We try to keep it pretty clean around here, but I have to say, when I picked up Season of Mists to 
prepare for this re-read, my first thought was, “Shit’s about to get real, now.”
From the opening in Destiny’s Garden, through the negotiations for Hell and the closing of Destiny’s book at the end, this collection was the most emotional for me thus far. Here is where we see future events really begin to take shape. Every page gave me either the goosebumps or a case of the giggles (“I do not want a grape” has always been one of my favorite Dream lines) or both. I’ll save the more spoilery discussion for the end of the post, however.
Lets start with the thesis that seems to run through this arc: Choice. This novel is full of people, fallen angels, anthropomorphic personifications, demons and gods making choices with massive consequences, whether they realize it or not.
And who is most incredulous at these choices? Who feels the least able to make them for himself? Dream, of course. Good old “we do as we must do” Dream.
As he travels to Hell, cold and afraid in the In-between, he contemplates staying there forever. He’s had a rough few years, after all. Everything seems to have changed around him and he’s…ill-equipped to deal. Yet, in true Dream form, it is his sense of responsibility to his realm, and of right and wrong, that keep pushing him forward into Hell to free Nada.
You sure about that, Dream Lord?
So, of course he is stunned upon his arrival to learn that Lucifer is doing exactly what Morpheus himself had been contemplating: The Lightbringer is leaving it all behind. He’s letting someone else take care of “it.” Of course, he’s also messing with Dream big time, perhaps trying to destroy him, but mostly, Lucifer is
...Wait, does this mean it's *my* fault I drank all those margaritas last night?
setting out to enjoy himself. While Morpheus is incredulous that the Devil would abandon his responsibilities, Lucifer seems to have a sort of Zen peace that comes from knowing all of those responsibilities are optional. He actually has a lot to say about choices, intimating that all the souls in Hell might have chosen to be there rather than been sentenced, lamenting the human tendency to blame their ill-actions on him, when the truth is they belong to themselves – their lives and actions are their own, just as he says “we belong to ourselves.” Thus, Lucifer has decided to start enjoying the best kind of freedom, the kind that Morpheus could never enjoy, “the freedom to leave.”
The rest of the novel is full of people and entities realizing that what they thought they had to do, perhaps they do not. Payne realizes he can leave the place which houses his bones, and both boys realize they can choose to not go with Death. Nada realizes it is at least possible that she could have left Hell at any time (…does this let Morpheus off the hook?). Dream himself realizes that all this rigmarole about who’s going to get Hell (and how fun is THAT section?), isn’t a choice he has to make after all. His freedom is a freedom from responsibility. Of course, it isn’t a freedom he took for himself, as he could have, but it is one he is granted.
Here’s something interesting: what we see in the end is that it is not the individual who is important when it comes to running Hell, or to running any realm. Lucifer, the triumvirate referred to in Preludes and Nocturnes, Duma and Remiel – doesn’t matter. Because one way or another, someone will do it. The Angels in question consider rebelling, making the choice to leave, but in the end stay…and embrace their responsibilities in a terribly creepy way.
This is true of The Endless as well, isn’t it? We learn in this novel that Despair isn’t the original Despair at all. But, in spite of the end of that aspect of the Endless, there is still someone to stare back at us in the mirror from time to time and make us feel things we would rather not feel. Heaven gets a new Hell as a dark reflection. We get a new Despair.
This part will have some MAJOR spoilers for future events beyond Season of Mist. If you have not finished The Sandman series altogether, stop here and skip to the very bottom.
There is so much to love about this arc.
I’m particularly fond of the mysteries that are never quite solved – what exactly happened to Matthew to bring him to The Dreaming? It is clear he was a troubled human, he alludes to making some kind of deal with a demon, we know he was given a choice to come live as a raven and we know he’s not the first to do so…but I’m still not sure exactly what happened there. Why him? Why a raven?
Oh, and what’s the deal with Eve?
And why did Delight change to Delirium? I don’t just mean, “What happened,” I mean “Why didn’t a new aspect of Delight take over if the original was no longer able?” This is what happened to Despair, and what will happen to Dream. What was different about Delight?
Ooooh, and my favorite: what does Delirium know about The Endless that no one else, not even Destiny, knows? I suspect the answer is connected to my last question.
I also get terrible goosebumps in the scene with Daniel. This really is where it gets real, isn’t it? For those who know where this is all headed, that scene is all the evidence we need that Gaiman knew it way before we did. How could we not have guessed?
Spoilers over!
OK, I could list a million things. I have barely even touched on the awesomeness of the interaction of all the gods when they come for the key to Hell. This novel is non-stop cool.
What are your favorite moments? (be sure to warn of spoilers for future collections!)
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I can’t explain the details since I haven’t ever read Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing (I know, *gasp!*) But Matthew the Raven started out in that comic and he was a guy who died and for some reason became the raven in Sandman. I think Dieter might have the answer we seek.
The foreshadowing in this book is creeptastic and it’s just amazeballs to see how Gaiman built this world, this story, so solidly.
I think it’s neat that at the family dinner, Despair is the one that tries to bring order and peace initially. How unexpected.
Death is so loveable and real- that workout outfit with legwarmers and all because she’s crazy busy, so cute!
I like that the family meeting table is a heptagon- they are all so prideful they couldn’t have a “head” of the table.
I love the scene where Dream accepts the balloon from Princess Jemmy and is just standing there with the balloon for a few panels and eventually releasing it to Matthew. I think that says volumes about Morpheus. He doesn’t want it but it would be rude to not accept a gift.
Also here is a good place to mention a Sandman spin off that is worth visiting- Lucifer by Mike Carey. He pays tribute to Gaiman’s writing and respects his interpretation of Lucifer while being strong in his own voice.
More later from me!
And allow me to add- Death’s relationship with Dream is so touching. Why are those two so close? But her opinion is one of the few that seem to matter to Dream and their interaction is this episode is sweet and touching.
I’d never thought that there was any need for a new aspect of Delight, because the old one wasn’t destroyed or incapacitated, she changed into something new. Though that’s touched on more in Brief Lives.
Season of Mist is probably one of my favourites as well. It feels even more part of something than previous collections, but isn’t so continuity-bound that it can’t be enjoyed on its own.
I’ll get to my take on Seasons later; but first I have to vent! I’ve been at Readercon for the first three days. I follow Neil and he said NOTHING about going to Readercon. Today I decide not to go. Guess which day Neil and Amanda decide to go and pick up two Shirley Jackson awards? You got it, today!
Oh I saw the pictures. I’m so sorry! That really really sucks. Oh man… Tweet him, maybe he’ll respond?
What I loved about this story arc was how Neil respected all of the deities and their cultures without making any of them seem less than the other especially with his solution for the sovereignty of Hell.
Possible spoilers! — if not just wanted to be careful!
Another favorite was the brief histories of each Endless giving a more rounded picture and of course “How would you feel about life if Death was your older sister?” And finally Lucifer sitting on the beach “The sunsets are. bloody marvelous, you old Bastard. Satisfied?”
*Possible spoilers*
I love the involvement of the gods of Asgard in this book. Odin/Wednesday is, as always, a cool customer. I wonder how Huginn and Muninn would have got on with Matthew the Raven… Did they have their own separate corvid party while Dream was meeting the contenders for the key of Hell?
The artwork for the sections in Hell is awesome. It’s like the Gustave Dore illustrations of the Divine Comedy on LSD. The nastier and more repulsive elements remind me of the works of Jake and Dinos Chapman – the mangled bodies and strange creature hybrids – brrrrrr…stuff of nightmares. i even find remiel and duma creepy, especially their ultimate cheerful resignation to their new role.
i’ve often wondered how the power to condemn someone to hell or allow them to be reborn was conferred on dream.you’d normally expect only god to be able to make those kinds of calls. death seemingly has little or no part in the destination but seems only to open the door to those she “visits”.
I have to confess that this has never been my favourite book in the series,though I really can’t put my finger on why and appreciate i will totally be in a minority!
The angels’ eyes and faces always creeped me out too! From this story I’d take that humans have all the say as to what their destination is. I wonder if Death is just as friendly and perky to everyone she escorts away.
Rachel – I have wondered the same about Morpheus and his power to intervene postmortem. I’m not sure we get an explanation for this, or any hint that the other Endless do the same. Perhaps dreams continue beyond the lives of humans, so his power does as well…?
This actually isn’t my favorite either, but it’s up there. (Brief Lives has always been my favorite).
It is probably just as well that the Endless family is not united. If they all worked together, who could stand against them?
One thing about Destiny: it is not clear he has much agency; that he is really an actor. His general feel is that he just sees fate work its way out as written in his book. At least, it is always ambiguous. On page 15, “reading on, he knows what he must do.”. Perhaps he just does as the book tells him he does: call the meeting. Page 27, when Dream threatens to leave, Destiny says,”That will not happen yet.”. Here it is not ambiguous; he’s just revealing what the book tells him. Then on page 30, when Dram seems about to attack Desire, Destiny says,”You will do nothing in this place, my brother.”. In another context that would be someone warning another off; but perhaps Destiny is still just revealing what he knows from the book.
On page 26, Destiny says, “We must have much to discuss.”. It is probably true; it is equally true that no one is particularly anxious to start the discussion: this is a dysfunctional family.
Destruction seems to be the most universally loved of the family; but is it because he is not here?
Notice that Desire is as provocative as ever, seemingly forgetting Dream’s threats at the end of A Doll’s House. No surprise, we were told that Desire forgets.
I’ve mentioned earlier Neil’s debt to James Branch Cabell. A lot of the Hell ideas are from him, specifically the Jurgen in Hell section of Cabell’s best-known book, Jurgen. Another important view is from a short story by Neil; I don’t recall the name, but it’s about a murder mystery in the Silver City, when Lucifer was not yet the Devil.
Notice that on page 39, demonkind agreed that it couldn’t get any worse. At the end of the book, the new redemptive regime was proclaimed to be much worse!
Matthew the Raven used to be Matthew Cable, a friend of the Swamp Thing and husband of Abigail Arcane Cable. He went wrong but died heroically. Neil brought him back as Dream’s raven. There are references to all this throughout. When Matthew talks to Gilbert in the hospital, he remembers long days in another hospital in a similar coma to Jed’s.
Just like Cain and Abel, and the Three Witches, Eve used to be the hostess of one of DC’s horror anthology titles. That aspect of her changing ages was a feature, and very much makes her akin to the Three, as is mentioned later.
On page 66, Dream mentions his power to open doors that I have already referred to. Again, it’s like Door in Neverwhere. (There was a key in that story too!)
Neil’s depiction of the Devil is not much like Dante’s. It’s closer to Milton in his nobility, but clearly different as well. On page 83, he says, “Innocence once lost, can never be regained”; seemingly contrary to Milton’s poem “Paradise Regained”.
You can count on Neil for an interesting new take on almost everything. The legend of the bound Loki with the serpent and his wife is well known in the mythology. Clearly the wife must be somehow devoted to do what she does; but Neil says in page 95, “His lovers wait… The woman. The snake.”. AFAIK this is the first time anyone has suggested that the snake loves Loki. And if he does, why does he drop venom continually into Loki’s eyes?
I believe Loki has at least 3 children. One son’s entrails bind Loki. One is the Midgard serpent, that circles the earth and will be part of Ragnarok, the last battle. Another will also be in the battle, Fenris Wolf, who is currently chained with a magical chain but will be free to fight at the battle.
I’m thinking the realm of Chaos and Order derive from the works of Michael Moorcock.
Now, why does Death refer to Dream as “big brother” on page 102. Surely Death is the older sister? Maybe he’s “physically” bigger than she? Or is it a joke? She does call him “little brother” on the bottom of page 103.
The Dead Boy Detectives, as they are later called are in a story almost like “Facade”. Dream only appears once, while Rowland is dreaming and he does and says nothing. Death appears at the end. A nightmarish punching up of books like “Tom Brown’s Schooldays”.
Dream’s reversal defeat of Azazel is akin to his defeat of Dee.
The depiction of Thor is far from the Marvel view and also far from the general Norse attitude, where Thor or Donner is a great hero. But certainly valid. Notice that Loki claims not to like storm gods but not to know why; it’s not because of things that Thor has done to him. It seems that from his point of view, he started picking on Thor for no reason, which started the feud.
Alex – ahhhh, thank you for the Matthew back story! You’d think I’d have learned by now that many of his characters come from the DC Universe and just look them up. You are a great asset to our re-read!
I almost forgot. Page 30, Desire starts recounting Dream’s troubled lovelife. She/he starts with Calliope, but pretends (?) not to remember the name. And then an elf or fairy apparently; Titania herself or someone else? And then Nada. At which point Dream explodes; probably his mind has been uneasy for quite some time; and anyway, he now knows what it’s like to be imprisoned.
There are two of Neil’s Sandman stories that I know of that have, for whatever reason, been rendered graphically twice. One is Season of Mist, which was redone by Jill Thompson in a cute style as At Death’s Door, or something like that. The other is Neil’s followup to the series, “The Dream Hunters.”. Set in Japan, the original illustrator was Yoshitaka Amano, and while there are many pictures, it is not done in comic style, with boxes and word balloons. At the time he was working on it, Neil had a meal with P. Craig Russell (inker of Episode 3) who really wanted to
do it. Neil had to explain about Amano. Some 10 years later, Russell STILL wanted to do it, so his version is out in his usual beautiful style. I just bought the Amano version today, but something tells me I’m going to buy the Thompson and Russell versions too, eventually. The Sandman is an addictive drug!
Speak it.
I am another one of those who loves the gathering at Destiny’s garden. The dysfunctional family, the tension, the snarky comments, and the abrupt ending of the gathering when Morpheus departs – it’s all typical family drama. To see it echoed in the Endless just speaks to how much they are our creatures instead of the other way around.
I found it interesting that Morpheus only chooses to say goodbye to Death and 2 mortals, Hobb and Daniel, before his trip to Hell. Why say goodbye to Hobb, especially since he’s just met with Hobb a few years past? Is he afraid that as another incarnation he would choose not to continue his visits with Hobb? It seems that Hobb has been firmly set as Morpheus’ friend here.
Lucifer’s story is well told here, as the two of them wander around Hell, closing the last of it down. That in itself was pretty priceless – the idea of closing Hell. Lucifer’s choices could have given Morpheus some food for thought, but he seems to just let it all wash over him without much outward effect.
The scenes of the emissaries vying for the keys to Hell was great, as well. Funny at times, especially the “entertainment” of Cain and Abel. All of the intrigue and lies and politics and bribery felt very on target for the characters interacting with Morpheus.
That the story begins and ends with Destiny is very fitting, especially in the foreshadowing of what is to come. Morpheus’ need to follow the rules is what gets him into trouble in the end, so it makes sense that Destiny is the one introducing us to the choices and consequences of what Morpheus is doing.
I’ve been having dreams about Morpheus again. I seem to have them every time I read these stories. Does anyone else have that experience?