#henrik ibsen

[penumbrapens]

Indirect trauma dumping because its my birthday?

[petaltexturedskies]

I want to lie on springtime's bed of flowers; I want them to soothe my soul.

Henrik Ibsen, from The Complete Plays & Works; "The Miner"

[palatinewolfsblog]

“The spirit of truth and the spirit of freedom - they are the pillars of society. -Henrik Ibsen

[philosophors]

“You see, the point is that the strongest man in the world is he who stands most alone.”

— Henrik Ibsen

[cinematic-literature]

Interview with the Vampire S02E08 (And That's The End of It. There's Nothing Else)

Book title

Un ennemi du peuple (En folkefiende in Norwegian; 1882) by Henrik Ibsen

Vie de Voltaire (1789) by Jean-Antoine Caritat de Condorcet

Anna Karenina (Aнна Каренина in Russian; 1877) by Lev Tolstoj

Books by Jean-Paul Sartre

[strokeofserenity]

Henrik lbsen, “A Doll's House.”

[macrolit]

Four Major Plays Henrik Ibsen This is 1 of 12 vintage paperback classics that comprise our current giveaw@y.

[lascitasdelashoras]

John Sokol: Retratos de autores en sus propias palabras.

George Bernard Shaw: "El camino del héroe"

James Joyce: "Ulises"

Robert Lowell: "History"

William Faulkner: "El sonido y la furia"

Robert Penn Warren : "Audubon"

James Tate: "Riven Doggeries"

John Keats: "Lamia"

Walt Whitman: "Hojas de hierba"

Eudora Welty: "Powerhouse"

Henrik Ibsen: "Hedda Gabler"

Dante Alighieri: "Infierno"

Jorge Luis Borges: "El milagro secreto"

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: "Salmos de vida"

[angels-wouldnt-help-you]

rosmersholm by henrik ibsen / twin peaks s02e07 "lonely souls"

[cutesyname]

i give you: klingon ibsen

[writing-for-life]

“Tales in the Sand” in Context of “The Doll’s House”

About Patriarchy, the Madness of Pure Dream and Nada & Morpheus as mirrors of each other

Over the past week, we had interesting community discussions about “Nada’s dream” on both a more direct and a more metaphorical/allegorical level (join us if you’d like to read/discuss).

But one of the most important functions of “Tales in the Sand” is its place in the overall narrative. You can look at it as a “story within a story” on several different levels—self-contained or as part of a whole.

One thing that can be looked at in a pretty self-contained way is “Tales in the Sand” as the opener of “The Doll’s House”—it explicitly belongs to this arc, even if it is somewhat of a transition issue.

Some of you might be familiar with Henrik Ibsen’s play “A Doll’s House”, and I can’t help but think about the common themes, especially with regard to Nada, but also parts of the overall Doll’s House arc:

A woman who is smart and extremely capable, but unfulfilled and caught up in a patriarchal system. I won’t summarise the whole story here, but Ibsen’s protagonist Nora secretly borrowed money (to help her husband recover from illness no less)—during a time when women weren’t allowed to engage in financial affairs. When the whole thing falls apart, she even thinks of killing herself. The reaction of her husband, which is belittling and patronising [he “forgives” her and has the gall to say that act of forgiveness reminds him of how much he loves her, because she is a “helpless child” and dependent on him] ultimately makes her leave him, despite knowing what this means: They have children, and while the play ends here, it was highly unlikely for a woman during that time to get custody. So we can only have a guess of what will become of her. In a way, she didn’t kill herself, yet committed societal suicide and might probably face a very difficult life from here onwards…

And while we have a real doll’s house in the actual story of the Sandman’s “The Doll’s House”, and that holds its own meaning (we are currently discussing this in the community as well), I cannot help but think about Ibsen’s play about:

A woman standing up for what she believes in at great cost to herself. Which: Ouch, because that sentiment as such is almost verbatim echoed in Dream Hunters.

Now that’s the self-contained parallel in “Tales in the Sand”—women who are capable still get caught up in patriarchal systems and beliefs (it is expected of Nada to “find a man”—why, one could ask? Because: the patriarchy…)

Let’s move on to Nada and Morpheus as mirrors…

Nada is an almost exact mirror of Morpheus: Lonely, caught up in her “function”, burdened by rules and responsibilities. And more importantly: She is as unwilling to let go of them as he. They arrive at a stalemate, which is made very clear in Season of Mists: She isn’t willing to lay down who she is for him, he won’t lay down his function for her. They are made of the same material, so to speak.

There is also a really interesting parallel when we look at Nada’s dream on a more conceptual level: What kind of dreams have the power to ultimately destroy you (and your people)? Nada is explicitly described as a good and benevolent leader, and while I have my personal theory what her dream was (you can find it here), this is open to interpretation and will forever stay a head-canon.

But there is much to be said for losing our grip on reality when we become too caught up in our dreams, whatever they may be and however benevolent—the script to “The Doll’s House” contains these lines when describing Dream’s throne room:

The windows actually lead onto the madness of pure dream, which is at the true centre of the dreamworld…

These lines don’t appear anywhere in the comics, but they are narrated almost verbatim in the Audible, so we can absolutely consider them canon.

And they apply to both Nada and Morpheus to certain degrees—they are both lonely, caught in the ivory tower of their respective existences. One gets caught up in a dream until it destroys her and her civilisation, the other is pure d/Dream (this also says a lot about Morpheus btw, because we all know how desperately he has to keep the proverbial lid on everything so it doesn’t consume him).

And then there is this, down to standing on a rock/spire (did I ever say I always wondered about the actual mechanics of Morpheus’ death? Because Death usually is NOT the one who kills you; but I digress):

They both make the ultimate sacrifice because they can’t be other than they are.

And then this:

Even the parallels of Nada being reborn as a boy (meh though, sorry, but maybe that’s for another time) and not remembering anymore, and yet clearly doing so on some subconscious level (she/he is at his funeral after all, and while all of us are, she/he is briefly seen with his lovers).

That’s like Daniel!Dream not being Morpheus and also not truly being Daniel Hall anymore, but echoes of both remain.

And don’t even get me started on hope. I wrote about this so many times, you can find all related metas here…

So I guess this is one thing about Nada and her dream that couldn’t be made clearer if we tried:

While all the other angles, be they a more direct or conceptual reading, make sense, the most important, and probably also obvious one, is that Nada’s dream is also Dream’s. And that’s something we also get in the TV show in other contexts:

NG stated it explicitly in his intro/script to The Doll’s House—the whole arc is about how the Endless relate to humans. And “the truth of mankind” is also Dream’s, whether he admits to it or not. How could it not be—he holds our subconscious.

Nada and Morpheus are direct mirrors of each other. And the whole of “Tales in the Sand” is just one ginormous bit of foreshadowing, whether NG was already aware of it at the time or not…

[petaltexturedskies]

Softly the waves are trilling, the moonlight shines so brightly. Roses, roses everywhere.

Henrik Ibsen, from "Midnight Mood" in The Complete Plays & Works

[specificpollsaboutbooks]

Plays

Round 1

A Doll's House :

Cyrano de Bergerac :

Oh my how do I explain ? I guess I could say this play has panache

Well you have an English translation here to start with - as far as I've seen it's okay-

It's a -by the looks of it, heavily- fictionalised version of the life of the real Cyrano

Cyrano's a great duelist and a good poet but he's very self-conscious about his nose (even if ladies reportedly don't mind).

For starters, Cyrano isn't older than Roxane and Christian – he's supposed to be about 21 at the start of the play and not middle aged as in many adaptations. He's in love with his cousin Roxane, who's in love with Christian, another man in Cyrano's company. Roxane is an intellectual and Christian isn't good with words, so he seduces her with the help of Cyrano, who writes his letters to Roxane – and prompts Christian discreetly when he talks to her

[blackswaneuroparedux]

Hvis du ønsker å forstå Norge, må du se på naturen. Den er et speil av det norske sinn.

- Henrik Ibsen

If you want to understand Norway, you must look at nature. It is a mirror of the Norwegian mind.

[power-chords]

Decoration sketch for the play “The Master Builder,” Petre Otskheli, 1931.

[yoestuveaquiunavezfrases21]

2066- El dinero puede ser la cobertura de muchas cosas, pero no te da lo principal, te da la comida, pero no el apetito, medicina, pero no la salud, conocidos, pero no amigos, servidores, pero no lealtad, días de alegrías, pero no paz ni felicidad.

(Henrik Ibsen)