#three septembers and a january

[writing-for-life]

Sandman Cover Project #31—Shawn McManus

"The Sandman Cover Project": What would the covers have looked like if created by the issue artists instead of Dave McKean?

I will gradually add all illustrations via the tag “Sandman Cover Project”.

[onehundredandeleventropicalfish]

i'm rereading three septembers and a january and god i so hope we get this in some form next season, because it really is so funny

like. despair goes to dream like hey wanna play a game? see who's better, your powers or mine, using this random mortal we found

dream is like no, this seems like a waste of time and also kinda fucked up? i don't have to prove anything to you

despair: ah but it's not just me! all three of us teamed up on this! do you think you can beat me, desire, and delirium?

(desire, distantly, from somewhere offscreen: yeah, bitch, just try it!)

dream: ...and now i want to play even less.

and dream turns to leave

which is when the twins decide to play the true younger sibling card of "you're the reason destruction left!"

dream: excuse me?

despair: if you didn't think you were better than all of us he would have stayed.

dream:

dream: >:(

so death pops by a couple pages later to see what the fuck her younger siblings are up to

and this conversation literally starts with, and i quote:

death: what have you gotten yourself into?

dream: ....a contest.

death: i can see that. but why

and dream is like she blamed me for destruction!! >:(

and death is just like. oh my god. dream. destruction makes his own choices! he is an adult! i thought you were too, but apparently not.

(literally, like-)

and leaves him to deal with the trio's challenge on his own

and then dream runs into delirium in a bar

and he hasn't talked to delirium yet, the twins have been spearheading this, so he's like "i guess you're here about the challenge then?"

delirium: challenge? oh yeah i think despair said something about that... i've been spending my time with the girls in san francisco chinatown

dream: ......

delirium: they're all very nice

[iwanttocreateagod]

... What lesson?

An analysis of Three Septembers and a January from Fables & Reflections by Neil Gaiman, Shawn McManus, Daniel Vozzo, Todd Klein, Alisa Kwitney and Karen Berger. (I, unfortunately, do not own The Annotated Sandman; everything I mention will be a part of my personal interpretation of this story)

What this short story does really well is illustrating the sibling dynamics between the Endless. Something that before was only shown at the start of Season of Mists. While the storyline itself can truly be seen as a stand-alone, it possesses many examples of how the interpersonal relationships interfere with how the siblings rule their realms. Dream shoves his principles aside as soon as Despair plays into Destruction's disappearance. A united front is constructed between the youngest siblings to compete against Dream. Death stands outside this, and her part in the Emperor's life is taken to be unwavering. Desire's attempts to claim the Emperor, is the action most connected to the continuing storyline; "But I'll make him spill family blood, I'll bring the Kindly Ones down on his blasted head...". This proclamation foreshadows in retrospect the conclusion of The Doll's House as it is takes place chronologically before the events in that comic, but this issue was released later. The reference to the Kindly Ones also gives a great example of how the amazing storyline planning can be seen, even in stand-alone short stories. Desire bringing a dead man back to life for this competition, also shows that they have the strongest drive to win from Dream and the least respect for Death's dominion.

On a deeper layer, the Endless' interactions are used to illustrate the interplay between the concepts they personify. This is not done subtly: "Dreams are 'nothing,' sister? Without dreams, there could be no despair."; An echo of Dream's defeat of Lucifer in A Hope in Hell. Very clearly, the ability to dream trumps despair, delirium and desire. In this story, it only yields to death and destiny. Yet the citation above shows that without dreams, the youngest three would not even have a realm. Dreams, apparently, have the capability to both create despair, delirium and desire, and to destroy them. This pattern can be taken much broader than shown in Three Septembers and a January.

The order that exists within the Endless suggests a power dynamic. As they are written, Gaiman seems to have presented them in order from most to least powerful. One can only exist because of its former. Death is bound by destiny, dreams would not exist if nothing was alive, despair/desire are fuelled by dreams, delight/delirium can be a direct consequence of achieving or rejecting the things that cause you desire or despair. Destruction was purposefully omitted in this list, his position between Dream and the twins seems strange. Destruction could have existed outside the Endless altogether; even without life, destruction is inevitable. He can be interpreted as an aspect of the second law of thermodynamics, which means that even without his actual presence, destruction would continue. A conclusion taken directly from Brief Lives. His complete existence and placement as part of the Endless serve as motivation for leaving, for abandoning his realm. The fact that he exists makes the fact that he leaves inevitable, creating the tragedy surrounding him; no other choice could have ever been made, him existing as himself is what damns him.

What still needs to be pointed out, is the capitalization of the word Lesson in Dream's speech bubble. This was an active decision by Klein, no other words starting with the letter 'L' are capitalized. Capitalization usually implies an (additional) importance connected to the word. In this case, it could imply the dual interpretation of the lesson learned within every Sandman comic: The lesson connected directly to the world of the Endless and the implications of the lesson on the "real" world. The conclusion about which lesson is learned in this story will therefore depend on who you are asking. The one I have taken away from it is told above. Despair might have missed it entirely. As with every good piece of literature, ultimately it is up to you.

[lickthecowhappy]

My pleasure!

After reading Three Septembers and a January, I realized the emperor's grave is only 3 miles from where I live so I went to visit today. Have you ever been?

I never have! Thank you!

[bionicdogs]

the boober dude has his consult with the specialist first thing tomorrow morning to get an official diagnosis and schedule the surgery. it’s incredibly obvious that he has a torn ligament but they like to do their own exam and diagnostics, so. we had a camping trip scheduled for the first week of august and i already have off of work for that, so i’m hoping to schedule his surgery right before it since he won’t be able to go camping anyway.

[maddy-ferguson]

talking to new people again is making me realize that (this is gonna sound dramatic) i haven't lived in five years but what i have done is watch a lot of movies and read a bunch of books and believe it or not that actually makes me an interesting conversationalist in some ways (?)

[onehundredandeleventropicalfish]

yeah i more or less agree with all of this and it's why i love this issue too! though like - not sure your familiarity with brief lives op? so i'll give a spoiler warning on this next bit and try and make this paragraph long enough you can choose whether or not to read it

but like. yes, that is an absurd reaction on desire's part

because they know dream is more powerful than them

whether they realised it at the time or not, they were never trying to kill dream, they say as much at the end of brief lives

the kindly ones threat wasn't a murder attempt. it was them trying to prove they were as good as dream. both dream and desire are equally at fault in the war between them, im not really blaming either side over the other here, but the thing that really gets on desire's nerves is dream being condescending. acting like he's always the winner no matter what happens, that he's so far above everything they're trying to do, that nothing they do could ever matter to high and mighty dream

and the insult of this challenge, is that dream called them unsubtle. this whole plan they've been cooking up for 200 years, is just to prove that they can be subtle, that they can win for once, and hopefully drag dream down a peg or two

(as for burgess, it's only show canon that desire was involved in that, comic canon never says anything about it, but if we do go with that as canon i'd imagine it's from the exact same frustration and just. the inability to conceptualize the consequences they might be incurring here)

and that's the thing about all the endless and their sibling dynamics and part of the reason i find them all so interesting - they're just children playing with impossibly large powers. they have no equals but their siblings and even their siblings are different enough from them that there's no one to relate to or look up to. some of the endless have matured more than others, but very few if any of them actually know what they're doing. desire and dream especially

if dream's powerful enough to consistently beat the three youngest even when they're all working together, how the hell could the kindly ones actually kill him? he's gotta have a million ways out of that. but it'll be a pain in the ass, and it'll make him take desire seriously. that's all they want

and then desire's entire character arc in brief lives is them realising that their actions had consequences, in more ways than one. and they spend the whole thing scrambling to put it right, but it's too late. they can't. and then as soon as that sinks in they close off their realm and disappear from the story until kindly ones is over. because that's a pretty hard thing to face, especially when you know because of your past actions you can't go to a single one of your siblings for help

(even despair they're on shaky ground with, because she's just thinking about destruction and how much she misses him and how desire never wanted destruction to come back so maybe they're not on the same side after all)

and i think it's one of the most interesting character arcs in the whole story

So I'm reading through the Sandman comics, and I just got through "Three Septembers and a January" and it is just... SO interesting in terms of the Endless family dynamics.

(This is going to be so disorganized and rambly I just have a lot of feelings I loved this story okay)

Like, yeah okay I'm a Dream apologist, but seriously. Despair calls Dream (not in her gallery and without his sigil- very informal and borderline against the rules- and he still comes!) and challenges him to a game over a mortal's life. Dream is like "No, I don't play your games, I'm a goddamn professional" and Despair shoots back like "WOW you think you're soooo much better than us, not fucking around with people's lives, it's 100% your fault Destruction left" and Dream is like "...fine, hold my beer."

So that alone I'm like. Yeah dude. I get it. And if that's the shit he's been dealing with for all of existence? Yeah I'd be annoyed with my siblings too.

Another part I'm super interested in is seeing when Death shows up and when she doesn't (to be fair, we're following Dream, so it's possible we just don't see certain interactions).

At the very beginning of the challenge, Death shows up to like. Scold Dream for going along with it? She even says "I thought you were an adult" and like. Okay, sure, you think Dream shouldn't be doing this but are you going to talk to Despair and Desire about this? I love Death but a lot of times she gives me the vibe of an adult telling you "Just ignore them they're just doing it to get a reaction" instead of telling the other person to stop antagonizing you, y'know?

At one point Despair says "What's there to understand? He's mortal. He's nothing." And Dream immediately disagrees, and like. That feels like PRIME Death lecture area. Despair doesn't value mortals! The people they serve! Death if you can scold Dream for feeling lost and disconnected from humanity after being tortured for 100 years you can scold Despair for looking down on humans for seemingly no reason.

Desire eventually shows up to try to sway the guy they're following into giving into his desires, but he turns them down. And Desire is SO pissed like "what the FUCK this guy should be mine!!" and Dream's just like "¯\_(:/)_/¯" and then as he leaves is like "Tbh disappointed in you Desire, you weren't very subtle" which to me felt like an "I expected better from you" and, expectedly, Desire gets MORE pissed and as they leave, to themself are like "Oh he wants subtle? I'm gonna make him spill family blood and bring the Kindly Ones down on him!!" Which. To me. Feels like just a bit of an overreaction.

Seriously THAT'S why you want to kill him?? Because he insulted you during a challenge that he didn't even want to be a part of but got provoked into? That's your motivation? Holy shit.

Dream's done some fucked up shit, no lie, but when it comes to the family side of things? Honestly #TeamDream all the way, just leave the poor boy alone, Jesus Christ.

[vortahoney]

I’m very sorry but I’m convinced none of you have ever seen a hallmark movie

[freddieandersen]

immersion shattered by inaccurate details about my workplace! at the lesbian romance novel

[anhedonyan]

I shouldn't have watched yesterday's movie.

[onehundredandeleventropicalfish]

Hello! May I perhaps ask where this panel is from? Is far as I remember, it's not from the original run, or is it?

no, it is! it's from #31, three septembers and a january, the one where the younger three (really desire and despair they've just vaguely convinced delirium to tag along) try and rope dream into a challenge of seeing if dreams are enough to keep this random mortal alive after the other three do their best to ruin his life

also notable as the time dream offended desire enough they started plotting what would become the doll's house arc

(and the issue containing two of my favourite death outfits)

[dragons-and-yellow-roses]

5am and I'm feeling gay and yearning

[hogwartscastle]

Our Legend-Trio May you three rest in peace together now. You will truly be missed with heavy hearts.

Alan Rickman † January 14, 2016 Michael Gambon † September 27, 2023 Maggie Smith † September 27, 2024

[cloveroctobers]

JAMES EARL JONES

James Earl Jones was an American actor known for his iconic voice acting roles and for his work in theater. Over his career, he received three Tony Awards, two Emmy Awards, and a Grammy Award. Born in Arkabutla, Mississippi in 1931, he had a stutter since childhood. Jones said that poetry and acting helped him overcome the challenges of his disability. A pre-med major in college, he served in the United States Army during the Korean War before pursuing a career in acting. Jones made his film debut in Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove (1964). He received a Golden Globe Award nomination for Claudine (1974). Jones gained international fame for his voice role as Darth Vader in the Star Wars franchise, beginning with the original 1977 film. Jones' other notable roles include in Conan the Barbarian (1982), Matewan (1987), Coming to America (1988), Field of Dreams (1989), The Hunt for Red October (1990), The Sandlot (1993), and The Lion King (1994). Jones reprised his roles in Star Wars media, The Lion King (2019), and Coming 2 America (2021).

He was described as "one of America's most distinguished and versatile" actors for his performances on stage and screen, and "one of the greatest actors in American history.”

( January 17th, 1931 — September 9th, 2024)

Rest well.

[doyoulikethissong-poll]

Eiffel 65 - Blue (Da Ba Dee) 1998

"Blue (Da Ba Dee)" is a song by Italian music group Eiffel 65. It was first released in October 1998 in Italy and became internationally successful the following year. It is the lead single of the group's 1999 debut album, Europop.

The song initially found success in France, where it debuted in August 1999 and reached number one for three weeks. It then found success in other European countries, reaching the top spot on many charts in September the same year. It became one of the biggest-selling songs of 1999, reaching number one in at least 18 countries, charting at number three in Italy, and peaking at number six on the US Billboard Hot 100 in January 2000. It reached number one in Australia, New Zealand and Canada. In the UK, the song initially entered the top 40 purely on import sales; it was only the third single to do this. The song re-charted on 6 May 2013 at number 40 in the UK, following its inclusion in Iron Man 3.

The song received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Dance Recording at the 2001 Grammy Awards. "Blue (Da Ba Dee)" has also been heavily sampled and remixed in later years.

The accompanying music video for the song was released in 1999 by BlissCoMedia, a computer graphics division of Bliss Corporation, and featured computer-generated graphics that were done in 3ds Max. With very few resources, tutorials and books, and only one editing machine, the video was made between 1998 and 1999 in a garage in about two to three months.

"Blue (Da Ba Dee)" received a total of 75,2% yes votes!

[mikkeneko]

On January 30, 1835, US president Andrew Jackson was confronted by Richard Lawrence, who twice attempted to shoot him in the back with a pistol but the gun did not fire. Andrew Jackson proceeded to beat the crap out of Lawrence with his cane. Jackson did not run again in the 1836 election.

On October 14, 1912, former US President and running candidate for the 1912 election Theodore Roosevelt was shot in the chest by John Schrank while on the campaign trail in Milwaukee. He stayed at the podium and delivered the remark "Friends, I shall ask you to be as quiet as possible. I don't know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot—but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose." Despite the extreme badassery of this line, he lost the 1912 election to Woodrow Wilson.

On May 15, 1972, US presidential candidate George Wallace was shot by a man named Arthur Bremer in Laurel, Maryland. He was injured enough by the attempt that he retired from the 1972 election. He ran for president again in 1976, and did not succeed.

On September 5, 1975, US president Gerald Ford was confronted on the grounds of the Capitol Building by Lynette Fromme, who attempted to shoot him but was not successful; he then went on to be shot at by another woman, Jane Moore, less than two weeks later. Ford campaigned for re-election in the 1976 election, but lost to Jimmy Carter.

While looking up citations for this post I found out about any number of presidential assassination attempts I never even knew about; Wikipedia has an entire category page for them (and another for successful assassinations.) Gerald Ford was shot at twice in two weeks, and Barack Obama at least three times.

Sadly, this type of political violence in the United States is not at all new, not at all uncommon, and the incidence of attempted assassination seems to have no correlation whatsoever as to the individual's success rate in future elections.