Friday, 1 January 2021 04:01 pm
Graphic Novel Review: The Doll's House
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deckardcanineSo I didn't wait all that long to move on to the second volume of Neil Gaiman's Sandman series. It's not that I was particularly eager. Mainly I bought it to help keep Alliance Comics afloat during the pandemic. (The fact that I couldn't think of a more promising purchase doesn't speak well of my attitude toward the medium.)
Now that Dream has all his tools back, he's out to rectify problems that arose in his 70-year absence. One of those is that four powerful figures have left his realm without indicating what they're up to. Another is the appearance of a "vortex" within seemingly ordinary 21-year-old Rose Walker. She doesn't know it yet, but she has the power to see other people's dreams and break the barriers between them, which could cause so much havoc that it's the one scenario in which Dream is allowed to kill a human. (It's not clear who set forth rules for the endless or who enforces them, but Dream takes them seriously.) Rose, meanwhile, has just learned who her mother's mother is and is trying to reconnect with her long-lost kid brother, who has his own dream-related issues.
This plot doesn't take up as much of the volume as it sounds. I find that one of Gaiman's signatures is extensive tangents, perhaps to sustain his own interest. Many chapters do absolutely nothing to advance the story; at best they offer character development. Some have very little to do with Dream himself. (Other signatures include gratuitous sex/nudity, gods being only slightly more than mortals, incomplete death, and entities who shouldn't even be living things but now can pass for human.)
Nevertheless, it feels a little more consistent than Preludes & Nocturnes, at least when it comes to mood. That is not entirely a good thing when the mood is CREEPY. Honestly, that appears to be the whole point. I shouldn't be surprised; even Gaiman's kid stuff tends to go that way. But I was hoping for something more philosophically cogent. It's still hard to get a bead on Dream, who can come across as highly compassionate and overly merciful (even knowing the rule against killing) on one page and callous or downright monstrous the next. That lover he sentenced to hell? She made a self-sacrifice to save countless others, and he was too selfish to stand for it.
None of the characters, not even Dream, can make complete sense of what happens, and neither can we. I suppose I could look up an analysis, but I shouldn't have to; those are rarely fun. This time, Gaiman's afterword refuses to enlighten us at all. It starts with a motto that he claims works well for life in general: "Never apologize, never explain." I knew he was a weirdo, but this is the first time I've seen him as a jerk.
Ultimately, I like P&N better. It has a couple chapters that stand out to me in a good way. TDH may not be uglier at its worst, but I never got the urge to talk about any of it in depth. I doubt I'll remember much if I can help it, and the ending leaves something to be...desired. (I use an ellipsis because Desire is a character in the last chapter.)
The series may eventually show more brilliance than angsty nonsense, but I've decided not to tough it out. There are 10 more volumes, and while they don't take long to read, they'd probably feel like Dream himself: endless.
Next up is a Christmas present from this year, The Grammarians: A Novel by Cathleen Schine. That promises to be different not just from TDH but from almost anything else I read.
Now that Dream has all his tools back, he's out to rectify problems that arose in his 70-year absence. One of those is that four powerful figures have left his realm without indicating what they're up to. Another is the appearance of a "vortex" within seemingly ordinary 21-year-old Rose Walker. She doesn't know it yet, but she has the power to see other people's dreams and break the barriers between them, which could cause so much havoc that it's the one scenario in which Dream is allowed to kill a human. (It's not clear who set forth rules for the endless or who enforces them, but Dream takes them seriously.) Rose, meanwhile, has just learned who her mother's mother is and is trying to reconnect with her long-lost kid brother, who has his own dream-related issues.
This plot doesn't take up as much of the volume as it sounds. I find that one of Gaiman's signatures is extensive tangents, perhaps to sustain his own interest. Many chapters do absolutely nothing to advance the story; at best they offer character development. Some have very little to do with Dream himself. (Other signatures include gratuitous sex/nudity, gods being only slightly more than mortals, incomplete death, and entities who shouldn't even be living things but now can pass for human.)
Nevertheless, it feels a little more consistent than Preludes & Nocturnes, at least when it comes to mood. That is not entirely a good thing when the mood is CREEPY. Honestly, that appears to be the whole point. I shouldn't be surprised; even Gaiman's kid stuff tends to go that way. But I was hoping for something more philosophically cogent. It's still hard to get a bead on Dream, who can come across as highly compassionate and overly merciful (even knowing the rule against killing) on one page and callous or downright monstrous the next. That lover he sentenced to hell? She made a self-sacrifice to save countless others, and he was too selfish to stand for it.
None of the characters, not even Dream, can make complete sense of what happens, and neither can we. I suppose I could look up an analysis, but I shouldn't have to; those are rarely fun. This time, Gaiman's afterword refuses to enlighten us at all. It starts with a motto that he claims works well for life in general: "Never apologize, never explain." I knew he was a weirdo, but this is the first time I've seen him as a jerk.
Ultimately, I like P&N better. It has a couple chapters that stand out to me in a good way. TDH may not be uglier at its worst, but I never got the urge to talk about any of it in depth. I doubt I'll remember much if I can help it, and the ending leaves something to be...desired. (I use an ellipsis because Desire is a character in the last chapter.)
The series may eventually show more brilliance than angsty nonsense, but I've decided not to tough it out. There are 10 more volumes, and while they don't take long to read, they'd probably feel like Dream himself: endless.
Next up is a Christmas present from this year, The Grammarians: A Novel by Cathleen Schine. That promises to be different not just from TDH but from almost anything else I read.