As this collection deals exclusively with the interaction of Gaiman's inhuman 'endless', the reader must come to terms with the fact that Gaiman has too little madness to write them. Delirium is particularly disappointing as her randomness becomes more and more predictable. Dream himself still comes off as your standard Gaiman protagonist, though Gaiman keeps using secondary characters to try to make us understand what amazing psychological changes he has undergone. It is almost the opposite of Chekhov, where we see the action and the emotional reaction is described to us.

However, Gaiman is still a strong and mystical storyteller who draws from many sources. It is unfortunate that he tried to tackle such bizarre and complex characters without Blake's chemical madness to spur him on; but then again, any author with sufficient talent and drive will not be comprehended, and especially not by their most rabid fans (how telling is it that we require a qualifier for 'fanatic'). ( )

This is certainly my least-favorite volume in the collected Sandman series. This story, accompanied by mediocre artwork, simply did not hold my attention. As I believe I've stated elsewhere, one of the ironies on this series is that the main protagonist, Dream, is likely the least interesting character in the narrative. That's not an obstacle in chapters where his role is reduced, but in Brief Lives the character of Dream is front-and-center, and the reader's experience suffers accordingly. I already bought the eighth volume, so inevitably I'll read on a bit more, but this epic series is turning out to be a slog more akin to a chore than a pleasure. ( )

SPOILERS AHEAD!!! SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

These blogs are getting terribly long. I don't suppose that's the function of a blog. I better learn to keep it short! :) This is a problem with me with everything. I talk too much and I write too much! I'll try to keep this one shorter.

Wow! Sad! I really liked this book, but the ending was sad and the introduction (it came at the end--haha) was really, really sad. The conclusion Peter Straub gleans from the book is that the Endless "are merely mythic patterns, and as such do not have the authority to interfere in human lives." Having read so far ahead at this point, I have realized that is Brief Lives that sets up this simple fact as Dream's hamartia (not hubris--people are always getting these confused). Dream's whole existence is based on his responsibility, for the dreamworld, for the dreamers, for the dreams and nightmares. He justifies his actions according to the rules he has created or inherited and set up as his purpose in life. And in many ways he needs Delirium to show him this truth, both literally and figuratively. The character Delirium with her childlike innocence can ask questions and make statements that Dream's rather left brained mind cannot fathom. She tries to lead him to a greater freedom by leaving his beaten path. There is definitely something to be said about the fact that Dream apologizes to Delirium on at least two occassions in this book, but he never manages to apologize for what he needs to apologize for.

The plot of this book is quite unified and quite simple. Delirium decides she needs a change, so she goes to ask her siblings if they will help her seek Destruction, the prodigal brother. Destiny and Desire flat out refuse. Despair refuses slightly more gently. Death manages somehow not to get involved (she does have a job to do), and Dream ends up being the only of the Endless who is willing at all to help Delirium. The quest is multifaceted. Dream needs to get out of his morose mood; another lover has left him in mourning for his humanity (he cannot keep a lover because no woman (or man) can compete with his sense of responsibility as a quasi-god). As the story progresses he is also seeking some closure to the deaths the beginning of the quest incurs. Again he feels beholden to the mortals he has hurt. Finally the quest brings him back to unfinished business with his son Orpheus who he abandoned earlier in life. Orpheus manages to barter his death (which he has been seeking for a thousand years) for information about where Destruction is. Delirium gains Destruction's dog, Barnabus, and Dream returns to his castle to brood over his son's death.

The story is very circular. It begins with Orpheus's guardian's cheerful acceptance and Dream's brooding, and it ends the same way. The highlight seems to be on the two different mindsets. When Dream returns to the Dreaming, he tells Lucien, "For the rest of today I will be retiring to my quarters. I do not wish to be disturbed." While he is dying, Andros muses, "It is going to be a beautiful day." Andros appreciates and accepts his brief life, while Dream has spent the majority of his (much less) brief life feeling sorry for himself. Dream is an interesting character. He always tries to do the right thing. Whenever one of his siblings tells him he has made a mistake, he sets off to correct it. But he never seems to get the point that the real joy comes from treating people (and gods or whatever) the right way the first time. I really like him. I like that he seems to have a sense of honor. When I said he behaves in a godlike fashion, I meant it. He definitely has a code of behavior that surpases that of the mortal world. It just doesn't seem to be enough, and it bothers me that even our gods are saddled with these eternal questions of responsibility to others versus responsibility to self, too much work versus too much play, the constant struggle for balance. Can't life be simple for anyone? It's very frustrating, but it must be a truth. I believe that truth comes from our representations. Truth does come to light with the creation of art. Sometimes though it doesn't make it any easier to swallow.

On a happier note, I adore Delirium. I don't know if she is my favorite character, but I really, really like her. She is so cute about her "milk chocolate people:" "Have you got any little milk chocolate people? About threee inches high? Men AND women? I'd like some of them filled with raspberry cream." And when she drives: "I'm good at this, aren't I? I'm really good. I knew I'd be good at driving. Bzuum. Bzuum. Dream? Look at me! Look at me driving!" And, probably most importantly, she accepts truth in a way that Dream cannot. When they finally find Destruction and he explains that he will not return to his realm and make things as they were before, she simply says, "I thought you would," and it's over. She doesn't beg and she doesn't plead. It's simple for her. Perhaps craziness does make things simple.

I'm finding it harder and harder to write frivilously about these books. Straub says, "If this isn't literature, nothing is," and he nails it. Of course, I am getting further and further from my "near instant reaction too." It's hard to find time to write AND read, but still, the themes are just too weighty. What started out simply has become a quagmire of great ideas, and I suppose that is what literature is: a quagmire of great ideas. Still, I must try (it is my passion after all). ( )

The homeless woman asks, "Spare a little change, Love?" and crazy, pre-pubescent, sister Delirium of the Endless (she who when sane was the sweet, vulnerable Delight) responds, "Change. That was always kind of the problem, kind of ... um ... change, Change, CHANGE, change, chaaaange. When you says words a lot they don't mean anything or maybe they don't mean anything anyway and we just think they do ..." (ch I, pg 8)
Because Delirium can't bear the change that is the loss of brother Destruction, she and brother Dream go on a quest to recover him. They do find him, and it triggers irrevocable change. Destruction, whose realm it is to destroy the old so as to make room for the new, is the most unsettled of all about the change he rules. He says of the night sky, " I like the stars. It's the illusion of permanence, I think. I mean, they're always flaring up and caving in and going out. But from here, I can pretend ... I can pretend that things last. I can pretend that lives last longer than moments. Gods come, and gods go. Mortals flicker and flash and fade. Worlds don't last; and stars and galaxies are transient, fleeting things that twinkle like fireflies and vanish into cold and dust. But I can pretend." (ch 8, pg 12-13)
Brother Destiny says to Dream, "You are prince of those symbols and shapes that mean other than they seem, of metaphor and of allusion. My dominion is that which IS, of actions and consequences and paths." (ch 7, pg 9). But later Destruction sweeps aside the categories of Endless. He scoffs, "The Endless are merely patterns. The Endless are ideas. The Endless are wave functions. The Endless are repeating motifs. The Endless are echoes of darkness, and nothing more. We have no right to play with [mortal] lives, to order their dreams and their desires." (ch 8, pg 16)
Jung would say that the Endless are archetypes, and that Destruction's abdication is part of the process of assimilating unconscious content into consciousness. This process causes the Self (our "unit" of mortality) to grow in awareness, to become increasingly more integrated, so it is better able to function at its own discernment, rather than as the puppet of unconscious whims, drives, and/or obsessions.

Brief Lives is my favorite of the Sandman collections mainly because I started reading individual issues of this arc as my introduction to the series back in 1993, so it holds nostalgic value for me. Perhaps this makes me biased but I think it makes a good introduction to the Sandman series even though it takes place over halfway through the original serial run. Gaiman had really hit his stride. A few points make it a good point of entry, such as its linear plot arc and because of all the storylines the Endless and their family dynamics central to the plot. While six of the seven Endless were introduced in previous issues (and Destruction’s fate discussed obliquely), it is in Brief Lives that you see how they interact with each other, their prejudices and rivalries. At a dramatic point in the conclusion a long conversation contrasts several of the immortal siblings which caused me to see them in a different light.

Delirium, the youngest and most scattered Endless, conceives of a quest to find her older brother Destruction, who abandoned his realm and responsibilities sometime during the Age of Reason. He had grown rather fond of Earth, and couldn’t bear to continue his duties after humans take up the scientific principles that in his words can only lead to “the age of fire and flame”. Delirium conceives of this quest haphazardly as a quixotic attempt to bring the family back together. She knows that she doesn’t have the coherence to put together such an attempt on her own so she turns to her older siblings for help. After being rebuffed twice, Dream agrees to travel with her if only to distract himself from sorrow of a recent romance gone sour but does not seriously expect or even desire success.

Mortality is a central theme. Even goddesses and extremely long-lived humans mysteriously meet their death in the wake of the mismatched pair. There is a lot of character development in this collection. Dream finds himself shaken and challenged at many points, at one point he even weeps when he comes to an uncomfortable realization. That is pretty stark when compared to the haughty, proud, and vainly single-minded Morpheus from earlier in the series. Delirium finally gets some serious “screen time”. While first portrayed as scattered and irrecoverably insane she later shows sighs of self-knowledge and hidden wisdom. At one point she angrily defends herself, saying she knows lots of hidden truths unknown to her more stable older siblings. Flashbacks show a real tenderness between Delirium (formally Delight) and Destruction, so it is not surprising that she would want to seek him out.

And where has Destruction been all this time? He has been teaching himself to create things as a way of escaping his dharma. Unfortunately he is terrible at it, as it pointed out by his talking canine companion who kvetches over his attempts at art, sculpture, poetry, and cuisine. When there is a reunion near the conclusion of the story they talk over their differences. Destruction refuses to return to his duties and tries to explain his motives to Dream, whom finds it baffling and a bit heretical. He even tries to warn Dream about certain flaws in his personality that will soon bring about his downfall, but Dream is too stubborn avoid them.

Jill Thompson’s artwork is very engaging; sometimes beautiful and other times jarring and disturbing and always somehow unexpected. I think the artwork reflects the nature of the story very well in that sense. I always kind of want it to be a bit different somehow but she lines stray in odd direction that at first irk me but then I find it engaging. Also the color palate is full of bright pastels, which you might not expect for an adult-themed graphic novel of such intellectual weight. It is a nice break from dreary gothic tones found in, say, the start off Preludes and Nocturnes. ( )