The Sandman: Dream Country

Aquarius season is all about revelling in the weird vibes, so this strange little interlude in the Sandman narrative is a perfect accompaniment. Contained within its pages, which bridge the gap between the epic events of The Doll’s House and the revelations of Seasons of Mist, are four short dreams that range in tone from perfectly whimsical to downright disturbing. The first tells the story of Calliope, a tale of confinement and rape that I find particularly difficult to stomach for obvious reasons, but which reveals much about the past of the Dream King. Themes of binding, codependency, and the power dynamics between the sexes give this story a thematic richness for all of its disturbing content and imagery, and thankfully show more Gaiman’s Oneiros takes a step towards humanity’s mercy with a judicious use of his power as he helps free his long-ago lover from captivity. “A Dream of a Thousand Cats” is at once a softer tale, but one which once again treads dark themes. What do we know of the dreams of cats, who are creatures of the night and predators made small? The shifted Morpheus reveals their truths in a dream, and sets an erstwhile Siamese on a prophetic quest towards freedom for feline kind. The takeaway here: take care to mind those who are smaller than you, as even the smallest have dreams that may become horrifying realities. The third tale (and my personal favourite of maybe the entire Sandman series) treads familiar territory. Back in time we go to walk the English countryside with Will Shakespeare and his players, as they avoid the summer plague season in London and play the greens instead for a host of faerie - and the Dream King, of course. As “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” plays out in front of the otherworldly court we hear about their plans to leave the mortal realms for good, and Morpheus’ agreement with Shakespeare that results in a play that will keep them from being forgotten down the ages. Well played, master Dreamer, and fitting, as it is in his realm that the magic of the other world can be revisited (if we’re lucky). The fey are also right that the accidental truths in the play are that, and worthwhile, convincing the Puck to remain behind after his brethren have gone from this world and continue his small brand of mischief - a small honesty from an unlikely antihero. The last tale in this collection is maybe the oddest of all - if only because its protagonist is definitely not an expected character to come up in the Sandman story arcs. Elemental Girl is an interesting character, and with her origin story beginning with an unexpected encounter with the sun for Ra and her inability to live a more normal human life, she’s a solid character for Gaiman to tackle. Morpheus is decidedly absent from this tale, but we’re glad for it, because we’re given the opportunity to see more of his elder sister, Death. Being separate from the human world, it is not surprising that Elemental Girl wishes for an end to her suffering or an explanation for how she should survive, and it is through a chat with the passing Death that she is able to see the light (literally) and find solace. Her suicide may be glorified, which can definitely be read as problematic and unsympathetic, but Death (the character not the state of being) is anything but and Urania’s unity with the sun is fitting for her next/last elemental incarnation. And with that this particular set of dreams ends, and the next cycle in Morpheus’ epic stage is set. The Dream Country may have been left, and Morpheus must not remain hidden away in his castle, but what is hidden in the mists of the coming Season? Sweet dreams, until tomorrow night! show less

2.5 Stars
I didn't like this volume as much as I did the first two, probably because it is composed of four unrelated stories that don't connect into the Sandman arc. I was really getting into that story so I'm disappointed that I didn't get a continuation this book (and they're not exactly cheap!).

I didn't like the first one at all. As a rule I do not enjoy stories that contain rape.. especially when it's in comic book form. This is about the youngest of the nine muses who was trapped, imprisoned and raped by a writer because doing so gave him ideas for prize-winning best-selling works. The old writer passes her off to a new one. I hated it, it was gross and it made me angry. I did like to see the softer, if you can call it that, side show more to Morpheus though and apparently he has a son.

The second one was about cats dreaming which was weird but I did quite like the novelty of it! I also liked the idea of being about to collectively dream something into existing, and it made me think about the way we treat out pets.

The third story features Will Shakespeare making good on his bargain, and performing a Midsummer Nights Dream. I found that dragged a fair bit, and there may have being something literary in all that that flew over my head! Apparently it won an award, so what do I know?

The last story was really bizarre and featured Death rather than Morpheus. It features Element Girl, who is very depressed about that has happened to her and living in isolation but cannot find a way to end her life. Death, who I was happy to see again, rocks up and finds a way to help her. I was a bit surprised by this one as I'm not used to see people with powers (other than the Endless) in The Sandman! It was ok.

It was OK. Disappointed that it wasn't what I wanted.. I almost wish I'd skipped this volume. show less

Volume 3 of the acclaimed 'Sandman' series but stand-alone. This edition also contains the original script for the first of its four stories, 'Calliope', which might be of interest to students of illustration.

If we are to be honest, Neil Gaiman is engaged in a project to bring 'Tales from the Crypt' up the literary and artistic food chain. There is no doubt that he succeeds admirably in his task, aided by a series of excellent illustrators, but the stories, with the exception of his re-thinking of the origins of Shakespeare's 'Midsummer Night's Dream', are not complex - poetic and suggestive perhaps but not complex.

The first story. the 'Calliope', tells of a writer's abuse of an incarnated muse, an exploitation that has its sexual side show more and which brilliantly makes a creative reader feel besmirched by his own potential for evil in following his artistic ambition. Gaiman and illustrator Kelley Jones' skill lies in making a captured Greek mythological figure into the type of sex-trafficked woman and the artist into little more than a sleazy punter or pimp - a reversal of romantic views of the artist and her muse that is truly horrific.

The second, 'A Dream of a Thousand Cats' is a 'take' on another type of dream, not that of ambition but of dream as magical transformer of reality. This is a theme that we know from 'The Matrix' but here it is expressed as the remaking of reality and their history by humans and cats in turn and intentionally leaves us with a sense of unease. It might also be read as a commentary on the potential power of religious faith, born out of suffering, to change the world although the unease remains just that, unease - there is no real evidence here that faith changes anything but the faithful or that the faithful have anything more to look forward to than homeless wandering and more pain.

The award winning Shakespearian tale is magical at two levels. It is English-magical in referring back to the Old Religion and the ancient countryside in a way that should have earned it a place at the recent 'Dark Monarch' Exhibition by the Tate on magic and modernity in English art. But it also revisits the issue of the price paid by the artist in his obsessive disregard for a greater personal creation than his play and his bargain with the Dark Lord of the the dream world for inspiration, a bargain as cruel in its way as that of the writer in 'Calliope'.

Gaiman is different from all his contemporaries in questioning here and occasionally elsewhere whether the imagination and magic are sufficient cause to abandon the world. The conclusion appears to be that he and other imaginative people can do no other but that they should be under no illusion that what they do is somehow inevitably better or nobler than the lives of ordinary mortals.

This seems to be an attitude very different from that of the bulk of the English School of imaginative and magical writers, of which Alan Moore is exemplar, where the world of faery, alchemy, imagination and magic seem to be presented as an alternate reality truer than our mundane world. It strikes me as no surprise that Gaiman would find himself not only living happily in America but seemingly welcoming its modernity in later works. There is an ambiguity in Gaiman that might just, when history judges him, tip him into the very top rank of authors.

The final story,'Facade', as if to confirm this thesis, is, by contrast very modern and very American, with a nod to the 'superhero' tradition that never really embedded itself in Gaiman's homeland. In this case, we may have an Egyptian mythological back story and visual references to the Mummy tradition but the core story is one of mysterious government agencies and advanced bodily transmutation in which science rather than magic is dominant. This is the world of 'Superman' if seen through a very dark lens. Ra's magic is as scientific in its way as the speculations of Stoker's main protagonist against 'The Mummy' in the 'Jewel of the Seven Stars' nearly a hundred years before.

Taken together, the four stories are variations on the theme of dreaming a myth - of the incorporation of myth into reality, of the use of myth to change reality, of the creative interplay, with its dangers, of myth and reality and of science as a dream or myth in its own right. The Dark Lord of the dream world appears in two of them - where myth and legend are most obviously in sight. The other two have American settings and owe their style to the American comic book tradition. As in 'American Gods', Gaiman is merging European mythic and American popular cultural traditions with not a little genius.

It is probably no accident that Gaiman uses a quotation in a letter from the quintessential English writer of the supernatural, magic and the Old Religion, Arthur Machen, to the American James Branch Cabell in 1918 as one of his two introductory quotations. He also quotes separately that all writers are liars. The two quotations set the mood - an artist-writer hybridising two great traditions of magic and modernity but not believing that anything he creates represents anything bigger than a human imaginative creation. Pragmatic, sceptical, Gaiman uses but is not part of the English mystical-magical tradition.

Yet, at the end of the day, while the style is brilliant and the themes intriguing, the attempt to go beyond the comic book shows the weakness of the genre. In general, high quality books are far better than the films that they derive from - we think of Moravia's treatment by no less Directors than Bertolucci and Godard. On the other hand, films made from comic books and second-rate pulp fiction tend to be superior to their sources.

There is an intellectual hierarchy here whether we like it or not, albeit with exceptions on all sides. This graphic novel is far greater than most graphic material and it deserves re-reading but you sense that it is a stepping stone to the prize rather than the prize itself and has lost something by trying to do more than graphic novels can do. Still, it has to be in any respectable collection and Gaiman certainly gets the best out of his illustrators. You will not regret owning it. show less

4.5/5 stars
The Sandman: Volume 3 - Dream Country (written by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Kelley Jones (17-18, Charles Vess (19), and Colleen Doran (20))
Dream Country is a bit tricky to review as it's less of an arc and more of a collection of one-shots - though all of the one-shots are great. There's no storyline to follow here, no characters to track. Instead, this volume is more akin to a short story collection, where each issue has to be looked at as a complete story - and it's a lot of fun. Dream Country is the volume where it becomes apparent just how varied The Sandman can be.

First up is "Caliope," one of those stories with a great idea that's a bit difficult to read. The idea of a writer capturing a muse is a great one, but show more having to see the awful things done to Caliope doesn't make for a very fun read. Still, it falls into that common Sandman trope of Morpheus coming by to give a bad person their just desserts and that remains as satisfying as ever. Plus, Kelley Jones' artwork is gorgeous. "Caliope" is one of those stories that probably worked when it was first published but hasn't aged so well.

Second is "A Dream of a Thousand Cats," the first of many Sandman issues that could be considered classic. Here, a cat tells the tale of when she met the cat Dream and all that she learned from him. It's a delightful little tale with some more gorgeous artwork from Kelley Jones. It's interesting reading this directly after the previous issue and seeing how this series can so deftly go from a dark story about a writer capturing Caliope to a story about cats wanting to dream a world where they are the dominant species. It's a testament to the malleability of the world Gaiman has created that these issues can work back-to-back like this at all.

Up third is "A Midsummer Night's Dream," my personal favorite issue of the volume. Here, William Shakespeare and his troupe of actors perform A Midsummer Night's Dream for a rather unusual audience - the fae that inspired the very play. In a collection of one-shots that are all about the power of stories, this particular story might be the one that best touches on that theme. Plus, it's paired with the gorgeous artwork of Charles Vess, who creates paintings on each page that perfect capture the majesty of the fae. If you only read a single issue of The Sandman, I'd argue this is the one to read.

Lastly, there's "Façade," the odd story out. Dream doesn't appear in this one at all, rather it's his sister, Death, who visits the story's main character, Urania, in a moment of darkness. It's an interesting premise - Urania is basically a superhero who hates the loss of her normal life. She desperately wants to return to a life of normalcy, but she is unable to. It's this desire for death that we track throughout the comic. The highlight, of course, is the conversation between Urania and Death. It's a weird story, though, accompanied by some suitably surreal art from Colleen Doran, but it's an enjoyable one nonetheless.

All in all, Dream Country is a weird installment in The Sandman series, but it's also one of my favorites. It's nice, after an arc as heavy as The Doll's House, to take a moment and explore some of the other corners of Gaiman's world. Each of the stories are super interesting and well worth a read on their own. The artwork for each issue fits perfectly with the story being told and it all coalesces into what might be my favorite of the first three volumes of The Sandman. show less

Evidently the stress of writing a nice coherent plot in The Doll’s House proved temporarily too much for Neil Gaiman, and he took a break to write some single-issue self-contained stories. And these are some damn good stories. Except I don’t like “Façade”. I remember not liking it so um, I sort of skipped it.

Anyway, the other three stories are very, very good. I like “Calliope” the best. It’s not that I don’t like the other two – I do – but I just like “Calliope” way the best. “Dream of a Thousand Cats” is a smidge too – I don’t know, I think it takes itself a tiny bit too seriously, considering how whimsical a story it is. And “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is gorgeous and delightful, and no wonder show more it won a prize, but I am not in love with Sandman’s treatment of Shakespeare. I love Shakespeare. AND HE WAS NOT FRANCIS BACON AND HE DID NOT MAKE A DEAL WITH DREAM AND HE WAS A GENIUS BY HIMSELF OKAY?

Calm down, Jenny.

Anyway, I think “Calliope” is great. I adore the brief one-panel vignettes you see of Richard Madoc – chatting up a girl at a party and telling her he does consider himself a feminist writer – then going home to the woman he’s keeping prisoner so he can be a genius. And as well, this story casts Dream in a better light than we’ve really seen him. His last two encounters with women haven’t been nice: condemning Nada to hell forever and ditching Lyta Hall all pregnant and despairing. I’m always glad to see him being helpful to Calliope and screwing up Madoc’s life permanently – though without the vindictiveness I would have expected. (This is change on his part. Watch how it will remain a theme.) show less

Re-read, 3/3/20:

All of these stories are wonderful, but I think I preferred the monk and the fox story best this time. A close second is Midsummer Night's Dream. For all the right reasons. :)

Original review:

This is a fairly short volume, but each story is tight and delightful. This is where I remember the Sandman comics coming into its own, and Morpheus himself hardly had any role in them. It's all about stories. Stories about stories. Of course, I can make the same argument about the entire run of the series, but like I said, this is where it comes into its own.

A kidnapped muse gets freed by her old lover. A cat's dreaming of a new and free world. What the Fae court really felt about [b:A Midsummer Night's Dream|1622|A Midsummer show more Night's Dream|William Shakespeare|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327874534l/1622._SY75_.jpg|894834]. A world of masks.

None of these short descriptions really do any of it justice. Dream gets revenge on an artist that rapes Calliope for his success, and the revenge is so damn sweet it bears repeating a thousand times. You want ideas? I'll give you ideas... muahahaha... :) The cat's dream was of overturning the rule of man, while remembering that cats once DID rule man, but man dreamt of a new world with more of it's kind and changed the nature of reality. Can't cats bring themselves to reverse reality in the same way? It brings a whole new spin on the adage, "To herd cats."

But it was the story about the Shakespearian production that takes the cake. Dream invites the entire Fae court to watch Will and his entire cast of players in a private production of the famous play, becoming a dream within a dream within a dream in a real sense, and because Puck, well, shenanigans ensue. There was sadness and longing, and it was nearly, but not quite, 4th walled. I think this one was my favourite.

The mythbuilding is truly great stuff. :) show less

In which Morpheus, the Dream King, the Sandman, only appears peripherally - quite a bold step, that, to barely include the main character in his own book. The four stories are separate short stories, but they have in common that they are all about the power of mythology and stories - of which Dream is obviously an inherent part. As is true of the entire Sandman saga, the common thread is not only the title character (a point made early by Gaiman and McKean when they decided to not put his face on the covers), but also his powers - the creation of stories, the weaving of myths.

In "Calliope," the mythical muse gives inspiration to the artist to create great fiction; "Dream of a Thousand Cats" describes how reality is shaped, literally, by show more dreams and stories; "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is about how fiction can create reality and once incorporated into myth, characters will never cease to be ("Tales and dreams are shadow-truths that will endure when mere facts are dust and ashes, and forgot."); and "Facade" about the difference between myth's guise and its reality. It's significant, I think, that the collection starts with "Calliope" since the stories contained within Dream Country are expansions on a smattering of ideas that are tied in, but separate from, the overall Sandman saga - I can imagine the Gaiman brain occasionally acting like Madoc's does once Dream has gotten his claws into it.

If you overlook the less than attractive art (what is up with that hair?!), "Calliope" is an interesting take on the idea of inspiration - to what lengths would the desperate artist go to gain it? A story about writer's block seems quite a brave choice for any writer - something to really tempt the fates with. Interesting about this take on the writer's plight is that whereas Calliope is the muse of epic poetry (believed to be Homer's muse), Madoc's stories aren't heroic, but rather pure horror, presumably because he never wooed her, but took her powers by force.

"Dream of a Thousand Cats" has the advantage of being told in the voice of a non-human - if it hadn't been, the story would have been directly religious, which I doubt was the intent even though the Siamese is clearly a messianic character. Also, she met Dream before his imprisonment, supposedly, and, since the kitten dreams at the end, this story must be told after he is released - that's one long-lived cat. In essence, this is the Gaimanian equivalent of "if you build it, he will come," applied (surprisingly poignantly) to a cat to show that dreams are not only the stuff of the human mind.

"A Midsummer Night's Dream" is the most famous, and the funniest ("'I am that merry wanderer of the night?' I am that giggling-dangerous-totally-bloody-psychotic-menace-to-life-and-limb, more like it."), of the stories in the collection. The overall point is one of fiction creating truth ("History is written by the victors" and all that) since Dream is making the faerie folk stay in our world's conscience by having Shakespeare write about them (the actual Oberon and his people have left already). It is apt, since the faerie are known for their pride, that they are virtually mesmerized by their stage counterparts - especially Puck who even decides to step in. Another interesting part of this story is Dream's ruminations on the price Shakespeare has paid for his talent (i.e. Hamnet), which parallels his own history with Orpheus (see Fables & Reflections). Note that although faeries in our (and in Shakespeare's, time) are tiny creatures, the Aos Sí/Sidhe on which these faeries are based were a tall and slender race, which is why the Auberon of this tale towers over all the humans (the Sidhe are also what Tolkien based his elves on).

"Façade" is more about the deceptive nature of dreams than anything else - when the rest of us dream of being superheroes, superheroes dream of being human. Possibly, this story was spawned by Gaiman's friendship with Alan Moore who is a bit of a master at looking behind the proverbial mask of superheroes. It's not my favorite in this collection, but it is interesting to see how wishing to die can be as strong, if not stronger, than wishing to live. Element Girl may seem an odd pick for a main character, but she had such a small part in the DC universe that Gaiman got permission to kill her off - that might be the very mundane reason she's in it at all.

And, as in the other installments, there are numerous little jokes and quirks hidden throughout, like Fry poisoning himself when he owns a bezoar (the one he traded Calliope for), or like Kemp arguing for an expanded role (which his own role, Bottom, would have done in the play-within-the-play), or Auberon wearing a cuckold's horns. Just a few little quirks to make reading and rereading extra fun.

The script pages included at the end are fairly straight-forward - it's a sample of how Gaiman writes his scripts. I did like that one of his directions to the artist is, "FAIRLY SUBTLY, DOING ALL THE WORK IN THE READER'S HEAD." That's very much Gaiman - messing with our minds. show less