Book #15

Sandman II: The Doll's House
by Neil Gaiman, et al

I tried reading Emerson's essays again, having been inspired by Self-Reliance. I xeroxed the entire essay and tried to teach the whole thing to my class, but after three days -- and I really tried to focus on the work, rather than messing around and wasting time -- we were only 6 pages into the 19, so I gave it up. Similarly, even though I gave the book a serious try, I had to surrender after getting through four or so essays after Self-Reliance. Some of them had good concepts, but a few just didn't work for me -- he sees platonic love as the highest form, and recommends that people try to find that in their potential life partners, since all love is guaranteed to cool off over time. I disagree with that. I don't think love cools, at all. The needs and wants of the body may change, but not of the heart -- not true love. Anyway, I'll go back to it again sometime this year, hopefully soon, and read another couple of essays. But the attempt this time did take up a week, and helped to create this long gap in my list-keeping.

After I gave up the Essays, I went for the second Sandman installment. This one follows the life of a Dream Vortex, a human mind that has the power to break down the barriers between sleeping people, to draw their dreams into her own dream and make all dreams one. There's also a secondary story of Morpheus trying to regain control of his realm after his kidnapping; he is seeking four missing dream creatures, ones of serious power who have left his realm. The two stories intertwine, of course, as the four beings have come into contact with the Vortex -- who also connects to the first book through the woman who slept her life away after Morpheus's disappearance.

I liked the people, and I love the Corinthian and the serial killer convention; great concept, very nicely realized. I though Gilbert and Rose were both excellent, and I liked how the story wrapped up. I didn't like Dream's sibling, Desire, or her part in the whole thing; it seemed pretty bland to me. Though I enjoyed the ancient story-telling aborigines in the opening chapter, who told the tale of the mortal woman whom Morpheus loved, and how badly that went. I like the idea of the Endless, and how they are different from gods as well as different from mortals -- the whole idea of the embodiments of abstract concepts, like dream and desire and despair. I find it fairly interesting that so many important, and interrelated, concepts all start with D -- but I'm not at all surprised that it was Neil Gaiman who recognized that.

Good book, overall. These are a nice break from the full novel-reading.