The Annotated Sandman Edited and largely written by Greg Morrow Issue 9: "Tales in the Sand" Neil Gaiman, Mike Dringenberg, and Malcolm Jones III Not a part of any long storyline Second story reprinted in _The Doll's House_ Disclaimer: Sandman and all related characters are copyrights and trademarks of DC Comics Inc. Sandman and this annotation are intended for mature audiences only. Notice: Commentaries and additional information should go to morrow@fnal.fnal.gov (Internet) or morrow@fnal.BITNET. This material is posted by the editor directly to rec.arts.comics and COMICS-L, and is licensed to appear on Compu$erve and GEnie. It is also available via anonymous ftp from theory.lcs.mit.edu in pub/wald/sandman. Please contact the editor if you see this material on any other forum. Reproduction in any form without permission of the editor (as agent for the contributors) is forbidden. General: When asked about this story, Gaiman has said that he did some research on African oral tradition, and then went out and made this story up from beginning to end. The Gaiman statement is from an interview which appeared in the Comics Buyer's Guide, a trade journal. To me, the story sounds absolutely authentic as an example of oral tradition. Little seems to make it essentially "African", however, except the clothes, hair, and skin color. I see here two of Gaiman's best traits as a writer: primarily, storytelling ability (and I mean storytelling as an art, not technical skill); secondarily, the ability to _sound_ right even when he's making it all up. One correspondent has noted a great deal of similarity to Australian Western Desert Aborigine tradition. In particular, the manhood ritual and the sacred sites are quite close. However, the story, from context, is quite clearly meant to be African; for example, page 1 refers to apes and lions, page 14 panel 1 to gazelles, and so forth. Page 1: The Trickster is a cross-cultural archetype, most familiar to modern audiences in the form of Bugs Bunny. Page 2 panel 1: It is impossible for tale to only be told once as described in this issue, because attrition would eventually cause it to be lost, as people died before they could tell it. However, twin births are common among Africans, and it is likely that the tale is told to both twins at the same time, which would help alleviate losses. I suspect that the tribe is willing to forego custom and have a storyteller repeat the story if no other appropriate teller is available. But none of this really has any relation to the story. Panel 2: Circumcision as a rite of passage is common in many societies. Page 4 panel 6: Grandmother Death: This is the same Death we saw in issue 8. Page 6 panel 1: We saw Nada in Hell in issue #4. We will see her again in later issues. Page 8 panel 3: The King of Birds appears to be either an all white ostrich, or perhaps some sort of moa (moas being a now extinct line of giant flightless birds of approximately that bodyshape). Page 10 panel 2-3: This has the flavor of one of Kipling's Just-So stories. Page 11 panel 3: These are Cain and Abel (see #2 of this series); the dispute is approximately the same as is given in Genesis. Panel 5: Kai'ckul is what Nada called Dream in issue 4. Page 12 panel 5: First reference to Dream and his siblings as the Endless, who are not gods (but who have occasionally been worshipped as gods; Dream is L'Zoril to the Martians, "a very old god", and Oneiros, the god of dreams, to the Greeks). Page 13 panel 1: The threefold repetition of a word like "coughed" is a common motif in oral tradition. It provides rhythm and reinforcement. Panel 4: It is not clear why mortals cannot love the Endless. Page 14 panel 5: Desire is one of the Endless; this is the first characterization of Desire as "always cruel". Page 15 panel 4: Virginity is often a requirement of a bride. Panel 5: More Just-So stylings, although most myths would have specifically named the flowers. Page 16 panel 2: Dream does not care about virginity; this sounds to me too much like a 20th century character speaking. Page 24 panel 1-2: So what could be the differences in the women's story? Contributors: William Sherman and Mike Fessler (mikef@brownvm.brown.edu) commented on the traditional nature of this story. Michael A. Stoodt (stoodt@cis.umassd.edu), and others, confirmed the contents of _The Doll's House_. Chris Siebenmann thinks that Dream came off pretty well in this story, but in the women's story is portrayed as a real bastard. I was under the impression that Dream was a bastard in the men's story....