The Mythological Dimensions of Neil Gaiman

by Burke, Jessica

  Just like the portal between reality and the Dreaming is more conceptual than physical, so are the boundaries that border the Dreaming: “Beyond, outside my dreamworld there is infinite dust, infinite dark. And the dreamworld is infinite, although it is bounded on every side.”32 In Gaiman’s The Sandman, there seem to be no specific borders to the dreamworld, but references are made to the possibility of kingdom limitations. For example, after Dream’s escape from the seventy-year imprisonment that opens the storyline, Dream tries to return to his castle in the center of the Dreaming, “but weakened and exhausted, [he] stumbled through the FRINGES of the DREAMTIME.”33 Though Gaiman does not indicate exactly what the “fringes” of Dream’s realm are, one can make the assumption that these areas are on the outskirts of his realm.

  In issue #39 “Soft Places,” an even more specific allusion to borders is made as a young Marco Polo and Rustichello of Pisa sit alongside the physical incarnation of dreamt place, Fiddler’s Green, as “he” tells the men how they have managed to come together and chat outside of time. His claim is they have accidentally stumbled into one of the “soft places” of the world. Fiddler’s Green tells the two:

  Time at the edge of the dreaming is softer than elsewhere, and here in the soft places it leaps and whorls on itself. In the soft places where the border between dreams and reality is eroded or not yet formed… Time.

  It’s like throwing a stone into a pool. It casts ripples…That’s where we are. Here. In the soft places, where the geographies of dream intrude upon the real.34

  In fact, not only does Fiddler’s Green explain what the “soft places” are to the men, but he admonishes them (especially Marco Polo) for the part they played in the loss of such places: “[Soft places] were a sight more common than now…sometimes I think their loss is your fault…the explorers, and the ones who came after you, who froze the world into rigid patterns.”35 This is not the only time Gaiman has used his prose to reproach those who dissect the world into puzzle pieces. In his novel Stardust, Gaiman spoke of Faerie (the fantasy) as being composed of “each land that has been forced off the map by explorers and the brave going out and proving it wasn’t there.”36 With Gaiman’s own feelings about borders being “completely notional,” it is no wonder that so many of his stories have characters moving beyond those borders and into new worlds.

  As the portal and the boundaries of the Dreaming are theoretical, so too is the Dreaming itself. When Gaiman outlined his original proposal for The Sandman, he explained the setting of the Dreamworld as “the sum total of the part of the human psyche that expresses itself through dreams; and it’s a place; and it’s the dreams of people who are dreaming at that time; and it’s a state of mind.”37 Gaiman did not force himself into a corner by making the Dreaming a territory limited by physical criteria. The world he created is infinite because it has the potential to be infinite as each character dreams up his or her own land. This means that the world beyond the veil of sleep is a shifting landscape of endless possibilities. With no physical restrictions on the setting, Gaiman could have created each character’s version of the Dreamworld to fit his or her storyline.

  Yet, we are not bound to only reality and Dream’s realm in The Sandman. Though the majority of the stories take place in either the Primary world or the Dreaming, other Secondary worlds make appearances as well. Morpheus travels to the Christian ideal of Hell in multiple issues. We are not told where Hell is located, yet we can infer that it is not anywhere we can travel to by moving in a linear fashion. According to Dream, the road to Hell is “not a place, after all. It is BETWEEN places. [It] is NOWHERE.”38 The realms of other Endless are also visited; we are given glimpses into the homes and kingdoms of Destiny, Desire, and Delirium. Again, the whereabouts of the realms are vague and open to interpretation. They are not necessarily in the Primary world, but they are not separate from it either. Without being told the specifics of the kingdoms, we are still able to infer a difference between “here and there” in Gaiman’s writings. Here again, these Secondary worlds are just as notional as the Dreaming.

  Like all characters in portal-quests, as they move between worlds, the characters in The Sandman are altered permanently, sometimes for good, sometimes for ill, and, sometimes, they never leave the Dreaming at all. Morpheus, as master of the realm, is the least affected by the movement between worlds; rather, he is affected by the characters he meets on his journeys as he moves across the divide. It is these other characters that are truly changed by going through the portal and into the Sandman’s realm.

  Early in the series, Morpheus escapes from captivity and quests to find his tokens of power: a helm, a pouch, and a ruby. After the Dreamstone ruby is taken, it changes hands, finally falling under the control of John Dee. Dee used the ruby to become Doctor Destiny, controlling the dreams and nightmares of his victims in a corrupted version of Dream’s powers. With the ruby in his possession, Dee can actually move into the Dreaming as Morpheus would, forsaking the portal of sleep. It is the ruby that becomes Dee’s portal, but it was never intended as such and it ultimately destroys his sanity. In a battle between Dee and Morpheus in the Dreaming, the ruby is destroyed and Dream’s powers returned to him. In the end, it is Morpheus who remarks that manipulating the fabric of the Dreaming must have caused irrevocable damage to Dee: “[The ruby] was not made for mortals. The damage to your mind must have been considerable.”39 Dee has been permanently damaged from possession of the ruby and his movement between worlds—drunk with a power he never had the skill to control.

  However, it is the women of The Sandmanseries who seem to cause the greatest stirs in both Dream and his realm as they cross the threshold. In several issues, we encounter Nada, a former lover of Morpheus. Nada, though manipulated by Desire, follows Morpheus into his world through the dream portal. When she realizes that it is Dream of the Endless she loves, she flees from the Dreaming and back to reality “because it is not given to mortals to love the Endless. Only disaster can follow from it.”40 Morpheus, intrigued by love, offers to make her his queen. Though she tries to escape him, Nada eventually capitulates to her desires, but the city she ruled is razed to the ground as a result. In a last effort to escape Dream—and to save both of them—Nada throws herself from a mountaintop. Morpheus follows her into Death’s realm and asks her again to be his. She refuses and, as punishment for wounding his pride, Dream condemns her to eternal suffering in Hell. Nada, like Dee, crossed a portal and into Secondary worlds. Though Nada tried to resist the temptation of the fantasy while Dee sought to immerse himself further into it, the outcomes are still the same, leaving both to suffer.

  Not all of Gaiman’s female characters see their stories “end” with such pain, however. Rose Walker and Barbie are both heroines that undergo severe tribulations and losses by moving through the Dreaming, yet come out better for their pains on the return side of the portal. Rose, her life threatened by Morpheus when he reveals she is a vortex (a destructive dreaming force), is rewarded for her troubles with a reunion with her kidnapped little brother and a new outlook on life. Emotionally scarred Barbie, who must face the wrath of the Cuckoo (a dream entity) when she passes into the Dreaming, learns she is a strong, independent woman after her adventures in Morpheus’ realm. While on their quests, both women put others before their own wishes. Though their losses are great, their gains are just as powerful. Rose and Barbie needed to journey through the veil of dreams to help others and find themselves so they could return to reality with new purpose, for “[i]t’s the journeys we make for others that give us the power to change ourselves.”41

  The theme of desires comes around again in The Sandman. Gaiman, who consistently refers to this theme in his writing, seems to be of the opinion that wants are generally fleeting things and suggests that we tend to take life for granted in the pursuit of momentary pleasures. Morpheus, as Gaiman’s creation, is of the same opinion: “[Mortals] only see the prize, their heart’s desire, their dream…But the price of getting what y
ou want is getting what you once wanted.”42 When we achieve our heart’s desire, there always seems to be something new to take its place. “Mortals” are rarely satisfied. Coraline, Richard Mayhew, and possibly Runt, learned this lesson stepping through their own portals. Getting what you want has to mean something and what you get is sometimes not what you thought it would be. Yet, time and again, the characters Neil Gaiman creates grow and change and learn.

  So it would seem that Neil Gaiman’s characters tend to step through the portals and into other lands in order to find who they truly are. Sometimes this journey across the threshold is at odds with what they feel they want or even deserve. Sometimes it turns out they are right. Regardless, the movement through the portal and across the boundaries of neighboring worlds is a way for characters to confront desires, chase dreams, and find what they truly need. And we are invited to take that journey with them as they move through portals and between worlds.

  Gaiman’s portal stories resonate with the memories of our own imaginings as children when we passed a wardrobe or a mirror and wondered, “What if ?” We are captivated by his words because they so clearly illuminate the spaces where our reality ends and our dreams begin. As heroes of our own stories, Neil Gaiman challenges us to pass through the portals and discover new worlds of our own.

  _ ___________________

  1 Tal, “Tony and the Wonderful Door,” 133.

  2 Campbell, et al., Portals of Power, 14.

  3 Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, 217.

  4 Tolkien, “On Fairy-Stories,” 33.

  5 Gaiman, Coraline, 92.

  6 Gaiman, Coraline, 89.

  7 Coats, “Between Horror, Humour, and Hope,” 87.

  8 Gaiman, Coraline, 145.

  9 Gaiman, Fragile, 38.

  10 Gaiman, Fragile, 42.

  11 Ibid.

  12 Ibid.

  13 Campbell, Hero, 58.

  14 Gaiman, Neverwhere, 128.

  15 Gaiman, Neverwhere, 40.

  16 Gaiman, Neverwhere, 323.

  17 Campbell, et al., Portals of Power, 6.

  18 Gaiman, Neverwhere, 30.

  19 Gaiman, Neverwhere, 100.

  20 Lewis, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, 45.

  21 Crispin, Interview with Neil Gaiman, October 2006.

  22 See note 3.

  23 Gaiman, Neverwhere, 340.

  24 Gaiman, Neverwhere, 88.

  25 Gaiman, Neverwhere, 341.

  26 Gaiman, Neverwhere, 368.

  27 Gaiman, Neverwhere, 370.

  28 Wagner, et al., Prince of Stories, 30.

  29 Gaiman, The Absolute Sandman, Vol. I, 547.

  30 Gaiman, The Absolute Sandman, Vol. I, 298.

  31 Campbell, Hero, 220.

  32 Gaiman, The Absolute Sandman, Vol. I, 63.

  33 Gaiman, The Absolute Sandman, Vol. I, 56.

  34 Gaiman, The Absolute Sandman, Vol. II, 496.

  35 Ibid.

  36 Gaiman, Stardust, 84.

  37 Gaiman, The Absolute Sandman, Vol. I, 450.

  38 Gaiman, The Absolute Sandman, Vol. II, 61.

  39 Gaiman, The Absolute Sandman, Vol. I, 200.

  40 Gaiman, The Absolute Sandman, Vol. I, 243.

  41 O’Keefe, Readers in Wonderland, 37.

  42 Gaiman, The Absolute Sandman, Vol. I, 514.

  The End of the World as We Know It: Neil Gaiman and the Future of Mythology

  Lynn Gelfand The pre-Socratic Greek philosopher Heraclitus once noted, “Nothing is permanent except for change.”1 While change can be deeply invigorating, it can also be highly disorienting and truly threatening. It should come as no surprise that many myths portray the mental and physical stress that often accompanies significant cultural change as a clash between old and new deities. Neil Gaiman’s novel American Gods builds upon this rich mythic tradition. American Gods, however, depicts not simply a battle between old and new gods in a fight for survival; it suggests that if the pace of technology continues to accelerate, even new and powerful gods can become obsolete within a matter of decades rather than centuries. The theme of world-shaking disruption is also found in the theories of American inventor and author Ray Kurzweil who has argued that at the current rate of technological development, the next fifty years of human achievement will be the equivalent of ten thousand years of progress. How will mythology — one of the most ancient narrative genres in human history— fare under such conditions? Gaiman’s body of work suggests some provocative answers.

  To understand the role of mythology in Gaiman’s stories, we need to first look at the function of culture. Cultures are formal constructions designed to reduce the impact of chaos and random experience. A culture is a set of learned beliefs and behaviors that provide a sense of order and cohesion —qualities that make it more likely for a people to survive the vagaries of nature. Myths are traditional narratives that shape and support the intellectual, emotional, and social features of a culture, making the abstract principles of a society concrete and comprehensible through stories that bind a people together and ensure the continued stability of a culture from generation to generation.

  Yet, to survive, myths must be relevant to a culture, and to remain relevant, myths must fit the changing social, economic, and technological requirements of a society. This process is often represented in myth as a conflict or war between competing gods. An example of such a conflict can be found in Hesiod’s Theogony, an account of the early Greek gods written in the eighth century BCE. Out of Chaos came Gaia (“Earth”), who gave birth to Uranus (“Sky”), with whom she conceived many children. Among them were Rhea (“Stream”) and Cronus (“Time”). Uranus refused to let his children see the light of day and forced them to remain in the bowels of the earth. To free her children, Gaia armed her son Cronus with a sickle. While Uranus and Gaia copulated, Cronus castrated his father, destroying Uranus’ power and simultaneously separating the earth from the sky. Cronus ascended to his father’s position and Rhea replaced Gaia.2

  Like their parents, Rhea and Cronus produced children: Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, Poseidon, and Zeus. Cronus knew that he was destined to be overthrown by one of his children and devoured each child as it was born. To save her youngest child, Rhea hid Zeus in a cave and gave Cronus a stone swaddled in a blanket to swallow. After Zeus grew to maturity, Rhea tricked Cronus into disgorging her other children, who then joined Zeus in overthrowing their father.3 Zeus emerged from the battle as the sovereign of the gods, as well as the god of the sky and of thunder. Hera became his spouse and the goddess of marriage. Poseidon took charge of the seas while Hades ruled the underworld. Demeter was established as the goddess of the grain and Hestia became the goddess of the hearth fire.

  Each succeeding generation of Greek gods in the Theogonyreflects a significant social, economic, and technological shift in culture. Gaia and Uranus represent the deities of a gatherer-hunter society, where human life is dominated by the powerful forces of nature above and the churning fecundity of nature below. Rhea and Cronus are also closely connected to the potency of the earth, but while Gaia represents the earth in its totality, Rhea is the earth specifically in relation to time; Rhea and Cronus are the gods of an agricultural society, where crops are periodically planted and harvested and where animals are domesticated as sources of farm labor as well as food.

  By the time we come to the generation of Zeus and Hera, we see a more complex model of society, the city-state, which depends upon specialized skills and roles to sustain itself. The compartmentalization of society is echoed in the characteristics of the gods who dominate this increasingly urbane environment. Though Zeus, like his grandfather Uranus, is identified with the sky, he shares power to some extent with his brothers, who reign over different parts of the earth. Hera has strong and deep roots as a mother-goddess, but Hera’s connection to fertility in classical Greece is secondary to her role as the wife of Zeus and the queen of the Olympians. Demeter, a goddess who is intimately linked to the cycle of plant life and to mot
herhood, remains closer to the chthonic operations associated with Rhea and Gaia, but by the classical era she is not strongly identified with sexual love (the realm of Aphrodite), animal young (the world of Artemis), or spring plants (Kore’s domain). Like a prism refracting white light into a spectrum of individual colors, the society of classical Greece has reconfigured the earth goddess and her consort into a multitude of related but distinct deities.

  A close study of traditional mythologies reveals narratives in a state of continual flux. This process of change is usually not apparent within one’s lifetime, but it can be seen incrementally over a span of centuries. The mythical beings depicted in The Sandman graphic novels portray the ageold conflict between stability and change as it relates to modern society. Let’s look more closely at four mythic characters in The Sandman (Odin, Ishtar, Lucifer, and Dream) and see how they recapitulate the often tense relationship between the need for cultural stability and the drive for change.

  Odin in Season of Mists is a god from an ancient belief system. A clever and somewhat sinister chess master-figure, the Norse ruler of the gods seeks to assume control of the Christian Hell after Lucifer hands it over to Dream. Odin’s character in Season of Mists does not deviate greatly from the deity found in traditional myth; he is instantly recognizable by his grim demeanor and his goal to avoid the predestined Nordic apocalypse, Ragnarök. The only significant alteration Gaiman has made to Odin has been to place him in a larger mythological context, among gods from diverse cultures. This, however, is highly important. Though still a powerful presence, Odin in Season of Mists is now merely one god among a multitude of supernatural beings from all over the world, all attempting to gain dominion of a realm outside their traditional spheres of power, reflecting the growing competition among different cultures in an increasingly global society.