16.Jun.2010 The Sandman Vol 3: Dream Country by Neil Gaiman
I wonder how many Sandman I should read before I “get” it. I liked Dream Country a tiny bit more than the first two, but still not as much as I would’ve liked. People say the series gets better from the third series and above, that’s why I continued reading. In this third volume, the stories have all the consistent elements: dream-like, freaky, a bit sick, and um… bad coloring.
But there are really something about these stories that make you want to read more. (Otherwise how do I get to the third book?) They are weird and hypnotic, they pique my curiosity. What’s going to happen next? How many weird stories can Neil Gaiman pull off? How many tricks does he have up his sleeve?
Dream Country has 4 stand-alone short stories. In Calliope a writer who’s desperate for ideas makes a dirty deal to get Calliope, one of the Muses in Greek mythology. He keeps her like a pet, raping her body and mind for inspiration for his later successful novels. (Told you it was sick)
In A Dream of a Thousand Cats, one cat goes on a journey to find answers to life. There are lots of miserable cats here. Too bad I’m not a cat-person, so I don’t relate much to their misery.
Third story is A Midsummer Night’s Dream in which Shakespeare and his group of actors perform in front of The Dream King and his fantastical friends. The short won The World Fantasy award for short fiction in 1991, apparently the first time for a comic book to win this category. I know A Midsummer Night’s Dream from various sources (never read the original), but I still found the flow kinda confusing. It was hard to know which one was real and which one was not. I imagine it would be mighty difficult for someone who has not known the play to follow the story.
The last story Façade is my favorite, though it’s not less disturbing. It follows the life of a forgotten DC super hero: Element Girl, a girl whose superpower is transforming her body to any natural elements, but as a trade she looks absolutely freaky, almost like her whole body is burnt. Unwillingly retired, she is incredibly lonely and unable to end her life because of her body condition. Like a lot of other Sandman stories in the previous volumes, I needed to wiki my way to find out the background story to get the full picture.
The real highlight of Dream Country for me though is this quote I found in the book:
“Things need not have happened to be true. Tales and adventures are the shadow truths that will endure when mere facts are dust and ashes and forgotten.”
A treasure.
1991, 112 pp
Challenges
Graphic Novels 2010 (book #8), Once Upon a Time IV (book #6)
mee 
