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A review by mikime
The Sandman Vol. 5: A Game of You by Neil Gaiman
adventurous
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
5.0
This is the story of Barbie's world and of Wanda and of their other friends and neighbours.
From Samuel R. Delany's Preface (1993)
"It seems to me what Gaiman is saying, with the help of the artists who draw the pictures, is that, in the rich, complex and socially constructed world around us, you cannot ultimately be what - or who - you want to be without some support from me. Wanda supports Barbie at the beginning of the story. At the moment end of the story, [... ] Barbie supports Wanda. The element of death, however, makes it a much darker tale than that simple and rather Pollyanna reduction presupposes.
We're not talking simple altruism hete. We're talking about something much deeper, that allows individuals to exist; we're talking about the hidden, shifting, undersea reefs on which every individual stands - rocks that so rarely show clear above the tides of illusion and desire. That's the support we mean, and it always begins in something outside the self.
Gaiman is also saying that, because of death - even a fantasy death that allows articulation and information to come from beyond its borders, when magicked up by a centuries-old witch - no one can win the Game of I. Wanda cannot win it. Barbie cannot win it. (...) Nor will I. Nor will you. (...) Thus, for Gaiman, A GAME OF YOU is the only game worth playing - because it is the only game where, in the end, there's any chance of coming out ahead.
Even if one wins only by a name written on a stone that will wash away with the next shower, at least that allows something to persist in memory - and thus may lead to something else. But without even the name preserved momentarily in the real world by real action (and here, as I hope we can see, "real" is not the catch-all antonym for fantasy but rather a specific synonym for the political - as it is whenever it's used intelligently), there's no hope at all. Gaiman shows us the most marginal win possible in A GAME OF YOU. But it's still won by moments, however small, of real social bravery. And that's what, at the end of A GAME OF YOU, Gaiman portrays. Thus, in a fantasy world whose tragedies are not real (i.e., not political) but are, nevertheless through that fantasy, deeply recognizable (and readable in any number of real ways), he has given us a triumph. "
From Samuel R. Delany's Preface (1993)
"It seems to me what Gaiman is saying, with the help of the artists who draw the pictures, is that, in the rich, complex and socially constructed world around us, you cannot ultimately be what - or who - you want to be without some support from me. Wanda supports Barbie at the beginning of the story. At the moment end of the story, [... ] Barbie supports Wanda. The element of death, however, makes it a much darker tale than that simple and rather Pollyanna reduction presupposes.
We're not talking simple altruism hete. We're talking about something much deeper, that allows individuals to exist; we're talking about the hidden, shifting, undersea reefs on which every individual stands - rocks that so rarely show clear above the tides of illusion and desire. That's the support we mean, and it always begins in something outside the self.
Gaiman is also saying that, because of death - even a fantasy death that allows articulation and information to come from beyond its borders, when magicked up by a centuries-old witch - no one can win the Game of I. Wanda cannot win it. Barbie cannot win it. (...) Nor will I. Nor will you. (...) Thus, for Gaiman, A GAME OF YOU is the only game worth playing - because it is the only game where, in the end, there's any chance of coming out ahead.
Even if one wins only by a name written on a stone that will wash away with the next shower, at least that allows something to persist in memory - and thus may lead to something else. But without even the name preserved momentarily in the real world by real action (and here, as I hope we can see, "real" is not the catch-all antonym for fantasy but rather a specific synonym for the political - as it is whenever it's used intelligently), there's no hope at all. Gaiman shows us the most marginal win possible in A GAME OF YOU. But it's still won by moments, however small, of real social bravery. And that's what, at the end of A GAME OF YOU, Gaiman portrays. Thus, in a fantasy world whose tragedies are not real (i.e., not political) but are, nevertheless through that fantasy, deeply recognizable (and readable in any number of real ways), he has given us a triumph. "