bagheera_san | Obligatory Spoiler Plea.

Seeing as I won't buy the HP book until next THURSDAY, (or, if I cave early, Monday), I should be avoiding the internet at all cost. Seeing as I am addicted hopelessly to the internet, I can't. Willpower: - 3. Please, please, please cut-tag *everything*. I'm pretty gullible, so I get a small shock each time someone posts mock-spoilers.

Speaking of spoilers: I'm reading the entire run of Sandman for the first time, and I've reached "The Kindly Ones" and I think I'm spoiled and I hate it.

Otherwise, though, I love Sandman. I like nearly all of Neil Gaiman's works, but this is definitely one of the best. I also love how you can see the "American Gods" 'verse in embryonic form in the series. Also, I think it's fascinating that of all the Endless, I only find Despair frightening. Death, Delirium, Destruction and Dream are by far too charming, (and in the later story arcs, I've had to laugh every time Dream appeared. He's just so ridiculously, self-importantly emo. He's like this silly and weird relative you can't help but like) and Desire and Destiny aren't that impressive, but Despair? Brr.

I should be studying, but it's so hot and humid here that my brain is mush. I'm going to buy an energy drink now. Or ten, for the next couple of days.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Funny, we were just talking about Sandman at work yesterday. I love Neil Gaiman but I haven't read these books yet. Must try and track them down

I think people are going to be good about HP spoilers. I probably won't get to read the book until next week some time as well so I hope LJ manages to stay spoiler free

I don't think anyone is going to write stuff like, "OMG, X dies!" outside of a cuttag, but I don't even want to hear stuff like, "So sad!" and I'm not sure I trust LJ not to do that.

Sandman is one of the comics you might find in a good library. The quality between books varies some, though, some are better than others. So far the ones I would least reccomend are "World's End" and "Fables&Reflections" because they're both rather episodic, but everything else is fabulous.

I agree with you, "So sad" would already be a spoiler for me too. I'm actually pretty sure that you can't trust LJ with that.
I already came across some emotions of people, who apparently have already read it. Often you also get spoiled by the mood theme and the icon, people always forget that. Normally I get a pretty good impression e.g. if SV was good or bad, just by looking at mood and icon and the person who posts.

Oh yeah. I guess I'll come across mood and general reaction spoilers - but people's mileage differs, so they're pretty inconclusive anyways.

I'm immensely fond of the Sandman series. I first discovered them in college -- this'd be, oh, 1993? 1994? The series was still in progress at the time -- and got sucked in immediately. It was the first time I ever fell in love with a comic, or realized that comics could be literature. I've read most of Gaiman's work since, and while I've liked a lot of it, I don't know that anything else he's done measures up to the cleverness and innovation and erudition and immersiveness of that series. I go back and revisit it every few years. I kind of envy you now, discovering it all for the first time.

I don't know that anything else he's done measures up to the cleverness and innovation and erudition and immersiveness of that series.

Up until now, "American Gods" was my favourite (as well as some of his short stories) but I think that actually, you could read the AG 'verse as part of the Sandman 'verse, and Sandman is definitely much, much denser. I love how characters you believe to be minor and one-appearance guest stars resurface again and again in totally unexpected ways.

Really? Personally, I've always found Desire rather more creepy than Despair. Despair always seemed like she at least cared about the people she fucked over, whereas Desire will
fuck you up for life, and do it all with a smile on hir face. (Although I will admit that the eye-gouging and so forth on Despair's part is rather freaky.)

More generally- I'm ridiculously attached to Sandman, mainly because the first comic I ever bought (aside from a few UK kids' comics, like The Beano) was an issue from Brief Lives. Much love.

Desire is a villain, sure. It's creepier than Despair by far, but Despair is *frightening*. It's a personal thing, I guess - I've had far more experience with Despair than with the negative aspects of Desire. The scariest moment with Desire, for me, is when Delirium and Dream have found Destruction and he has left, and Despair says, "I could have gone with them and searched for him, too, and then I could have talked to him one more time. I think I would have done it..." but she hasn't. She doesn't even try. And you get that feeling that she never will try - she'll always just think about it and despair.

I really want Rowling to end HP with "Rock falls everybody dies", but I guess that's asking for too much.

I'll take any end, as long as
a) she doesn't write that last chapter that tells us what happens to everybody in the rest of their lives
and
b) It's not horrifyingly schmoopy. Only Shakespeare gets to do double weddings! But I actually trust JKR not to make it too fluffy.

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