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so-i-grudgingly-joined-this-site · 2 years ago

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Signs of Life:

Season of Mists, “Augustus,” and a Hopeful Interpretation of The Sandman

In my previous essay, “I tried so hard, and got so far, but in the end, it didn’t even matter”: The Awkward Meta-Tragedy of Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman, I discussed the issues with the common fandom interpretation of The Sandman’s ending as both a tragedy and a suicide. I highly recommend you read that before this, if you haven’t already, as this is mostly an extension of that essay.

Near the end of that work, I mentioned how, in searching for an interpretation of the ending that could be construed as hopeful rather than incredibly pessimistic, I came across a significant amount of evidence in the volume Season of Mists. Quite a bit of this “evidence” I’ve usually seen used by fans to construe Morpheus’ actions as an intentional elaborate suicide, claiming that he was in fact orchestrating his own demise as far back as at least this volume. However, I believe that it is also entirely possible to construe these same events as showing that he was NOT planning a suicide.

In this essay, I will go over each piece of evidence I collected, and how I believe it can be interpreted in alternate ways.

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It is in Season of Mists that Morpheus first goes back to check on Daniel Hall, for the first time after warning Daniel’s mother Lyta that he will return one day to collect the child for unspecified purposes. What purposes those are remain a mystery at that point; those who support the suicide interpretation insist that he planned for Daniel to be his successor upon his suicide. I think this visit makes clear that Morpheus did intend for Daniel to be his successor, but not necessarily specifically for a suicide attempt. In Season of Mists, Morpheus goes to visit Daniel after explaining to his subjects that he fears he may not survive his attempt to rescue Nada from Hell.

Since it is repeatedly emphasized just how dangerous he believes the rescue mission to be, especially after pissing off Lucifer the last time they met, it seems just as clear to me that Morpheus might want to have a successor lined up in general. He saw how horrible things got when he was captured and there was nobody in charge of the Dreaming; having a second in line is just the responsible thing to do. It doesn’t mean he was specifically planning his death, he could just have been planning what could happen in case of his death. There is a difference. Likewise, Morpheus also briefly visits Hob to potentially say goodbye before the trip to Hell. Once again, this emphasizes how dangerous he believes the mission to be, it doesn’t necessarily mean he’s planning on dying.

Some especially pessimistic fans try to paint the Nada mission in general as Morpheus’ first suicide attempt, before the Kindly Ones plot succeeded, but I don’t think the Nada mission is quite as easy to construe as suicide. The Kindly Ones plot had a certain intentional air about it; Morpheus knew that finally granting death to his son would provoke the deities in charge of blood debts and in the depths of his depression did little to avert what effects he knew would happen. By contrast, he actually prepared to battle into Hell to save Nada, righting a wrong from long ago. Though he expected to have to fight Lucifer, he actually made preparations to do so with clear intent for a successful mission, and made the point of preparing his subjects beforehand. This is in contrast to the sudden slaughter from The Kindly Ones where he didn’t do anything to avert the furies’ rampage through the Dreaming until the only thing that could stop them was his own apparent death.

Likewise, Lucifer and his arc are important to how one might interpret Morpheus’ fate. Alongside Destruction, Lucifer is the other example Morpheus has seen of a major universal figure deciding to finally quit the job that wears them down. In their conversation, which Lucifer explicitly refers to during The Wake, he compares his situation to Dream’s. Lucifer notes he was also fated to be stuck with his crappy job forever, assigned by a force greater than him that he couldn’t defy. But then, he realized, he could quit after all. He just kicked everyone out, closed up shop, and walked away.

His choice to quit, and especially driving everyone out of Hell before doing so, causes a TON of issues, to put it mildly; Dream’s responsibility of solving them is one of the two main storylines of the arc, with the other being the Nada plot. The fact that Lucifer’s sudden quit creates such problems, however, does not go unnoticed by Dream. In a pessimistic interpretation, Morpheus takes this as a sign that he indeed can never quit, because doing so would create far too many problems for reality. His sense of responsibility to the universe is arguably the “higher power” he believes forces him to do the job. In an optimistic interpretation, though, it might simply convince Morpheus that he needs to be smarter about his retirement.

After all, it was Lucifer’s lack of a clear successor that led to the whole ordeal of Dream having to assign someone new the key to Hell, and it was the fact that Lucifer kicked everyone out that caused chaos across the dimensions. Perhaps Morpheus realized that the best way to quit might be to make sure there was somebody to take over for him, so that operation of the Dreaming could continue without interruption and without having to unleash any residents upon other dimensions. He’d conveniently already prepared a successor in case anything should happen to him when confronting Lucifer! Likewise, choosing a successor who is eager to actually do the job averts the frustration and angst he witnesses in the angels who end up having to take the key—God basically forces them to stay there; they aren’t fallen so much as shoved.

While we’re on the subject of other entities successfully quitting, Morpheus also took note of Destruction’s path. At first glance, it seems he is as blind to Destruction’s successes as he is to Lucifer’s, only seeing him as behaving irresponsibly. However, as I mentioned in my initial essay on the subject, it’s possible that, after his own quest to find his brother in Brief Lives, Morpheus simply realizes he needs to quit smarter. If he can go pester his wayward brother, other entities could pester him.

Lucifer says that Morpheus has changed from when they met before. Whether or not that means “changed enough to realize that he can change his lot in life” or “changed to feel so guilty and depressed over his condition that he now wants to die” is up in the air—or perhaps up to reader interpretation.

At the end of Season of Mists, Nada finally gets to confront Morpheus after being freed from her multiple-millennia-long imprisonment, and the reader finally gets to learn part of why Morpheus was so incredibly harsh in her punishment. She not only refused Morpheus’ offer to become his immortal queen, but she’d counter-offered that he should become a mortal man to be her king. Not only had she, a human, refused a request from an Endless, but in asking him to abandon his responsibilities she’d unknowingly asked what he’d probably considered the most insulting thing possible. Now, having been freed, Nada points out that it’s been 10,000 years; he can still change his mind and leave the job that’s clearly wearing him down. Morpheus insists he hasn’t changed—possibly even refuses to believe it’s possible—despite the very obvious evidence standing in front of him. If he hadn’t changed, hadn’t realized his wrongdoings and taken action to correct them, Nada would still be rotting away in that cell! Instead, he risked his life to free her!

Notably, right after this is when Morpheus cuts some sort of ambiguous deal with the illusion-god Loki. Did he decide to die, contracting Loki then and there for the plot that would eventually incite Lyta to send The Kindly Ones after Morpheus? Or, instead, did Morpheus employ a master of shape-changing and illusion to help facilitate an equally elaborate plot that would allow him to change while only appearing completely dead?

There also seems thematic significance to the new “redemptive” approach to Hell the angels take. The sinners find the redemption more painful, difficult, and overall worse than just the punishment. Perhaps it is because redemption is a change, it requires effort, while punishment requires no change. Regarding Morpheus’ tendency to blame himself for so many problems in the universe (only a small percentage of which he’s caused), one is left to wonder if the finale is Morpheus punishing himself with death—or, if instead, he endures redemption and changes. Does he take the easy way out—the coward’s way out, as suicide is sometimes (somewhat insensitively, depending on the circumstances) called—or take the challenge?

The rewarding happy ending for the rest of the universe takes on a very different sheen depending on which view you choose. Either it rewards the protagonist giving up, choosing suicide, and choosing mere punishment, or it rewards a change, however hidden from the rest of the characters, and choosing redemption.

Now, the following point I have to make is not from Season of Mists but instead the collection of short stories after it, Distant Mirrors/Fables and Reflections. However, I was unsure where else to put this point, so I may as well include it here.

Much like the point I made about “Façade” in my previous essay, I believe “Augustus” is another odd, seemingly unconnected story that may have deeper meaning to the overall plot. At first glance, the only connection to the greater lore seems to be confirming that Dream is sometimes confused for the Greco-Roman god Apollo, in a reference to Orpheus’ parentage in the original Greek myths. However, at its core, “Augustus” is about a powerful, duty bound king (well, emperor) who suffers from hidden emotional pain, who has to plan an unorthodox way out of his situation without any divine figures finding out. Sound like anyone else? This could either be symbolic of Morpheus trying to plan his suicide before any of his loved ones could intervene, or it could be symbolic of his plan to fake his death (or, possibly, kill off only the part of him that is bound to his duties), thus leaving him free with nobody else to try and drag him back!

“Augustus” also includes the idea of two contradictory prophecy books that are both equally true until Augustus decides which book to act upon. This theme actually reappears in the main plot near the end of The Sandman, with there being multiple Destinies—eventually narrowed down to two—who only whittle down to one once Morpheus’ fate is sealed. This reinforces my suspicion that this short story is thematically significant. The fact that Augustus succeeds in his own plot, asserting his own agency and defying the unjust divine will of his abusive uncle, suggests that Morpheus also succeeds in his plan. What Morpheus’ plan is, of course, is once again up to the reader’s interpretation and optimism level.

There is one last potentially-overlooked point I would like to address. Season of Mists concludes with what appears to be a quote from author G. K. Chesterton, upon whom Fiddler’s Green’s human form is based. However, the book quoted does not actually exist; the notation states that it exists in the Library of Dreams, which holds every book both written and, in this case, unwritten. This adds layers of meaning to the quote. Neil Gaiman is not deciding to end the arc on a specific passage he found meaningful and relevant; rather, he specifically wrote the passage and the attribution in question. It’s very carefully crafted. The quote is as follows:

October knew, of course, that the action of turning a page, of ending a chapter or of shutting a book, did not end a tale.

Having admitted that, he would also avow that happy endings were never difficult to find: “It is simply a matter,” he explained to April, “of finding a sunny place in a garden, where the light is golden and the grass is soft, somewhere to rest, to stop reading, and to be content.”

--G.K. Chesterton, The Man Who Was October

Hmm, what’s that about the ending of a book not necessarily being the ending of a tale? Also, happy endings not being hard to find if you know where and how to look?

Of course the part about a sunny garden with soft grass is a reference to Fiddler’s Green’s landscape form too, but that’s going off-topic.

As I mentioned, the book “quoted” does not actually exist. Upon searching, it seems that the title is a parody of the actual Chesterton work The Man Who was Thursday: a Nightmare (hey, look at that subtitle!). Now, unfortunately, I am not currently familiar with Chesterton’s work and have not read this book. A quick glance at the Wikipedia page, however, reveals some interesting, potentially relevant details. It is very symbolic and dense…and there is apparently a debate over how pessimistic the book is supposed to be! Apparently Chesterton himself attributed the work’s dark tone to the bout of depression he was suffering in college and later tried to explain a more positive spin on it, while at least one other analyst continued to insist it followed a pessimistic philosophy regardless of Chesterton’s later statements. Gee, does that sound like any other literary works we know? Like, perhaps, the very one this essay is interpreting?

That allusion may have ended up far more relevant than Gaiman ever intended.

Tagging those who might be interested: @serenityspiral @duckland @roguelov @ambercoloredfox @notallsandmen @lizajane2 @onehundredandeleventropicalfish

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