Official DC Book Club: Sandman - Preludes & Nocturnes!

Humanity’s been trying to master death for as long as humanity has existed. Tampering with the fundamental nature of the universe is always going to have repercussions. See: the way we’ve utterly polluted this planet in just a couple hundred short years of the world’s lifespan.

Of course dreams are important to humanity. It’s where we work things out, it’s where we find inspiration, and where we confront our greatest fears. What we dream about reflects who we are.

Spite, mostly. But also, indifference. As an immortal being, Dream knew he could outlive his captors, and the castle around him become dust, and he’d be none worse off. To him, 70 years is no time at all. He didn’t want to give Burgess the satisfaction of even believing he’d been inocnvenienced.

Everything in The Dreaming is emblematic of the nature of stories. Cain and Abel, the first killer and the first victim, represent conflict itself. And the idea (true or not) that you can’t have a story at all without conflict.

It certainly embodies itself in the Three Fates, as represented by the three witches from The Witching Hour. Fate, when you get down to it, is simply the idea that every story has an ending. That’s part of what makes Sandman so special – it may be a long journey, but it had always begun with a definite ending in mind. Rare for “ongoing” comics, and rarer still for that ending to be realized.

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When I was a child, I’d never even heard of The Sandman until now recently and I first read the entire first volume of it and continued reading the rest. The first volume was terrific it touched me with the eighth issue, The Sound of Her Wings, and the first issue, Sleep of the Just! Now, I’m falling in love with the comic series and I finished watching the entire first series of The Sandman on Netflix, it’s so amazing and captivating! I’m looking forward to the second season of the show! Thank you, DC, and Neil Gaiman for introducing me to the realm of The Dreaming and The Lord of Dreams himself, Morpheus!

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That’s so exciting that you were able to discover the wonderful world crafted for us by Gaiman–I think it’s truly some of the best storytelling that I’ve come across in my life. Glad you’re here to join us on this journey into the Dreaming!

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We’ve had this discussion around these parts before. The consensus is that it probably has to do with the rights involving Comixology, cause the full series is available there.

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“You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.”

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Dreams are important. I suppose I use the sense of “dream” to mean aspiration rather than what we do when we sleep. Dreams drive people to achieve their goals. For instance, the Wright Brothers dreamed of a machine that would fly, and now we have airplanes. Dreams lead to progress. In this example a dream definitely shaped reality.

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Even though Dream was captive, his silence showed that Burgess held no power over him. Dream wasn’t going to “perform” for anybody. No tricks, no fancy show, no wish fulfillment.

Also, there was no guarantee that if Dream gave his captor what he was asking for that Burgess would actually let him free. Who’s to say he wouldn’t try rubbing the genie lamp another time to see what else he can get?

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Small point of order: Why does DCUI say that issue #1 was published in 2010? This series goes back to 1989, right? I know it’s not the date it was added to DCUI because not even the original DCU existed then. Is this a reboot, or am I missing something (probably something obvious)?

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This is actually the case for a lot of titles on DCUI, where they default to 2010 as a publication date. It must be some kind of general error. I’ve tried to alert them to this before.

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  1. How do you feel about Roderick Burgess’s attempt to capture Death? Do you think this is emblematic of humanity’s general goals?

    I believe it was a bad idea that shouldn’t have been followed tbrough. Especially since he new he was an amateur but his pride got in the way of his head. Yes most people would love to live forever by conquering Death.

  2. How do you think dreams shape our waking world (in real life)? Do you think dreams are important to humanity?

They are very important to the real world and humanity. Our dreams guide us and give us the strength to carry on when everything around us feels like their against us or life becomes too hard.

  1. Why do you think Dream/Morpheus remained so silent during his captivity? What was his goal here?

His goal was his reason to torment his tormentor. By not speaking all he did was show that Burgess had no real power over him.

  1. What do believe Cain and Abel represent in this story?

Stories. They are the first story that humanity has.

  1. The concept of fate is an important in many fantasy stories. What role does fate play in Morpheus’ journey so far?

Guides that give him directions.

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I think it embodies what humanity wishes it could do. Especially in the time period of World War One. I think he was way too confident to think that it would actually work, but he did capture Dream, so I guess he had just enough confidence?

I know I rarely remember my dreams. (I know everyone is different) But on mornings when I do remember my dreams I definitely sit and think about them before starting my day. It 100% shapes my day from the start, on a literal level.

But it also does on a subconscious level too. They are important because they are a outlet even if we don’t remember what we dream. Nightmares and Dreams are important to work through because they all mean something. None of it might be simple to understand but it does mean something eventually.

To me this felt like it was a little bit of pettiness and a little bit of he had nothing to say. Morpheus said that he couldn’t give Roderick what he wanted. He probably knew Roderick wouldn’t listen so he didn’t bother to explain. He also knew that a couple decades of silence would be nothing to him but a lifetime to Roderick. So, just waiting it all out was simple.

There’s an interesting concept of Morpheus collecting ‘stories’ in The Dreaming. Cain and Abel are the first Murderer and the first Victim. And it’s a story told to millions of children around the world.

We also see Morpheus become a victim, for what might be the first time, before we meet them. So they also represent what he has just gone through.

This is a tough question. I think Morpheus understood his fate and then he was held captive for 100+ years. And now he has to figure himself and his kingdom out all over again. It is always a fascinating cliché to see such powerful beings, who thought they were above those sort of things, have to go on a soul or fate searching quests. I love it.

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This is an awesome practice! I used to do this too, a few years back when I was trying to experience lucid dreaming. But regardless of the goal, I think doing this is a really neat ritual!

Interesting take! I hadn’t thought of this, but I like it a lot.

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Agreed! I like the dual use of the definition of dreams–it lends itself to the story either way.

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I wonder who would play Morpheus’ lawyer…

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Oh MAN…not to get off track, but last night’s episode had be sweating.

I fully support this pick for a lawyer though :wink:

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I do think that Burgess’ attempt to capture death is emblematic of humanity’s general goals. At the same time — and perhaps more importantly — I think Burgess’ intent in capturing Death is also emblematic of humanity’s goals. It’s clear he’s largely doing it for power and without out regard to the people he’s damaged in the process, but there could be a kernel of doing all this is to try and gain knew knowledge, but it’s all warped by his greed.

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Daredevil x Dream crossover?

spider-man-matt-murdock

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Ultimately… Is it emblematic of humanity’s general goals? Yes. Is it fundamentally wrong? Ummmmm… I generally don’t like rules of any kind, so when I’m told that “death is the way of things”, I kind of instinctively object. I’m not saying she doesn’t have her purpose, but I think she should have, like, an “opt out” feature… Sort of like the Good Place.

Well, the only concrete example I can think of is Mary Shelley getting the idea for Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus in a dream. This next one is a total coincidence, but I once dreamed that a certain character (I won’t say who, because it came true, so SPOILERS!) would turn out to be bisexual, and a couple of weeks later, as it turned out, they had been added to Wookieepedia’s category of “LGBTQ+ individuals”. I know it was just a coincidence, even if it sort of feels like only Dream of the Endless could make Disney add another major queer character outside of the unjustly canceled The Owl House. Again, this is just a joke, I know dreams only actually shape the realities of the dreamer, not of all-powerful homophobic corporations. This was just an excuse to share my funny story.

Probably kept quiet so that he wouldn’t start thinking of his captors as equals. It’s what I would’ve done. I’m just kidding, I wouldn’t’ve been that smart. As for his goal, I reversed the polarity of the neutron flow.

Ooh, they represent something now?

Is this a trick question? He played the role of absentee older brother.

And if you’re wondering who the newly queer Star Wars character is, it’s Obi-Wan Kenobi. Yes, that Obi-Wan Kenobi. :exploding_head: And no, I don’t know the details.

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Sandman, hell yeah! :kite_man_hell_yeah:

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