It's mostly just us and the author and the strangeness of his world.
I'm trying to keep my eyes open for things that are staples of other stories that Neil is leaving out, as well as all the interesting things he puts in.
Thinking more on this, I suppose that frequently he shows us glimpses of the reactions of people totally irrelevant to the plot, like Ellie and Juan Bustamante in the beginning of Vol. I, and the TV anchors and people suffering outside the diner during 24 Hours. These glimpses are so brief, and they give us a very different almost unsettling feeling, like they could be us, they could be our neighbors, in reality and not just in the narrative. They don't help us witness and to react appropriately so much as they scare the real possibilities of the story into us.
But first, some dancing...
A very amazing idea: was Nada a dream vortex? I figured she was just a pawn pushed by Desire and Despair.
The vortex is something for me to consider.
I did notice the 2 heart shaped glass pieces and this may portend that Desire might have moments when it is actually good and misunderstood by M.
When stories are handed down, eventually noise gets into the signal and they change. How much of this male version of Nada has been distorted? It is not until later that we get more clues of what happened between Morpheus & Nada and even then we only get clues- that like dreams - have deeper significance that we can either take at face value or look for deeper meanings.
The rest of this book for me deals with M engaged in overdue mopping up exercises.
I read it as M finds that Brute & Glob have gone rogue and were selfishly disobedient on a very limited scale because they are not very wise to begin with. Basic idiots. So their false dream (to run and hide themselves in) is a relative easy clean up. But it has huge consequences later.
The Corinthian has gone as bad as a nightmare can go. His dream goes external and people die. I love the scene where C is giving his speech on the importance of his work and in the middle of it, his creator stands up and says: No, I don't think so. Does M unmaking one of his rebellious creations count as a murder?
It felt more like: thank goodness M finally got out of that jewel to stop C.
Completely caught me off guard that Gilbert was a place. But M gives him hardly a slap on the wrist. Just wants to know why? Later Gilbert still is willing to stand up to his creator and fight for what he thinks is an unjust situation. Now there is an amazing piece of real estate. Because M appears to be caught off guard by Unity's actions, I took it as either a grandmother's love and willingness for self sacrifice or the meddling of Desire (or both), were wild cards that M did not expect.
So when is suicide acceptable?
The piece of glass found in the desert (Nada's heart?) is a sad blue, and Nada is too young, broken hearted, overwhelmed with regal responsibility and her failure to her people (if the "male" story is correct).
Rose's glass heart that she shares with her grandmother is a more healthy red, Unity is old (and we are never told directly how fulfilling her life of dreaming has been but she must have learned something there) and she is having horrible complications in the hospital, and Unity saves her grand daughter and the world.
Very heavy shit... er, I mean, story elements there.
Or at least for now, that is how it appears to me.
I was thinking this morning about how struck by the house full of roommates I was. It feels a little like a caricature of the people in my life, as someone who has lived in a lot of strange cohousing situations and always been in league with somewhat odd people.
It's a bit of a spooky house, but for someone like me, it feels like home. Or at least like a funny chance to see a very different housing history, like mine, in a book. It was weird and welcoming, as someone who has spent a lot of time in alternative lifestyles (where living arrangements are concerned).
One thing I keep coming back to and don't quite get is that Dream is smiling when we see him in Unity's dollhouse -- smiling more broadly and seemingly happily than any other time we see him. Is it just that Unity is telling her story, and he loves a good story and loves storytellers? Is it that he's happy they're reunited as a family? Because he really seems delighted, and while it's a lot of fun to see him seemingly carefee and really enjoying a moment, it seems odd, since the story itself is, to me, a very sad one. Unity's whole life was taken from her.
Oh, and on that note, it occurred to me that one of the reasons Unity is so self-assured and unafraid with Dream is that, for emotional and psychological purposes, she's 17 years old. I think all your instincts that it's more that she's spent more time in Dream's world than in the real one are probably more right. But it did cross my mind that, essentially, she is still ultimately a beautiful, rich, incredibly well-cared for teenager, and there are few recipes for unshaken self-confidence that are better than *that.*
The real world inspirations for the Collectors' Convention, on the other had, are very familiar. Including the way badges and policing of conspace versus public space fosters both the acceptability of one's desires/interests and a sense of exceptionalism compared to outsiders. It's a very heady feeling - but one that does not necessarily survive contact with the wider world. Post con drop is also a feeling I'm familiar with.
retreat to, but they also have retreats in their waking lives, or shells
that they hide behind. Ken & Barbie have their perfect image, Hal
has Dolly, and Chantal & Zelda have their veils." by @jillybob -- this is wonderful!
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The desert glass is definitely green in my copy.
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@Svithrir Your name is hard to remember.
But more to the point, I agree with you that Morpheus's change in attitude toward Hob is the result of his experiences in the first volume.
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@reo_1963 You bring up an intriguing question about suicide. I don't agree with how you phrased it, though. As someone who had a nervous breakdown that became a suicide attempt, I've been to the edge. Suicide is what happens when pain (psychological, emotional or physical) overpowers the ability of the person feeling it to keep going. It's always a tragedy, but despite the active element on the part of the person committing suicide, it's basically the same as giving up and letting yourself succumb to a wound or disease.
That said, I don't agree that Unity's sacrifice counts as suicide. If it does, then Spock's death at the end of Wrath of Khan does as well, or Obi-Wan letting Vader cut him down to allow Luke and the others to escape during Star Wars. While Unity is obviously in far worse physical shape than those two at that point, but it's still a heroic sacrifice.
(A note: I didn't plan my suicide attempt, it was purely the result of my loss of control during the nervous breakdown. I've had more abortive follow-ups during breakdowns since, and it's a terrible symptom of my bipolar disorder, but I've also experienced bouts of such severe depression that I've had numerous periods of passive suicidal ideation [that's where you don't want to kill yourself, but rather hope that outside forces beyond your control will do it for you].)
Totz, I am sorry for the crap you have gone through. Life is complicated. But if you can live through it, it does make you stronger. It made me stronger after darn near killing me too.
My story is long and complicated. Even longer than I have written here. When I was very young, I had bad asthma and spent a lot of the time very sickly. Too sickly for school some weeks. I have a sort of Klingon style breast bone from when I think my breathing stopped as a baby and it was pressed on in an effort to get me breathing again. Nothing huge but it throws off cheap EKG machines. Eventually, I got stronger (swim team, playing saxophone, martial arts) and I do not look sickly.
When I was 12, my father divorced my mom and she went back to work.
I was the eldest and more of the dinner making and dish washing fell to me than my younger brothers. I was an altar boy for a couple years.
We moved to Chicago and lived with our very religious grandmother and an alcoholic uncle.
In the middle of 3rd year in high school at a prep seminary (and taking way too many college prep classes, Latin, physics, pre-calc, etc), I got into the habit of staying up until 1am to complete homework assignments... and started having visual and audio hallucinations.
Somewhere in there I also started having memories of being fondled by a priest back when I was an altar boy.
Throw in some raging teenage hormones and a bad breakup, and I had written a note in my own blood using a steak knife on my wrist and an ink pen.
But blood coagulates, it clogs the pen, and it turns a muddy black when it dries.
I threw the note away. Just dumb. And I went back to the school work. Life got better. Found a fantastic new girl friend. A month or two passed and I told my mom about the note.
I was in for psychological testing within the week.
And within a few days, I was in a psych unit for 8 weeks. This was back in the very early 80's and times have changed for anyone staying in such a place for so long.
I learned all sorts of stuff (good and bad). And it was good training for later life. 2 of the girls there, Anorexics,
I was visited by a ghost who told me everything would be OK, this was just a bad phase, things would get much better, but I was never going to be communicated to via a spirit again. (Which has been true for the most part with the exception of my grandmother's spirit who did come see me in college in the hour she died. Was a bit strange telling my Mom she had died before she told me but you roll with these things. She died very peacefully after a long life.) I never told a doctor about being visited by ghosts because I figured they would throw away the key. And I saw it as that was not my problem. I wanted to know more about my father. So I focused on being productive.
Eventually I was released. And I was told the doctors had made a mistake with me. The hardest part for a while was just me dealing with the "Acute Schizophrenic" label that had been laid on me.
And life went on. Went to a more normal co-ed high school to finish out Sr year while I lived with my dad, brothers, and step mother. My step mother made a big deal about getting me some dancing lessons and this has proved a very valuable skill indeed. Engineering college was just a matter of time management. And life keeping moving on.
Once in a while I've spent time thinking about suicide too, and wondering why am I here. But in the end I have found 2 things:
1) When you are driving through Hell, do not stop & do not get out of the car until you reach safety.
2) Negative ideas eventually end. (The negative vortex eventually destroys itself) Positives go forever.
Not all suicides are categorically bad. Some are heroic sacrifices.
Spock sacrifices himself for the good of the many.
Obi-Wan advances to some Force essence realm after Vader strikes him down.
Unity takes the heart and becomes the dream vortex.
A soldier dives onto a live grenade to save his/her buddies.
I've read various stories about characters who make deals with the Devil / Lucifer so they can unselfishly provide resources to others (when all other options had been exhausted) and sometimes the character who made the deal can get their life back and sometimes they cannot.
I wanted to bring up the topic as suicide does come up very specifically in this book and in some of the later stories too. I think "Sandman" attracts deep people and that we can all learn from each other. There may be others here who have similar stories. The key is (and I love how Marian put this) we have to be excellent to one another.
I need to check what color the desert glass is in my version of the book. I have one of the early versions of the "Doll House" trade paperback that begins with #8. Later editions start with #9.
No matter how amazing our fictional stories are, the true ones of the people living alongside us are even more amazing.
Thank you, both of you.
Forget the tea, I'm gonna have to bring red wine to my next bout of reading.
The questions of dying for "a cause" as opposed to ending personal suffering is one that gets moralistic here in the West because of the Abrahamic traditions/religions, in which martyrdom is OK but "suicide" is not. Martyrs get remembered as noble, suicides as taking the "cowards" way out. Yet who is braver? The martyr may believe and be willing to give up but also knows that she/he will be thought of positively. The person who ends his/her own misery, to me, is the braver, less "selfish" (another interesting word - a discussion for another time perhaps) person because s/he doesn't know what's on the "other side." Will there be less misery? What will people think? Will they care? Will this suffering end? All those questions are subsumed into the answer that "I can't stand this". Brave. I'm not recommending it but I don't condemn it.
I didn't know how personal anyone's posting was going to be on this list, but now I see that some of us feel safe to share. I had been thinking of posting something about the difference between Death and Dream, stating that one of the differences is that we dream every night, often many dreams, but usually only die once. I heard a song recently titled "You Only Die Once But You Live Every Day," which was meant to be an answer to the statement that's summed up as YOLO. My answer to that song is that we don't necessarily only die once. I've already slipped off this realm and into Death's grip a bit over a year and a half ago while I was being treated for a heart attack. It was gentle. I thought I was going to sleep and starting to dream. I only found out later that I went past Dream's domain and into Death's when the doctors told me that the reason my chest was sore was because of the compressions and hitting me with the paddles. I'll gladly wait to have that experience again, though I will say that I had fun of sorts in the ambulance and, up until I got bored with being in the hospital, had pretty much fun in the cardiac ward. I was happy to be alive. Manically happy.
My first love sent me a message in a dream two nights ago. I was listening to the radio (in the dream) and her voice came over the air calling me out by name and telling me to call her at a phone number. By the time I woke I lost the number. I wonder what would have happened if I had remembered it and called her? Who would I have gotten? Would it have been disconnected, a dead number?
I've been dreaming more, or aware of dreaming more, since I've started reading about Dream. Coincidence or have I called his name and he's visiting?
But still, there is something going on with the Collectors, isn't there? What is that about the Grimm tale of the Little Red Riding Hood (a tale of sexual awakening) and the child molester wearing a wolf on his t-shirt. And The Corinthian - from whence his name? I looked (Wikipedia & Meriam Webster Online) and came up with an historical fiction romance novel written by Georgette Heyer titled "The Corinthian" in which "One of London's foremost Corinthians [fashionable sportsmen], Sir
Richard Wyndham, is walking home drunk, and brooding despondently on his
forthcoming betrothal. Suddenly, from an upper window, a young
stripling drops into his arms. He quickly discovers that the young
stripling is a actually girl dressed as a boy who is escaping from her
Aunt's house and determined to return to find her childhood sweetheart," (from the Amazon.com review by
A. Woodley) Meriam Webster online defines a Corinthian as "a profligate man" or "an accomplished amateur sailor." I'm guess that the "fashionable sportsman" and "profligate man" applies. He certainly is "fashionable" when we see him as Lucien is making his accounting of who's missing.
I remember 'Pan's Labyrinth' director Guillermo del Toro talking about how he designed his character the Pale Man for that film, a ghostly figure whose eyes are in his hands. He said something like (I'm paraphrasing) "As children, what are the first monsters we imagine and create? We trace our hands and draw an eye in the middle of them. We put mouths and noses in the wrong places. We displace body parts, because as children that disorder represents nightmare and terror. So with the Pale Man I am trying to access the most primal childlike terror."
That is, for me, a great explanation of why the Corinthian is so scary. It's a very nightmarish monster in that it's primal, the sort of creature a child would scribble.
I find Hell is also populated with a lot of those monsters. Well done, artists.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corinthian_(comics)
But for those who just want to know what Mr Gaiman says is in the "Sandman Companion" (white text)...
According to an interview with Gaiman in The Sandman Companion, the Corinthian takes his name from the mode of behavior; specifically, "a Corinthian" was another term for a rake: a devil-may-care, ne'er-do-well.
And there you have it.
The color of the heart from the desert in my edition of "Doll House" was green. In multiple panels it appears green. Sometimes colors are different in evening light versus morning light. But in all of them, the heart was green.
I went looking for some reference in "The Sandman Companion" for if Mr Gaiman had made a comment that Nada was a dream nexus. I have yet to find one. But I still like the idea that it is a possibility and it goes to show the creativity of this group to suggest and toss it about. One of the things I enjoy about literature is finding uncommon (or new) interpretations of stories or passages. I also like it when people find new things (to me) in the stuff I have written... and it makes me wonder: "How did that show up? Never expected that when I wrote it." Doesn't happen very often. I think this may be one of those.
There doesn't have to be consensus as to whether Nada was a dream vortex or not. I think it's open, and the notion that she could be is intriguing. I don't think we get to know for sure. And I'm okay with that.
Even the annotated version calls attention to the passing-of-the-heart frames, indicating that they're identical, but not giving any clue as to why. I get the impression that we're supposed to draw the parallel between Nada and Unity, and I'm okay with walking away thinking "Maybe she was a vortex. Maybe she was the first vortex. Maybe she was a vortex Dream created. Maybe she was none of the above."
I have no problems living with the Maybes.
It also sounds like you have no idea how strong you have become. From time to time, I go check in with someone but it's more on an "as needed basis". As an adult, you have to judge engaging in that type of self-maintenance for yourself.
I may be making tons of mistakes in everything I have written here and told you and I profoundly apologize in advance if I have.
I believe you will eventually find at least one story (and it will be interesting) in your tale. In the meantime be good to yourself. We still have a lot to cover in our discussions that you may find useful. If you have not already found them, I hope you find some useful things here (and elsewhere) that help you learn to help yourself.
I didn't realize until it was made explicit that he had mouths and teeth in place of his eyes. That introductory panel?
I thought they were meant to be insect-like compound eyes.
I know this doesn't add to any discussion of themes, references or deeper meanings, I just thought it might be an interesting footnote.
But then how does he see?
If this were a book, the descriptions would be definitive. But because it's a graphic novel, we are forced to figure out: what the heck is going on? (My opinions anyway...)
The Endless do not appear to sleep.
The Endless do appear to be subject to each other: they can assist and mess with each other. Or at least, they can attempt to. Some of the Endless are better at keeping their balance than others. We get more clues and examples of this as the series goes. So far in Preludes it was Death who pointed out to Dream that he could have called her for help when captive but he didn't because he was being stubborn. It may have been that Despair was messing with him then - with the net result being he just got angry (or angrier).
Beyond that, we are collecting clues.
And I saw the Corinthian's eyes as teeth. A big part of his M.O. is to hide his eyes until the he goes after someone, the victim goes into shock (or stops for a moment and tries to figure out what those things are in his eye sockets), and that is the one and only opening the Corinthian needs. The first time I saw his eyes in a panel, I was momentarily stunned.
Seems to me that supernatural beings get possessive about their realms, at least in fiction.
And I absolutely love how "The Sound of Her Wings" is reflected at the end of Vol. II when Dream visits Desire. It's still the sibling dynamic, but a completely different one. Again, the older sibling talks down to the younger, correcting like in Vol. I, but their relationship, their personalities -- and the lessons -- are entirely different.
I think most anyone who has siblings can see in the Endless reflections of their own siblings' relative temperaments.
I especially wonder about this where Destiny is concerned, though that becomes more interesting in Vol. IV and following.