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Sandman
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If anything, perhaps optimistically, I think that Gaiman’s intent with the Netflix series has been to make the overall arc more of a cohesive whole. Using things like the Corinthian as a running throughline through the first half of S1 so that his role as the big threat of the second have is a culmination rather than a thing that happens, and giving him the agency to try to actively use Rose, Jed, and the Vortex to further his aims as opposed to only being related in that it gives an in-universe explanation for why all this random dream shit is happening around her. (And linking her to Hippolyta right from Doll House if things reach the point where we see them again.)
Part of it is the difference between binge TV streaming services and monthly comic book issues or even TPBs, but I do think part of it is that Gaiman is getting the chance to go back and write the story with the knowledge of where it’s going and how it ends. It’s fairly clear that the original work was largely written by the seat of his pants, and there’s certainly no shame in that, but the adaptation is letting him mindfully include themes and elements that were present from the start but perhaps not included consciously and certainly not with the awareness of how much of a role they’d play further on. (Gaiman has talked about some of the other ways the story might have changed, including a fundamental change to the way the series ends, that he included buildup for which never went to use.)
He’s also pretty clearly using the opportunity to make some changes to his stories with the benefit of hindsight, and Calliope definitely shows some of that. She has more agency in the show, taking the details the Triple Goddess gives her and realizing that Dream has escaped his confinement to call on him (rather than waiting passively for his release). It also makes Ric’s “inspiration” less graphic without making it too subtle to realize what’s going on (although, as @Aria 's linked article shows, still managing to be too subtle for some people. What really gets me is that this guy has obviously read the comics, where it’s spelled out in literal narration, but still apparently manages to miss this).
I also noticed that Calliope says that she’s going to try to change the laws that let her be bound in the first place, something that’s never even suggested in the original work. This actually strikes me as something that might be a big difference going forward, specifically when or if Game is adapted to the screen. The original work was always fairly clear that many of the “Laws” magical beings work under are unfair and unjust, but I feel like it’s a good thing to have it spelled out. Both because it makes the characters more seem developed to be aware of this, and to make it really clear that no the authorial intent is not behind the character who packs the most metaphysical punch.
I’m thinking about this in terms of Game specifically because, not too long ago, people were trying to use that story as proof that Gaiman had either “gone woke” or been bullied into appearing so by Wokedom and using Thessaly and the Moon as proof. (This was when they were also trying to TERFsplain to Rhianna Pratchett about what her dad’s opinions on trans issues would be.) I don’t think we should have to dumb down every piece of media for the sake of the densest or most bad-faith members of the audience, but while the trans representation and narrative in Game was frankly revolutionary for the time it is probably something that needs to be reassessed and reworked in 2022 on.
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@insomniac said in Sandman:
He’s also pretty clearly using the opportunity to make some changes to his stories with the benefit of hindsight, and Calliope definitely shows some of that.
I’m thinking about this in terms of Game specifically because, not too long ago, people were trying to use that story as proof that Gaiman had either “gone woke” or been bullied into appearing so by Wokedom and using Thessaly and the Moon as proof.I feel like Gaiman realized before the comic series was even done that he made a lot of mistakes. For example, there’s an issue near the end of the run where a character remarks that all the stories being told are boy’s stories, with no real women in them. In the context of his work to that point, it came off to me as him realizing and acknowledging his own implicit biases as a writer. That one passage makes me a bigger fan of Sandman than I’d otherwise have been.
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@insomniac said in Sandman:
He’s also pretty clearly using the opportunity to make some changes to his stories with the benefit of hindsight, and Calliope definitely shows some of that. She has more agency in the show, taking the details the Triple Goddess gives her and realizing that Dream has escaped his confinement to call on him (rather than waiting passively for his release). It also makes Ric’s “inspiration” less graphic without making it too subtle to realize what’s going on (although, as @Aria 's linked article shows, still managing to be too subtle for some people. What really gets me is that this guy has obviously read the comics, where it’s spelled out in literal narration, but still apparently manages to miss this).
Edited to add that THIS IS SUPER SPOILERY AND THERE ARE NO FUNCTIONING SPOILER TAGS ON THIS BOARD. If you haven’t yet seen the latest episode of Sandman but are planning to YOU MIGHT NOT WANT TO READ THIS POST.
There’s a few areas where they give Calliope more agency than she had in the comics and I think they’re subtle, but very important.
In addition to what @insomniac has pointed out, there’s also the fact that while Madoc is tormented by Morpheus, the decision of what his ultimate fate will be is determined by Calliope. Morpheus clearly disagrees with her here, feeling that he deserves far worse than this brief brush with madness, but respects her wishes and leaves the choice in her hands. This is extremely important because the entire story up to this point is one in which her wishes, her desires, her choices haven’t mattered to anyone for the last sixty years. He also asks her what she’s going to do now that she’s free, to which she replies that she wants to inspire humanity to be better than this. This is also important because it reflects the power which she has, making her more than a damsel (read: victim) that Morpheus needed to save.
From a visual standpoint, the narrative also ends on Calliope rather than Morpheus. That change is extremely subtle, but it hammers home yet another important message. This is not Dream’s story. This is a story that has Dream in it, but it’s her story. It’s about Calliope, her bondage, her suffering, and her freedom. The story ends on a note of hope because we see her walking into a future that will be of her own making.
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I feel like Gaiman realized before the comic series was even done that he made a lot of mistakes. For example, there’s an issue near the end of the run where a character remarks that all the stories being told are boy’s stories, with no real women in them. In the context of his work to that point, it came off to me as him realizing and acknowledging his own implicit biases as a writer. That one passage makes me a bigger fan of Sandman than I’d otherwise have been.
I don’t disagree, although I do feel like that particular criticism is one you could apply to World’s End but not to Sandman as a whole. There’s a lot of women in the stories from the start, often centered more than the title character for a given arc, and mixes up the “Boy’s Own” going-on-an-adventure sorts of stories with people sitting around and talking about their feelings (often with some sort of supernatural component).
Morpheus clearly disagrees with her here, feeling that he deserves far worse than this brief brush with madness, but respects her wishes and leaves the choice in her hands. This is extremely important because the entire story up to this point is one in which her wishes, her desires, her choices haven’t mattered to anyone for the last sixty years.
Yeah, and I couldn’t help take that comment she made about whether he was so eager to do horrible vengeance was because she’d belonged to him was a commentary on the male response–in fiction, but also in real life–that men seem to leap on the (at least imagined) chance to fuck up sexual predators with violence without consideration to what the actual victims want. Seeing it in terms of their obligation or opportunity to perform masculinity through violence rather than any consideration of what would or could help. Calliope has been victimized, but she hasn’t been “fridged;” she needs to be rescued, but she’s not just there to motivate Morpheus to feel bad and give him license and motive to act.
He also asks her what she’s going to do now that she’s free, to which she replies that she wants to inspire humanity to be better than this. This is also important because it reflects the power which she has, making her more than a damsel (read: victim) that Morpheus needed to save.
From a visual standpoint, the narrative also ends on Calliope rather than Morpheus […] This is not Dream’s story. This is a story that has Dream in it, but it’s her story.Very much agreed on both.
Two more thoughts about the episode.
First was the Ric’s portrayal of himself as a progressive feminist. It was touched on in the book, but the real centering of how he depicts himself as promoting women and POC while being a self-obsessed predator with literally no regard for Calliope’s inner life or personhood is new for the show and I wish it was less relevant than it is.
Second was how this really makes me think of how Sandman really does harken back to the old horror comics that were long-defunct (killed by Fredrick Wertham and the CCA) even when the Sandman comic was new, never mind when I discovered it in the early aughts. You mostly got them in two broad types, either unrelated vignettes only connected by the narrator who shows up to be like “THAT’S SOME FUCKED-UP SHIT HUH, I’M ROD STERLING” at the end (Tales From the Crypt itself, but also series like the Houses of Secrets and Mysteries Cain and Abel were drawn from) and the ones where you have initially-unconnected stories that get resolved by the title character showing up ex machina to deliver some nightmarish cosmic justice (like the Specter, before he started hanging out with Batman and the Justice League). Sandman takes from both in terms of its story structure, and Dream of a Thousand Cats and Calliope are essentially one of each.
In terms of the content and structure, it definitely veers more into fantasy than strict horror even if the horrific elements are still present, but you really see the horror comic influences early on. The art in the first issues is extremely characteristic of the old horror styles, as is some of the content (things like Alex’s Eternal Waking, cut from the Netflix series, would’ve fit right in with a cackling Crypt Keeper giving some closing narration). It’s a connection that I hadn’t made when I first read it, but I think it’s a really cool influence on the comic that would eventually start to mesh better with Gaiman’s specific voice and sensibilities as a writer.
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@insomniac said in Sandman:
First was the Ric’s portrayal of himself as a progressive feminist. It was touched on in the book, but the real centering of how he depicts himself as promoting women and POC while being a self-obsessed predator with literally no regard for Calliope’s inner life or personhood is new for the show and I wish it was less relevant than it is.
As I’ve said elsewhere re: Joss Whedon, Ric Madoc is essentially going, “I’ve called myself a feminist in public, therefore I get to both use my privilege as a white man to advance my career and use my label as an ally to exempt myself from any acknowledgment, let alone criticism, of it. Yay for me!!”
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@GF Neil Gaiman has been writing a majority of the scripts, so I’d imagine it’ll be as close to his vision as he also laid out in the comics. It’s very rare the author of anything also gets to also write the screenplays.
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@insomniac said in Sandman:
First was the Ric’s portrayal of himself as a progressive feminist. It was touched on in the book, but the real centering of how he depicts himself as promoting women and POC while being a self-obsessed predator with literally no regard for Calliope’s inner life or personhood is new for the show and I wish it was less relevant than it is.
I was WRITHING and making GAGGING noises on the couch. IT WAS SO FUCKING ON POINT FOR A CERTAIN KIND OF PERSON. I really loved what they did with the story, start to end.
And dibs on using Calliope as a PB. DIBS!!!
she/they
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Sandman’s season 2 was confirmed by Netflix.
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@Arkandel YES!
