Sandman Part 1
October 12th 2006 12:58
The next few posts I do are really just pointing out the allegories that can be derived from Neil Gaiman's Sandman comic book (or graphic novel, whatever). They aren't sanctioned, they aren't even approved. I haven't read anything of Mr Gaiman's that says I am right or anything like that. This is just what I think. Feel free to tell me what you reckon.
The comic opens with a bunch of humans summoning Lord Dream and capturing him. Their spell keeps him captive for 70 years, during which many people in the world cease to sleep properly, or are trapped in an endless sleep. Also during this time three of his tools were stolen. Aside from being items of extreme power, they also contain a huge amount of his essence. The first item is a bag of sand. It is of course, not ordinary sand. It is the sand of Lord Dream and that gives it power. It has the power not only to make one sleep and dream, but to make a dream into a reality, a reality stronger than the one it is used upon.
The sandbag came into the possesion of John Constantine (the guy from the movie) and is now in the possesion of an ex-girlfriend of his. She uses the sand as she would use a drug, as a substance to escape into a blissful alternative reality. The thing that I saw here was the danger of dreams that consume you. To position oneself within a reality that only takes from you without making you better, without strengthening you is a sure way to death. We have all known, or known of, people who have been consumed by their passions and ambitions (ambitions are merely dreams with a little bit of hard work) and the terrible results of a life lived that way. These kind of dreams are those that isolate us, and by doing so, rob of us a great pleasure in life. Other people.
No man is an island, though some are definitely peninsulas with tidal overflow. Jean Paul Satre may have said that hell is other people, but it has been found the reverse is true. Hell is the complete absence of any kind of companionship, the silence of hearing one’s own self. Our dreams are not supposed to BE our reality, they are there to help us in shaping them
JoshZ
The comic opens with a bunch of humans summoning Lord Dream and capturing him. Their spell keeps him captive for 70 years, during which many people in the world cease to sleep properly, or are trapped in an endless sleep. Also during this time three of his tools were stolen. Aside from being items of extreme power, they also contain a huge amount of his essence. The first item is a bag of sand. It is of course, not ordinary sand. It is the sand of Lord Dream and that gives it power. It has the power not only to make one sleep and dream, but to make a dream into a reality, a reality stronger than the one it is used upon.
The sandbag came into the possesion of John Constantine (the guy from the movie) and is now in the possesion of an ex-girlfriend of his. She uses the sand as she would use a drug, as a substance to escape into a blissful alternative reality. The thing that I saw here was the danger of dreams that consume you. To position oneself within a reality that only takes from you without making you better, without strengthening you is a sure way to death. We have all known, or known of, people who have been consumed by their passions and ambitions (ambitions are merely dreams with a little bit of hard work) and the terrible results of a life lived that way. These kind of dreams are those that isolate us, and by doing so, rob of us a great pleasure in life. Other people.
No man is an island, though some are definitely peninsulas with tidal overflow. Jean Paul Satre may have said that hell is other people, but it has been found the reverse is true. Hell is the complete absence of any kind of companionship, the silence of hearing one’s own self. Our dreams are not supposed to BE our reality, they are there to help us in shaping them
JoshZ
| 36 |
| Vote |
Add To: 
