Neil Gaiman revisited

Was tidying up my room over the weekend when I found my collection of "The Sandman" and "The Dreaming" ended up re-reading them the whole evening. These are stories that one will appreciate more as you grow older. Mr Gaiman is one amazing fella! The story arcs are intelligently written covering a myriad of genres. The stories are weaved with a touch of film noir here, a dab of superheroes actions there; intertwined with murder mysteries laced with prickly topics on religion, sexuality and politics.... You also get generous doses of mythologies, histories and fantasies!

The Sandman is, in my opinion, one of the most original and sophisiticated comic series I've ever read. It breaks away from the conventional comic genre, the art is amazing (very subjective). Dave Mckean's cover are surreal and beautiful. The protagonist is Dream (a personification of dreams and stories). He's one of the 7 Endless. Each has names beginning with D. Destiny, Death, Dream,Destruction,Desire,Despair and Delirium (who used to be Delight).




There are hundreds of memorable quotes from Sandman, here are some of my favourites:-

"But he did not understand the price... Mortals never do. They only see the prize. Their heart's desire, their dream.... But the price of getting what you want is getting what you once wanted."

- Dream


"Have you ever been in love?
Horrible, isn't it?
It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens your heart and it means someone can get inside you and mess you up. You build up all these defenses. You build up this whole armor, for years, so nothing can hurt you, then one stupid person, no different from any other stupid person, wandered into your stupid life.... You give them a piece of you. They don't ask for it. They do something dumb one day like kiss you, or smile at you, and your life isn't your own anymore. Love takes hostages. It gets inside you. It eats you out and leaves you crying in the darkness, so a simple phrase like "Maybe we should just be friends" or "How perceptive" turns into a glass splinter working its way into your heart.

It hurts . Not just in the imagination. Not just in the mind. It's a soul-hurt,a body-hurt, a real gets-inside-you-and-rips-you-apart pain. Nothing should be able to do that. Especially not love.

I hate love"

- Rose Walker


Rose's quote didn't register much when I first read it back in school. Today, I thought to myself, Neil has capture the essense of the bitterness of being jilted/dumped/rejected very well.