tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3139769202527811820.post2986107571885838581..comments2024-01-01T23:38:43.414-08:00Comments on The Oncoming Hope: Re-Blogging Sandman: Issue #6 24 Hourstheoncominghopehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03471519506797609837noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3139769202527811820.post-23496479623638347202011-04-29T17:42:54.209-07:002011-04-29T17:42:54.209-07:00This section was insane. When I saw the beginning ...This section was insane. When I saw the beginning of it, I started remembering what I had long forgotten. The depth of it was so terrible.<br /><br />I think what helps us affiliate with the characters here, moreso even than his own introduction to them through Bette's thoughts, was that we knew Dee for a while before this. You had a developed villain for the scene, and he had proven himself vicious when he killed the woman he forced to drive him. If he hadn't killed her, I think the dynamic would be completely different. You see them as eventual victims from the moment you know he's present, and you pity them.<br /><br />I always felt, and this is my personal opinion, that he did not corrupt them or make them lie about what they had done. I think it is supposed to be a random assortment of people with their own faults and problems. They were pretty terrible, yes, but if you look at them and think about what the characters have been through in life, it doesn't seem impossible. <br /><br />One of the more horrifying bits here, to me, was when he returned them to themselves, made them face what they had said and done that day. To have them in some dream-nightmare state doing things they never would and saying things to people that they had hidden, it would be infinitely kinder. Above even the killings, I think this was his cruelest trick.<br /><br />I want to disagree, somewhat, about the waitress and her pride. Granted, she was very proud of her little secret and her stories, but it was, to me, a sadder thing, really. She makes these stories to overcome where she is in life. Further, it could be argued that, like the vigilante acting in place of Dream, her need to create happy stories was in the place of dreams that would normally have filled the nights. You call her a "proto-Dream," but what if that is more an in lieu of Dream?<br /><br />-PeterAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3139769202527811820.post-79116850797521625472011-04-10T14:04:27.118-07:002011-04-10T14:04:27.118-07:00The shock I got from '24 Hours' was that o...The shock I got from '24 Hours' was that of a guy who grew up on Asterix and ThunderCats and never knew a comic could make you to curl up into a whimpering little ball. Bloody hell. What a story. <br /><br />Funnily enough, what I remembered most strongly from previous reads was Judy blinding herself; this time around it didn't stand out at all. This time it was Marsh and the crate of vodka, and Kate Fletcher in the mortuary. What's physical violence compared to that?<br /><br />And I was struck by the same question: does Dee corrupt, or does he only reveal? <br />Another question: why is '24 Hours' so readable? Why isn't it just 20 pages of people doing depraved and icky things to each other? I think it's because Gaiman has a genius for making us care about people. If that sounds unbearably cheesy, let's say instead that he asks us not judge. Even if we don't like his characters we can still care about them, because humans are such strange and interesting things. Occasionally a character will do something truly wicked, but it's not hate that we feel - only pity.<br /><br />On an entirely unrelated note: in one of the letters in the back of this issue a reader says that his favourite comics go well with music. Gaiman works a lot of songs into <i>Sandman</i>, and this time I'm determined to look up the ones I don't know. If you're not familiar with the <i>Addams Family</i> theme tune you miss the gag on page 15; makes me wonder how many 'unknown unknowns' are in there.Timhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01146596310417716160noreply@blogger.com