Super short post for a super short read
Nov. 19th, 2011 08:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bloodygranuaileWhile decompressing my brain from many hours of work, I reread the first volume of Neil Gaiman's The Sandman series, called Preludes & Nocturnes.
I had forgotten quite how weird it was, or how pretty. Or how much you really can't actually seem to figure out what the hell Morpheus even looks like at all, or you can't if you're me, anyway. I have some trouble reading sketchier-looking comics in that in my head I kind of solidify them into something more concrete-looking when I do that "movie in my head" imagining-what-is-actually-going-on-in-the-story bit. My inner head movie cannot figure out what Morpheus looks like, even though I am looking at pictures of him all the damn time.
Yeah, there's a reason I don't read more graphic novels: I kind of suck at it.
Anyway, the main plot of this installment is essentially thus: Some douchebag tries to summon Death and imprison her, but accidentally summons Death's younger brother Dream instead. Dream is imprisoned in a glass box for fifty years, during which many people have weird sleep- and dream-related illnesses. Dream eventually gets out and is all hell-bent on gettin' some revenge, and also gettin' his stuff back. Revenge is gotten. Dream's stuff consists of his pouch of sand, his helmet that looks like a gas mask for an anteater, and his ruby that has part of his soul or life-force or power or something in it (I think it is basically a Horcrux). In traditional quest fashion, getting the first object back is easy, the second one slightly more challenging, and the third one gets ugly and provides the main rising action and climax of the story. In this case, the ruby has been taken and partly changed by a mad scientist dude who has escaped from the asylum and is using the Horcrux ruby to wreak havoc on people's imaginations and drive them to doing utterly mad things like stabbing their eyes out. He intends to take over and destroy the world (muahahahaha). Dream has to defeat this dude and get his ruby back, although this crazy dude is using the warped ruby against him. After the big dramatic climax with the interesting plot twist I will not tell you about, Dream is all emo and feeling purposeless now that his big revenge-filled quest is over, and Death shows up looking adorably like Siouxie Sioux and babbling about Mary Poppins, and she puts that big emo loser in his place.
Neil Gaiman's perkygoth Death is one of the bestest characters in the entire history of Gothic literature. I dressed up as her for a Masquerade Ball once. It was awesome.
Anyway: Yay, Death! Yay, Dream! Yay, Neil Gaiman!
I had forgotten quite how weird it was, or how pretty. Or how much you really can't actually seem to figure out what the hell Morpheus even looks like at all, or you can't if you're me, anyway. I have some trouble reading sketchier-looking comics in that in my head I kind of solidify them into something more concrete-looking when I do that "movie in my head" imagining-what-is-actually-going-on-in-the-story bit. My inner head movie cannot figure out what Morpheus looks like, even though I am looking at pictures of him all the damn time.
Yeah, there's a reason I don't read more graphic novels: I kind of suck at it.
Anyway, the main plot of this installment is essentially thus: Some douchebag tries to summon Death and imprison her, but accidentally summons Death's younger brother Dream instead. Dream is imprisoned in a glass box for fifty years, during which many people have weird sleep- and dream-related illnesses. Dream eventually gets out and is all hell-bent on gettin' some revenge, and also gettin' his stuff back. Revenge is gotten. Dream's stuff consists of his pouch of sand, his helmet that looks like a gas mask for an anteater, and his ruby that has part of his soul or life-force or power or something in it (I think it is basically a Horcrux). In traditional quest fashion, getting the first object back is easy, the second one slightly more challenging, and the third one gets ugly and provides the main rising action and climax of the story. In this case, the ruby has been taken and partly changed by a mad scientist dude who has escaped from the asylum and is using the Horcrux ruby to wreak havoc on people's imaginations and drive them to doing utterly mad things like stabbing their eyes out. He intends to take over and destroy the world (muahahahaha). Dream has to defeat this dude and get his ruby back, although this crazy dude is using the warped ruby against him. After the big dramatic climax with the interesting plot twist I will not tell you about, Dream is all emo and feeling purposeless now that his big revenge-filled quest is over, and Death shows up looking adorably like Siouxie Sioux and babbling about Mary Poppins, and she puts that big emo loser in his place.
Neil Gaiman's perkygoth Death is one of the bestest characters in the entire history of Gothic literature. I dressed up as her for a Masquerade Ball once. It was awesome.
Anyway: Yay, Death! Yay, Dream! Yay, Neil Gaiman!