Sandman musings: Why Daniel?

I was musing last night over the thematic arc of Neil Gaiman's _The Sandman_, when a new question occurred to me: Why choose Daniel as his 'successor'?

One of the obvious character arcs that Morpheus undergoes over the course of the series is a growing sense of compassion and responsibility towards others. So why pick, as the major changed piece of his personality, such a young human child? A child of that age is practically the polar *opposite* of those qualities! It's almost as if Morpheus is rejecting the changes he has undergone, and deliberately attempting to undo them.

One of Daniel's other qualities is that his parents have had their back-continuity rewritten multiple times. This also suggests that, by absorbing him, Morpheus wishes to rewrite his own past, eliminating the parts he doesn't want to cope with any more.

The catalytic event which started Morpheus changing was his imprisonment in a round glass cage for an unusually long time. Daniel spent an unusually long time inside the round 'cage' of his mother's womb, itself effectively imprisoned within the round confines of the Dream Dome. Perhaps Daniel, being such a child of confinement, is more resilient to it, and wouldn't undergo such change if subjected to it.

While one of the major repeating theme's in Sandman is "You don't have to stay anywhere (or any*one*) forever", it now looks to me like Morpheus's choice is explicitly a rejection of change, a conservative retrenching. I wonder if that was in any way intentional on Gaiman's part?

Sandman musings: Why Daniel?

I was musing last night over the thematic arc of Neil Gaiman's _The Sandman_, when a new question occurred to me: Why choose Daniel as his 'successor'?

One of the obvious character arcs that Morpheus undergoes over the course of the series is a growing sense of compassion and responsibility towards others. So why pick, as the major changed piece of his personality, such a young human child? A child of that age is practically the polar *opposite* of those qualities! It's almost as if Morpheus is rejecting the changes he has undergone, and deliberately attempting to undo them.

One of Daniel's other qualities is that his parents have had their back-continuity rewritten multiple times. This also suggests that, by absorbing him, Morpheus wishes to rewrite his own past, eliminating the parts he doesn't want to cope with any more.

The catalytic event which started Morpheus changing was his imprisonment in a round glass cage for an unusually long time. Daniel spent an unusually long time inside the round 'cage' of his mother's womb, itself effectively imprisoned within the round confines of the Dream Dome. Perhaps Daniel, being such a child of confinement, is more resilient to it, and wouldn't undergo such change if subjected to it.

While one of the major repeating theme's in Sandman is "You don't have to stay anywhere (or any*one*) forever", it now looks to me like Morpheus's choice is explicitly a rejection of change, a conservative retrenching. I wonder if that was in any way intentional on Gaiman's part?

Ambitions

I've been spending a lot of time in the last year or so considering who I am and who I want to be, professionally. Lots of my friends have been making big life changes recently, and when I consider this, it exacerbates an inner restlessness. siderea's recent long post brought some issues into sharper focus for me.

( Cut for length )

Ambitions

I've been spending a lot of time in the last year or so considering who I am and who I want to be, professionally. Lots of my friends have been making big life changes recently, and when I consider this, it exacerbates an inner restlessness. siderea's recent long post brought some issues into sharper focus for me.

( Cut for length )