InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "or maybe midgets?"

Doop (xdoop) wrote in scans_daily,
@ 2009-08-10 23:44:00

Current mood:	hopeful
Entry tags:	creator: kelley jones, creator: neil gaiman, publisher: vertigo comics, theme: cats, title: sandman

"A Dream of a Thousand Cats."

This is from The Sandman #18. It's written by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by Kelley Jones.

This tale begins with a small, white cat being called by another cat to sneak away from her house one night. They speak of an event in a graveyard that they don't want to miss.

When they arrive, they see that many cats are already there. A Siamese cat comes to tell her story.

The Siamese cat has a dream that where she enters a boneyard in the Dreaming. In the dream a raven with no skin on its head informs her where she can find out exactly why the humans killed her offspring: a cave inhabited by the Dream Lord. After a long travel the Siamese cat makes it to the entrance of the cave, where many fearsome animals tell her to leave. She responds by saying that she will only state her business to Dream. Inside, she finds Dream in the form of a cat.

The human tells the other humans that "dreams shape the world," and that if enough of them dreamed it they could change the world so that they would become the dominant species.

The Siamese cat tells the other cats how she left the humans and traveled the world, spreading her message wherever she went. At the end she says "Dream the world. Not this pallid shadow of reality. Dream the world the way it truly is. A world in which all cats are queens and kings of creations. That is my message. And I shall keep moving, keep repeating it, until I die. Or until a thousand cats hear my words, and believe them, and dream... and we come again to paradise."

As the cats all leave, the white kitten asks the older brown cat if he thinks it will happen. The older cat responds "Little one, I would like to see anyone--prophet, king, or god--persuade a thousand cats to do anything at the same time. No, it will never happen."

Later, when the kitten is back at her home...

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	petalsinthewind 2009-08-11 04:27 am UTC (link)
	This story always lent credence for me to the theory that the Endless were each their name and the opposite. Death ushered in life, Destruction begets creation, Dream is reality. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	sandoz_iscariot 2009-08-11 04:29 am UTC (link)
	I liked how Destruction was rubbish at creating things (painting, cooking) in "Brief Lives." (Reply to this) (Parent)

nagaoka
2009-08-11 04:52 am UTC (link)

Yeah, the "two sided coin" existence of the Endless, where their existence as one side of a coin also shapes and defines that other side. I found this story particularly interesting since it depicts dreams literally shaping reality, yet, it's not all that far fetched. Enough people have a dream and work towards a cause, there's very little that will stop that dream from achieving reality. If there's no drive, no vision, it won't happen. We just...well...tend to have dreams that work within the boundaries of what we consider to be plausible.

Death was probably the most obvious example of the two sided coin. It pretty clear when she visits everyone when they're born. However in stories like the high cost of living it states how death is what gives life its value. Thus, death shapes life and gives it meaning.

Well I better stop before I ramble any farther...

As for this story I have a very hard time reading it...I usually have to skip over the first part so I don't have to cry over the thought of drowned kittens. So horrible....

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	icon_uk 2009-08-11 09:16 am UTC (link)
	Except Desire and Despair are surely not also Selflessness and Happiness? (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	petalsinthewind 2009-08-11 01:51 pm UTC (link)
	I don't know if Selflessness and Happiness would be exactly it (since wouldn't happiness fall with pre-Delirium Delight?). I think Desire and Despair probably do cover their opposites, but we 1. do not get to see them much outside of interaction with Dream and 2. they seem to delight the most in their functions. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	icon_uk 2009-08-11 02:12 pm UTC (link)
	Delirium was Delight, but she's not both at the same time. Desire certainly doesn't seem to have anything to do with his/her opposite, which would be Selflessness, Contentment or Satisfaction, s/he is always Desire. Despair rarely seems to enjoy her function, but I can't see her ever being Hope. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

nagaoka
2009-08-11 03:26 pm UTC (link)

I think you've missed the point though. They aren't their opposite. They are what DEFINES their opposite. It's similar to light and shadow. Darkness is the absence of light and it's shaped and defined by light. The difference with the Endless is that their opposites are quite a bit more complex than simply being the "absence of", but I think my brain would explode if I tried to really figure out how it works. Anyways the in-book example was a two sided coin. The endless are one side of the coin and their opposite is that other side. You can't have one separate from the other. It's all one thing. Despair might never actively deal with hope, but hope exists where despair isn't, so you can't possibly disconnect the two.

Also I think Death mentioned who everyone's possible opposites were. I can't recall them for certain. I always figured Desire's opposite was Hate, and it's not hard to imagine those being linked. It might have been satisfaction though...can't recall. Anyways it was something like Destiny/Freedom, Death/Life, Dream/Reality, Destruction/Creation, Desire/Hate, Despair/Hope, Delirium/Sanity.

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	icon_uk 2009-08-11 04:19 pm UTC (link)
	Honestly, I don't recall their oposites ever being mentioned in the series, but fair enough. Of course, there is the possibility that there is one ABOVE the Endless, one who can undo just about any of them (Except Death of course) - Apathy of the Pointless :) (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	nagaoka 2009-08-11 07:16 pm UTC (link)
	It was in Brief Lives when Destruction was talking to Dream outside his house. ...and interestingly enough going through the book again he says desire defines hatred....ugh...whatever :P Apathy of the Pointless reminds me of a panel of Howard the Duck I read where he meets a parody of the Endless. I can't for the life of me find it. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	nagaoka 2009-08-11 03:30 pm UTC (link)
	My mistake, you were right about desire/satisfaction. That's what I get for not looking it up before posting (Reply to this) (Parent)

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