Neil Gaiman's Sandman was the first
piece of art that I was intensely
interested in the first thing that
affected me so powerfully that I was
driven to understand why I owe so much
to gaymans sweeping epic about the Lord
of dreams it started me on a path that's
led to here dream or Morpheus says he's
most commonly called in the series has
done the same for a lot of people
indeed when Gaiman made his lead
character the personification and master
of dreams he played on both meanings of
the word the visions we have when asleep
and the wishes that consume us when
awake there is so much to explore and
Sandman and I may do more on this but
today I want to zero in on the unique
place that William Shakespeare has in
the series and how his presence helps
game and communicate some themes about
writing Dreams and genius Shakespeare
makes three appearances in Sandman's 75
issues the first time we see em is
toward the beginning of the series in
the context of another person's story
dream and his sister death make an
agreement in a 14th century tavern when
they overhear a man saying that the only
reason people die is because everyone
does it
death agrees not to take this man hob
gatling until he desires it and dream
agrees to meet him in the same bar once
every hundred years to discuss how he's
feeling on their second meeting in 1589
dream and hob over here a man named will
shacks berg pining to his friend and
fellow playwright kit Marlowe about his
great wish to give men dreams that would
live on after I'm dead so dream strikes
another bargain with him the details of
which we learn on their second meeting
this time on the South Downs of Sussex
England where Shakespeare travelling
with a troupe of players is preparing
his new play a midsummer night's dream
this play we learn was written for
during one of two plays about dreams in
exchange for Shakespeare becoming the
figure we know today the vessel for the
great stories of mankind shakespeare's
troupe are enticed to perform for the
real inhabitants
Fairey who are visiting the earthly
realm at dreams invitation perhaps for
the last time in the process of this
story which takes place toward the
middle of the series dream begins to
question if he was right for giving
Shakespeare what he wanted he did not
understand the cost
he says mortals never do they only see
the prize their hearts desire their
dream but the price of getting what you
want is getting what you once wanted
here we begin to see the purpose behind
shakespeare's inclusion in this series
through Shakespeare and analog for dream
and Gaiman himself we get a meditation
not only on genius but on the cost of
genius the fir Gaiman that cost is
isolation isolation of all forms in this
issue we meet him shakespeare's son
Shakespeare seems to regard Hamnett as a
nuisance and Hamnett laments to another
actor he's very distant he doesn't seem
like he's really there anymore
not really it's like he's somewhere else
anything that happens he just makes
stories out of it I'm less real than any
of the characters in his plays in his
eagerness to write great stories
Shakespeare becomes isolated from his
family and his life such as the cost of
extreme focus but works of genius also
become isolated from their context at
the intermission of the play dream
breaks the news to Shakespeare that his
friend Christopher Marlowe has been
killed
the timing is no accident here the rise
of Shakespeare beginning with plays like
a midsummer night's dream signaled the
disappearance of his contemporaries like
Christopher Marlowe from the historical
record in modern cultural memory or in
academia their presence has been
overshadowed by isolated genius a gay
man picks up this theme again in the
final appearance of Shakespeare and
Sandman which is also not accidentally
the final issue of the series here
Shakespeare is writing his final play
The Tempest the second play at the end
of his career that fulfills his bargain
with Greene
his friend and sometimes critic Ben
Johnson comes to visit him and asks
about the new play
have you been raiding poor Holland shed
again or does plutarch bear the brunt of
your depredations this of course
references the fact that shakespeare
famously took many of his plots from
prior sources and histories like those
of raphael holland shed and Plutarch yet
these sources like small planets like
Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson do
not register against the massive star
that is Shakespeare an example back in
the first issue in 1789 at their fourth
meeting hobb Gatling tells dream he has
seen a production of King Lear
mentioning the idiots have given it a
happy ending that will not last dream
says the great stories will always
return to their original forms here
Gaiman is playing with us he knows what
the average man epitomized by hob
Gatling does not that it was Shakespeare
who changed the ending the original
versions on which Lear was based did
have a happy ending but those versions
are forgot and yet by having dreams say
the great stories will always return to
their original forms Gaiman indicates
perhaps the key theme of the whole
series the power of dreams to supplant
reality in the second issue Oberon king
of fairy watches Shakespeare's play
about himself and says to dream but
things never happened thus dream
responds apropos of this theme things
need not have happened to be true tales
and dreams are the shadow truths that
will endure when mere facts are dust and
ashes and forgot the very next panel
features the line from A Midsummer
Night's Dream that criticizes the power
of stories the best in this kind are but
shadows Oh Gaiman like Shakespeare
disagrees these shadows these illusions
of reality incomplete as they are may
come in time to replace the real thing
indeed Shakespeare was the vessel for
extremely powerful stories his
treatments of
of love and madness in many ways created
the age we still live we are all in a
very real sense living in the dreams of
Shakespeare Sandman is a singular work
of art coming and propelling comics into
a higher literary appreciation and
pulling like Shakespeare's work on a
vast catalogue of mythological religious
and literary references it's fitting
that Gaiman is more interested in
Shakespeare the man than his work
Shakespeare dream and Gaiman like I said
are all analogues for one another and
each in their turn have to examine the
costs of telling great stories the
largest part of that cost it seems is
isolation
I watched my life as if it were
happening to someone else Shakespeare
tells dream my son died and I was hurt
but I watched my hurt and even relished
it a little for now I could write a real
death a true loss and three issues that
span the series Neil Gaiman treats these
themes of genius and isolation within a
larger framework of a story that is
essentially about stories the inclusion
of Shakespeare highlights the uneasy
relationship between stories collective
dreams and those who create them history
and imagination amend Shakespeare to fit
their purposes just as Gaiman does by
bringing him to life in the pages of
Sandman a Gaiman imagines him isolated
from his own life as history has
isolated him above his time and place
even as we make our work our work makes
us and it can obliterate us too
in other words dreams really do come
true
hey everybody thanks for watching and
welcome to everybody who is new to the
nerdwriter
that inside-out video I can't believe so
many people watch that that was just an
awesome experience last week but this is
a great example of the kind of stuff
that we do here the nerd writer we take
art and culture and science and politics
and explore them and go in-depth and put
ideas to work that's what this is all
about and the channel is made possible
by your pledges on my patreon page right
here as little as a dollar per video you
know the money that you guys give me
goes directly into these videos and to
toward improving the channel and that is
really what I want to do is push this
medium farther you know create new
styles new ways of exploring and
explaining ideas and there's a lot more
that I want to do this was awesome I've
been thinking about how to analyze
comics for a long time
hope you enjoyed it anyway thank you
again and welcome to the nerd writer we
have a lot of fun here I will see you
guys next Wednesday