Neil Gaiman writes:
Tanaqui
NG about r.a.c.m. stuff I sent him before I vanished. So here is some aging
gen from Neil:
Oops. Lance has drifted out of the loop. There will probably be one track
from the live in Minneapolis reading ('Being an experiment on strictly
scientific lines') but everything else on the Angels & Visitations CD (the
eventual title will probably be WARNING:CONTAINS LANGUAGE) was studio
recorded & has Dave McKean music on it.
Talk of the Nation is now May 10th...
Sandman 65 notes...
Page 1 panel 2: ah, someone who hasn't been to england... It rained on
Friday, and by Sunday morning almost all the snow was gone...
The Death/Phoenix thing is an april fool, I assume, yes.
Katie Schwarz
>
>Sandman 65 notes...
>
>Page 1 panel 2: ah, someone who hasn't been to england... It rained on
>Friday, and by Sunday morning almost all the snow was gone...
Gaiman's commenting on the annotations -- neat! This still leaves the
problem of the summery weather in #62, though. The reason I care is
because the weather is a clue to how much time is supposed to have passed
in the story: a couple of weeks, or several months, or even a year?
Different answers would make the story very different.
The context here is: in Sandman #59, Morpheus visits Hob Gadling during
a snowstorm (presumably Hob is still living in England); in #62, Rose
Walker arrives in England dressed quite lightly (miniskirt and short-
sleeved shirt), the grass is green, the skies are sunny and clear until
a thunderstorm at the end of the issue. This made me wonder whether
several months were supposed to have elapsed in the story, or whether
it was an artist's error -- there were other artistic continuity errors
in the issue, which was done by fill-in artists: Unity's nursing home
looks nothing like it did in The Doll's House.
Then in Sandman #64, Rose and Jack take a walk in deep snow (although
Rose is still wearing a miniskirt!), and Neil Gaiman's comment implies
that there was nothing weird about the snow melting between #64 and #65.
So I think we can conclude that the summer in #62 was indeed an artist's
error, it's really winter in the story. Time appears to be passing at
roughly one day per issue during The Kindly Ones.
Clues that the story takes place approximately December 1993/January 1994
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
* The season is winter (rain in Los Angeles in #57, snow in England in #59)
* Nuala has served Dream for three years (#58); she started in Season of Mists,
approximately December 1990
* Rose is at least four -- but less than five -- years older than she was
in The Doll's House (#60); The Doll's House was approximately November 1989
* Daniel is "two, three years old" (#61); he was born during Season of Mists,
and is probably aging slowly
* Unity has been dead for four years (#61); she died in The Doll's House
Clues to the passage of time during the story
----------------------------------------------
Friday:
Lyta has dinner with Eric, Daniel kidnapped (#57)
"Pinkerton and Fellowes" talk to Lyta (#58) [that's probably the 11 pm news
on TV]
Saturday:
Lyta dreams of the Triple Goddess [clock says 5:03 am]
Lyta argues with Carla, stays up all night [Lyta's dream was "last night"] (#59)
Sunday:
"Pinkerton and Fellowes" visit Lyta early in the morning
Carla and Rose notice Lyta's absence (#60) [argument with Lyta was "last night"]
Lyta meets Gorgons, eats apple from dumpster [sunset in both reality and dream]
Monday:
Rose visits Zelda and gets a message to go to England (#61)
Carla complains to police [she says Daniel was kidnapped "three nights ago"]
Carla is burned by the photograph and then killed by Loki [no break between
scenes, and Rose is dressed the same as she was when visiting Zelda]
Rose leaves Los Angeles [she told Carla she was leaving "tonight"]
Wednesday:
Rose arrives in England and visits the nursing home (#62) [even with a nonstop
flight she couldn't have reached England before Tuesday night local time, so
let's figure she had several hours' layover and arrived Wednesday morning]
Thessaly finds Lyta (#63) [? no definite time clues, but this is in the same
issue with Odin's visit to Dream on "Woden's day"]
The Corinthian and Matthew visit Lyta's apartment ["doesn't smell like there's
been anyone around for days" -- Lyta has been gone four days]
Friday:
Rose seduces Jack [journal dated Friday]
The Corinthian sees through Carla's eyes [caption says Friday]
Saturday:
Rose calls Jack at home ["Wasn't it good last night?"]
Sunday:
Zelda dies [revealed in #67]
Rose visits Fawney Rig, meets Desire (#65) [singing "Sunday morning..."]
Dream visits Thessaly, fails to kill Lyta ["As Saturday concluded ...
Larissa ... was concerned about her visitor of the following day," #64]
Monday:
Rose flies home (#66) [in previous issue she says "I think I may be going back
to LA tomorrow"]
Tuesday:
Rose learns of Zelda's death (#67)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Katie Schwarz ka...@physics.berkeley.edu
"Why not fall under the spell of Tlon and submit to the minute and vast
evidence of an ordered planet? Useless to reply that reality, too, is
ordered. It may be so, but in accordance with divine laws -- I translate:
inhuman laws -- which we will never completely perceive." --Jorge Luis Borges
amacker
(Katie Schwarz) wrote:
Neil Gaiman's comment implies
that there was nothing weird about the snow melting between #64 and #65.
So I think we can conclude that the summer in #62 was indeed an artist's
error, it's really winter in the story.
to which I am remembering that winter in england is really odd. having
grown up there, but not been back since 1976, I draw on this memory:
My grandmother came to visit for Christmas and I took her to
Hampton Court Palace. It snowed the day before. We walked through
lush green--albeit muddy-- park to the lovely maze and she
commented on how nice the roses were (in bloom).
--amacker
--
"Well we've nothing more to say
Cause we let it slip away
On a Liquid Wheel.
On a Liquid Wheel."
- Bevis Frond
Lance Squiddie Smith
Tanaqui writes:
> I've been off the Net for a few weeks, and returned to find some mail from
> NG about r.a.c.m. stuff I sent him before I vanished. So here is some aging
> gen from Neil:
> The Death/Phoenix thing is an april fool, I assume, yes.
Not sure what the context of this was, but somewhere in my pile of Sandstuff
I have a poster that was done up as a gag for a Claremont/Gaiman signing
around 1991. (I believe both were in town for a 4th Street con.) The poster
is of Death and Phoenix having "Tea at the Savoy." I think that was the
title of a suggested Sandman/X-Men crossover that came up in an interview
that Claremont had given.
Kathy Li might be able to back me up on this one. She and jayembee stood
ahead of me in line for the signing. I had no idea who they were until
I read a signing report later on the net.
Oh well. That was a nice bit of meaningless nostalgia. Carry on.
============================
Lance "Cr2O3.2H2O" Smith | "I'm sorry, but our survey of the target audience
(lsm...@cs.umn.edu) | shows that the kids just aren't interested in
Unsalted X-Peanuts: The | peanuts. Unless you can come up with some mutant
Death of Dark Peanix | powers, we're going to have to cancel the title."