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A review by inhonoredglory
The Sandman Vol. 3: Dream Country by Neil Gaiman
5.0
My second reading gave me a much different impression than the first. I can see how [b:Dream Country|25100|Dream Country (The Sandman, #3)|Neil Gaiman|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1402485052l/25100._SY75_.jpg|2371237] is mostly about Gaiman exploring independent ideas for his world, and it comes to a wonderfully varying set of stories. Stories about stories, for the most part, and in much the very essence of Neil Gaiman style. (Spoilers follow.)
The first tale, "Calliope," doesn't sit well over time: A female Greek Muse is captured and abused by two men over the course of several decades. Morpheus steps in to save her. It's an awkward read in the modern day, but it's a boldly and satirically self-aware meta on the act of authorship and invention. The desperate author here almost reminds me of Gaiman himself, in his Muse-inspired achievement of epics in various mediums. For as we know, Gaiman too is skilled in the many mediums of comics, television, novels, and children's tales. Is he writing about the dark places writers might go to in the search for creativity? The hardship of chasing the Muse? Probably. And for that cheeky, and dark critique I afford "Calliope" more merit than I gave it initially.
The second tale, "A Dream of a Thousand Cats," succeeds in mood and myth more than the others. What if cats had a mythology? What would they imagine the beginning of the world to be? Why, it isn't so far from our own imaginings: A world in which our race is primary, and then things go wrong, and we need to all come together to a single belief to put the world right again. This tale points out to us how much our own myths serve ourselves. And it gives an immense dignity and elegance to the feline species. Because myth-making, after all, is what raises a sad, brutish life to something vast, sublime, and eternal.
The third tale, "A Midsummer Night’s Dream," is the famous piece heralded by a World Fantasy Award. It's a love story to Shakespeare, and to the Magic behind men like him: a love story to narrative itself. It contains my favorite Gaiman quote, "Things need not have happened to be true. Tales and adventures are the shadow truths that will endure when mere facts are dust and ashes and forgotten." Most of all, it contains the gently poignant admission that the things of Faerie are passing away, leaving the mortal plain, and only through our dreams can we remember and recall these long-forgotten truths. Titania and Oberon are true, not because they exist, but because their stories do, and all that those stories mean. It's a playful, elegant, and self-affecting meta on narrative and fiction, and a love story to the magical things in this world that, once real, have fallen into legend and myth.
The final tale, "Facade," is a realistic and horrific take on the fate of Element Girl, a woman who was transformed into a superhero by Ra in an Egyptian crypt. Superpowers aren't all they're cracked up to be, and our poor lass wants to end it. But because of her powers, she can't. That's when our favorite Endless, Death, appears. Not to end it for her, but to talk with her. It's a conversation that's comforting, vast, profound, and gently wise. It's everything we want from Death, and one of my favorite passages from here is this:
Death just is. Our stories and beliefs make it the immoral or otherwise moral thing we think it is. And in the end, it comes for all of us.
• 2022 third reading add-on: This final tale hit me the third time around as more about the tragedy of masks we wear in our lives, how trying to live up to "normal" is what dooms us, and how trying to fit other people into the cast of "normal" is what dooms them. All of us wear masks to fit in, but if we only allowed ourselves and convince others to believe in the beauty of our inherent selves, we wouldn't need to face the hopelessness of hiding who we are in the world.
______
Initial review (2017)
For me, at the moment, it almost seems like the initial volumes of Sandman were more original than these later ones (judging between greats I know). Though even Gaiman says his first go was far less skilled than what he later achieved, but I am still amazed at the world-building and storytelling he fashioned in [b:Preludes & Nocturnes|23754|Preludes & Nocturnes (The Sandman, #1)|Neil Gaiman|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1411609637l/23754._SY75_.jpg|1228437]. In this book, we have a Muse captured by an author, cats dreaming of a world where men are subdued, Shakespeare meeting the Lord of Dreams, and Death visiting Element Girl. The concepts are easier to grasp and imagine than the first creative outpouring of [b:Preludes & Nocturnes|23754|Preludes & Nocturnes (The Sandman, #1)|Neil Gaiman|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1411609637l/23754._SY75_.jpg|1228437], but nevertheless they are masterfully told. The Shakespeare tale is one of my favorites, just because alternative history is one of my favorite things of all, especially with sly allusions to historical theories. All in all, another masterwork from Gaiman from a stellar series.
The first tale, "Calliope," doesn't sit well over time: A female Greek Muse is captured and abused by two men over the course of several decades. Morpheus steps in to save her. It's an awkward read in the modern day, but it's a boldly and satirically self-aware meta on the act of authorship and invention. The desperate author here almost reminds me of Gaiman himself, in his Muse-inspired achievement of epics in various mediums. For as we know, Gaiman too is skilled in the many mediums of comics, television, novels, and children's tales. Is he writing about the dark places writers might go to in the search for creativity? The hardship of chasing the Muse? Probably. And for that cheeky, and dark critique I afford "Calliope" more merit than I gave it initially.
The second tale, "A Dream of a Thousand Cats," succeeds in mood and myth more than the others. What if cats had a mythology? What would they imagine the beginning of the world to be? Why, it isn't so far from our own imaginings: A world in which our race is primary, and then things go wrong, and we need to all come together to a single belief to put the world right again. This tale points out to us how much our own myths serve ourselves. And it gives an immense dignity and elegance to the feline species. Because myth-making, after all, is what raises a sad, brutish life to something vast, sublime, and eternal.
The third tale, "A Midsummer Night’s Dream," is the famous piece heralded by a World Fantasy Award. It's a love story to Shakespeare, and to the Magic behind men like him: a love story to narrative itself. It contains my favorite Gaiman quote, "Things need not have happened to be true. Tales and adventures are the shadow truths that will endure when mere facts are dust and ashes and forgotten." Most of all, it contains the gently poignant admission that the things of Faerie are passing away, leaving the mortal plain, and only through our dreams can we remember and recall these long-forgotten truths. Titania and Oberon are true, not because they exist, but because their stories do, and all that those stories mean. It's a playful, elegant, and self-affecting meta on narrative and fiction, and a love story to the magical things in this world that, once real, have fallen into legend and myth.
The final tale, "Facade," is a realistic and horrific take on the fate of Element Girl, a woman who was transformed into a superhero by Ra in an Egyptian crypt. Superpowers aren't all they're cracked up to be, and our poor lass wants to end it. But because of her powers, she can't. That's when our favorite Endless, Death, appears. Not to end it for her, but to talk with her. It's a conversation that's comforting, vast, profound, and gently wise. It's everything we want from Death, and one of my favorite passages from here is this:
I'm there for old and young, innocent and guilty, those who die together and those who die alone. I'm in cars and boats and planes; in hospitals and forests and abbatoirs. For some folks death is a release, and for others death is an abomination, a terrible thing. But in the end, I'm there for all of them.
Death just is. Our stories and beliefs make it the immoral or otherwise moral thing we think it is. And in the end, it comes for all of us.
• 2022 third reading add-on: This final tale hit me the third time around as more about the tragedy of masks we wear in our lives, how trying to live up to "normal" is what dooms us, and how trying to fit other people into the cast of "normal" is what dooms them. All of us wear masks to fit in, but if we only allowed ourselves and convince others to believe in the beauty of our inherent selves, we wouldn't need to face the hopelessness of hiding who we are in the world.
______
Initial review (2017)
For me, at the moment, it almost seems like the initial volumes of Sandman were more original than these later ones (judging between greats I know). Though even Gaiman says his first go was far less skilled than what he later achieved, but I am still amazed at the world-building and storytelling he fashioned in [b:Preludes & Nocturnes|23754|Preludes & Nocturnes (The Sandman, #1)|Neil Gaiman|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1411609637l/23754._SY75_.jpg|1228437]. In this book, we have a Muse captured by an author, cats dreaming of a world where men are subdued, Shakespeare meeting the Lord of Dreams, and Death visiting Element Girl. The concepts are easier to grasp and imagine than the first creative outpouring of [b:Preludes & Nocturnes|23754|Preludes & Nocturnes (The Sandman, #1)|Neil Gaiman|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1411609637l/23754._SY75_.jpg|1228437], but nevertheless they are masterfully told. The Shakespeare tale is one of my favorites, just because alternative history is one of my favorite things of all, especially with sly allusions to historical theories. All in all, another masterwork from Gaiman from a stellar series.