InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "The real McCoy"

icon_uk (icon_uk) wrote in scans_daily,
@ 2009-06-08 22:29:00

Entry tags:

char: dream of the endless, creator: neil gaiman, publisher: vertigo comics, series: one perfect moment week, title: sandman

One Perfect Endless Moment - #1 Dream
From Sandman #64 comes this two page sample of a "Week in the ~~life~~ being" of Morpheus, the Oneiromancer, the Prince of Stories, also known as the Sandman...

To me this highlights the true nature of Dream; strange, alien, arrogant, a touch pretentious and (and this is the important part) neither necessarily a nice being, nor always on our side. (Compare and contrast with how Death is presented, and she's next in the series of these I have planned)

I just love the way Gaiman can throw enough ideas out in two pages to keep a short story writer dribbling happily for months (I was tempted to use as my moment the scene where Dream curses a writer with a madness inducing, neverending stream of imaginative stories, as punishment for kidnapping the muse Calliope, but I thought I'd keep use this one because it's not as well known.) And little things like the pilot of the boat being an Easter Island statue with a body.

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icon_uk
2009-06-08 05:09 pm UTC (link)

Well, he is, but not here I think.

It would appear to be a good dream he gives the turtle (The dream is of their love, not the turtles demise), and it's possible the little girl might do important work as a nurse.

As I said, that's what I like about this sequence, it highlights that Dream does not have human priorities because... well, because he's not human. He's the Lord of Dreams, but takes as much pride in his role as Lord of Nightmares, he created the Corinthian to scare humanity, and his only regret when he unmade the mass murdering monster was not for the lives lost, but that the Corinthian had failed in his design.

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neuhallidae
2009-06-08 05:33 pm UTC (link)

Well, the other thing is that we aren't actually told what his decision was. The "had no appeal" part implies he might have refused, but then, who's to say that there weren't tribal gods who didn't want the girl to unite the country, and would argue if he'd said yes? The rest of this part of the story is pretty plainly cut and dry, so I think the point is that we're not supposed to know for sure.

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	icon_uk 2009-06-08 05:41 pm UTC (link)
	Oh indeed, there's also the possibility he refused BOTH of them, they are only tribal gods, HE is Dream of the Endless. :) (Reply to this) (Parent)

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