“Can’t say I’ve ever been too fond of beginnings, myself. Messy little things. Give me a good ending anytime. You know where you are with an ending.”
I suppose we do, at that. Or, at the very least, we know a bit about where we are not. Not anymore. The Kindly Ones opens with a tour of The Dreaming as it is exists under the rule of Lord Morpheus. I always find myself envious of this dreamer, even though I know he or she is meant to represent me as well. It’s not enough – I want want the real dream. When I was in my 20s, I would sometimes will myself to have it before sleep, to no avail.
Maybe that’s because this Dreaming no longer exists.
Little by little, as the story progresses, Morpheus’ Dreaming is torn apart by The Kindly Ones/the Furies/the ladies with a million names and an endless obligation to revenge. Just as they tore apart his son for making them weep, they tear apart Dream’s world for spilling family blood.
Quick reminder before you progress – this post will contain spoilers! If you have not read The Kindly Ones yet, go do it and come back!
Lots of things end (after a fashion) along the way – the lives of dreams like Able and Merv, the lives of people like Zelda and Carla, the sanity of Lyta Hall, and, perhaps, the loneliness of Rose Walker. Deliriums’ quest for her dog ends as do Nuala’s time in Faerie and Lucifer’s time at the Lux as they decide to leave those places with a sense of freedom our protagonist never seems to feel. Three ladies end their sewing session and with it their story.
Oh, and Morpheus, of course. He ends. 
It is amazing how different this read was for me than in the past. I have read it several times and every time until this one, I read it with so much anxiety and anger. Oh, the hatred I had for Lyta and Thessaly. Oh, how I wanted to punch Nuala in the face for pulling Morpheus out of the Dreaming for her sad little boon! Even after having read through the series again and yet again, I always felt such tension and angst.
This time, not so much. Something clicked for me here, perhaps because it is easier for me now to see the big picture of things, to stand outside and appreciate moments and people for who and what they are. Certainly, it is a message Gaiman sends throughout the entire series – we are what we are. We do what we must. Yet, somehow at the same time it is just as true that we make our own decisions, we live our lives for ourselves, and we must accept the consequences when they come, for better or worse.
Larissa (formerly Thessaly) refers to Lyta as a pawn in this game and it was so much easier for me to see her that way this time. You know, I think the same of Larissa and Puck and Loki and even the Furies, if truth be told. I think maybe they all do too, in their heart of hearts.
In the past, this novel read for me as a thriller of sorts, a story rushing toward the end, as characters scurry about fighting on either side. Merv takes up arms, Matthew refuses to leave Dream’s side as he confronts The Furies, Lyta goes mad and Larissa plots. It’s a hustle and bustle of activity. I noticed this time that if you just pay attention to Dream in this story, however, it has a different feel altogether. He moves through it slowly, deliberately, like a man with cancer. Still in denial, perhaps. Still putting up a fight of sorts, but putting his affairs in order nonetheless. I have never thought it was as simple him “wanting to be punished” for killing Orpheus, as Death asserts, but I do think it is one piece of the puzzle, or to borrow Morpheus’ own metaphor, one facet of the gem that is his life from the time was imprisoned to the time he is released, fully and permanently by his sister.
He feels remorse, perhaps more-so for denying Orpheus help all those years ago on his wedding day than killing him, it’s true. And he admits to Death that he is “very tired.” It could also simply be he has changed too much to be who he is anymore. Yet, he is still enough who he is that he can not take Destruction’s route and walk away from his realm. He would never let that happen to the Dreaming.
One change - he seems to have developed a wry sense of humor.
Did it have to happen this way? Well, surely not. We see first hand the multiple Destinies, we get glimpses and snippets of how things could have gone differently. The question still remains, however, did it have to end this way? A million paths in Destiny’s garden, a million choices made by Morpheus and those around him, could lead to a million variations and alternate realities, but was his Death a benchmark? A moment in history/destiny/time that was going to be no matter what? Is this the tug of war between free will and fate?
Seriously, I’m asking.
Part of my greater acceptance of events in The Kindly Ones this time through comes from the fact that I lean toward the “yes” column for those questions. Part of it comes from the fact that if the answer is “no,” there’s some satisfaction in that as well. Knowing that our choices matter, that we can always change our mind, and that Morpheus himself seemed to choose his fate and face it with dignity and his trademark sense of duty.
There are also plenty of beginnings to satisfy us, aren’t there? After killing Orpheus and before his own death, Dream recreates the Corinthian. He makes preparations for Daniel. Rose begins a baby right there in her belly. As Nuala and Lucifer end their time one place, they begin something new.
Gaiman may be good at breaking our hearts, but he never leaves us without hope, after all.
Some questions, for those inclined to answer:
- How do you feel about the artwork in this collection?
- What do we think of Daniel, here? We know the Puck and Loki didn’t have a chance to burn away all that made him human. We know that the stone Dream gives him was “the least” of the ones he created. We will get some information about this in The Wake, but I’m curious in particular to see what people think of the fact that some part of the new Dream King is human. None of the other Endless have that trait…do they? How will he be different than Morpheus, while at the same time being a facet of the same whole?
- I’d love to hear from any first time readers – I have to imagine your experience of the end is different than mine.
- Anyone else cry when Delirium finds Barnabas? Or when Dream hands Death the bread? Anyone?
- All those questions I listed above about destiny – any thoughts?
- The role of women is interesting, not only in this arc, but the entire series. I know some folks have commented on this in the past and I’d love to see more on that theme.
Our own little story will be coming to an end in two weeks, the story of the little Re-Read that Could. We hope to see you then, and as always, we would love to hear your thoughts.
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I’ve put off rereading this because I cannot face THE END [cue jangly Doors sitar intro]. [**and spoilers**] But this time round, like you, I felt a bit more philosophical about it all…
Just picking up on your questions about destiny and women:
- I’m in the camp that believes Dream’s demise, and the way it happens, is due to his choices and actions. It’s foreshadowed, but in my opinion might have remained nothing more than the motto in an old fortune cookie had Dream not paved the way meticulously for the end of his present incarnation. He does not fend off an inexorable fate; rather, he carefully enlists so many characters throughout the whole series who will each have a catalytic role to play in what happens. I felt particularly sorry for Nuala this time round; Dream clearly had no idea how she felt when he gave her that necklace (typical bloke, and typical Dream
)
- I’ve harped on elsewhere about women/the fates/destiny etc in this arc. In this particular story, the women/female personficiations of gods or whatever are often dual natured. The Fates hold the thread of a new life on a spindle, even while they fold up Dream’s winding sheet; and Rose almost destroyed the whole Dreaming in “Dolls House” but now creates a whole new little life. Throughout the series, women have seemed more ready to step outside the boundaries or act contrary to expectations (regardless of whoe boundaries or expectations they are). Even here, when Lyta’s “real” self speaks from the mirror to remind her that she can just walk away from everything that has happened and start again, Lyta replies that she has no choices and smashes the mirror instead to find the Furies (demented Alice Through the Looking Glass anyone?) But I can see, reading this time round that she might just be following a path Dream has mapped for her after all. And the Furies themselves are pretty strict about “the rules”. Once you get onto alternate realities and Destiny fragmenting onto different paths, my brain really starts to hurt. But at the end of it all, Dream is himself and acts as he must inevitably act. He can and does change, but only up to a point. Beyond that point he must start all over again.
Some random thoughts:
- I love it when Delirium finds Barnabas!
- Puck gives me serious nightmares. He is drawn exactly like something that would haunt a tree near a stone circle, not in a good way.
- Am I wrong, or is Thessaly the unnamed woman Dream is cut up about breaking up with earlier in the series? Of all the characters, she’s one of the few I really dislike – a prig with power! Maybe she just has hidden depths, eh…
Will now be reading The Wake with the Crowded House song “Don’t Dream it’s Over” running through my head – **TEARS will fall!**
Questions:
Artwork: I’d say the art was competent, not hits out of the park. When possible, Neil tries to choose themes that play to the artists strong points. Well, he had less flexibility here, since this was an essential arc which he could hardly change very much.
Daniel: What Loki and Puck claim to do, is to burn away most of Daniel’s mortality, not his humanity; although the two are related. One can certainly say that Dream is pretty much immortal, but his problem is he is becoming uncomfortably human. I believe none of the other Endless have as much explicit humanity as Daniel; since Despair changed before humanity even got started. But in the other sense I mentioned, it seems that Destruction and Death seem to be the most human of the Endless.
After Neil’s time on Sandman, DC used Daniel sparingly. There was a one-shot returning to Lyta as a Fury, and later on, DC resurrected Hector and put him back with Lyta as a superhero again in Justice Society of America; in both cases Daniel showed up briefly and obliquely.
Crying: I did not cry when Delirium reunited with Barnabas nor at the bread scene. But I do always cry somewhere along the way; often when Nuala realizes she has unintentionally harmed her lover, or when Death finally takes Dream’s hand.
Destiny: Like Jose Luis Borges’s Garden of Forking Paths there are all sorts of possibilities. But artistically, this is perhaps the only really good one. Sandman would not be the modern classic it has now become if Neil had produced a deus ex machine happy ending, or even the status quo ending DC must have urged him to make to keep the cash flowing. Here Neil ends his tenure and Sandman proper, and yet allows some continuity with characters and the Dreaming; and he finishes the arc he started at the beginning of the series.
Women: Not being a woman, I didn’t tend to blame the women so much. Yes, Thessaly and Lyta and Nuala harmed Dream; but all partly because they didn’t know the complete story. I never liked Thessaly from the beginning and thought she was all wrong for Morpheus, as did most of his friends; but it’s quite a good character turn that she strives to hurt him; then when she realizes that she has contributed to his death, she even thinks about killing Lyta herself. That’s our Thessaly; always quick to kill!
IMHO, Neil does a pretty good job with his women, considering that he is not a woman himself and he knows it.
Neil hints at a plot behind Loki and Puck. But what is that plot? Lucifer once promises to revenge himself, but it doesn’t seem that he is behind this. So does Desire, but he/she doesn’t seem to be behind it either. Another possibility is that it is a deep, devious plot by Dream himself; both Destruction and Death say he’s quite capable of plotting something like that and keeping it even from himself.
I have no real answers here. I suppose it’s one of the reasons I keep reading over and over; the hope that I might figure it out. “It is the mystery that lingers, and not the explanation.”
Just happening upon this now, and there are some interesting insights- but since you asked, I’m answering. At one point, Neil Gaiman summed up the entire Sandman series in one sentence:
“The King of Dreams learns that all things must change or die and makes his choice”.
Really, that says it all.
Perfect!
And that makes me kind of feel misty eyed, just that one sentence. Ah, Neil…