I have fallen a bit behind; I just finished volume II last night and have been digesting it today. What an experience reading this series for the first time is! I think that more than anything is why I'm a bit slow; I'm finding myself drawing out the story. I've come down with a cold though, so I have plenty of reading time on my hands for a few more days.
Anyway, enough excuses. Volume 2 left me with some strong impressions, most of which it seems have already been discussed. I caught the repetition of the glass heart motif right away, which I'm glad to see you guys discussed. I thought that was pretty interesting. It DIDN'T occur to me that Nada is (perhaps) a dream vortex.
I mentioned in my introduction post that one of my reasons for wanting to read along with you guys was my admiration for Gaiman's other work, and it was in this book that I got my first really solid glimpse at what I took as connections. There were sequences early on that could have been drawn images straight out of American Gods, my favorite of his books to date. I'm thinking specifically of some of the tribal imagery that took me right back to Mr. Nancy/Anansi.
I was struck by a bit of parallelism within the book that I didn't see brought up before, though maybe I just missed it. Men of Good Fortune reminded me of the men's story that's told man to man over the generations at the very beginning of the volume, I liked the contrast of the same two men meeting over and over across the centuries vs. the passing down of knowledge from one generation to the next. A continuing sharing of stories, a continuous passing along of one story.
I am constantly blown away by the analysis you guys are doing, so to try to catch up, onward I go to volume 3!
You never know; with the rate of scientific progress we've been seeing recently, we could very well be at the beginning of an era that will see people living for two centuries or more. If we're both still hanging around by 2114, let's meet up!
If so, it will only be a small handful of the richest people who live that long. We're much closer to the scientific solution for aging than we are to an economic solutions for supporting that kind of population explosion, or an educational solution to getting people to save for even the current retirement span, much less an extended one.
@GordMcLeod I was thinking the same thing about Sandman influencing some of Gaiman's later work. There were quite a few instances/scenes/snatches of line that made me think of this other work. I don't have the books with me or I'd offer some quotes.
@MattTroedson I don't think it's so much that The Sandman influenced other works of his, but rather that he's always been fascinated by dreams, legends and fairy tales more than anything, so there are conceptual similarities throughout his body of writings.
@Totz_the_Plaid I think you might be right, but there are things, scenes or characters or lines in Sandman that he kind of drops in but fleshes out in later works. As if he's making himself notes.
Yeah, it's a pretty cool idea, and it does feel that way sometimes. The Anansi example I listed earlier is one case, where in Sandman (so far as I've read at least) it's really a limited sample of that type of imagery, but it comes back in American Goes in such a significant way, much more developed.
I liked "American Gods", "Anansi Boys", "Stardust", and "Neverwhere". What did you think of "The Ocean at the End of the Lane"? (I liked that one too.)
I actually read "Ocean" while in line for Neil's LA book signing. My group was near the end, and he didn't get to us til 2:40am. (Still very kind and personable, even after 5 hours of signing.) Of the last 100 people in line, at least a dozen of us had read the entire book while waiting.
"Ocean," for me, was one of those books where you read it, and come out at the end, and realize that your universe has changed forever. I read it three times within about 2 months. It made me cry, and laugh, and have emotions that I don't even have any words for. In my opinion, it's his best work since "Sandman."
Joi, Wow! What an awesome experience! I just liked "Ocean" because it showed how wise children can be. I will have to reread it again after I finish "Bones of the Moon" by Carroll.
Coraline is just as powerful as The Ocean at the End of the Lane in that way, for me at least.
Though I cannot stand the movie because the addition of Wybie ruined it. In the book, it's Coraline's curiosity that gets her into the trouble and her ingenuity that gets her out of it. In the movie, Wybie serves both purposes and ruins the badass female lead the book had. I don't care how good the animation is (it's brilliant) or the voice acting (also fantastic), the plot and main character were just ruined for me.
Anyway, this is all wildly off-topic, so I digress.
Maybe we can get a moderator to move this to a new Discussion thread called: "Other Gaiman Books". He also does kid books. My favorite so far is: "The Day I Swapped My Dad For Two Goldfish".
Unfortunately it doesn't look like moving part of a thread is a power that we have, so it'll have to stay here. That said, Ocean was amazing; I listened to the audio version that Gaiman himself read, and it was a single-session listen for me. I started and couldn't stop until it was done. Utterly brilliant and moving.
Comments
Although I guess writing books is as close as we can get.
What did you think of "The Ocean at the End of the Lane"?
(I liked that one too.)
Though I cannot stand the movie because the addition of Wybie ruined it. In the book, it's Coraline's curiosity that gets her into the trouble and her ingenuity that gets her out of it. In the movie, Wybie serves both purposes and ruins the badass female lead the book had. I don't care how good the animation is (it's brilliant) or the voice acting (also fantastic), the plot and main character were just ruined for me.
Anyway, this is all wildly off-topic, so I digress.
Maybe we can get a moderator to move this to a new Discussion thread called: "Other Gaiman Books".
He also does kid books. My favorite so far is: "The Day I Swapped My Dad For Two Goldfish".