Good morning, Tamar!
Mmmm....comics. Yummy.
I could probably go on at length about several different characters,
but that would take some time, and I still have housework to finish
today. I'll be good and just choose one.
She's my number one favorite anyway - Death, from Neil Gaiman's
"Sandman" series.
To hear any number of angsty goth teenagers tell it, Death is either
someone to fear, or someone to mope around and moan after, wishing
she'd come for you because your life is Just. So. Hard.
They don't get it. That's not Death at all. Like as not, she'd bap
'em over the head with the nearest throwable object (as she did to her
brother, Dream, in "The Sound Of Her Wings"), tell them to stop
sulking, stop being a jerk, get up and *enjoy* the little bit of time
they have on Earth.
She's sensible like that. It's one of my favorite things about Death
- she's beautiful, she's witty, she's cheerful, and she's infinitely
sensible. She's also kind, compassionate and gentle.
Far from the frightening, silent, hooded figure with a skull face and
a scythe, Gaiman's Death is a sweet-faced young woman with a sunny
disposition and a gentle, practical manner. Death understands how
scary it is to leave Life behind and make the journey beyond to the
Sunless Lands, and encourages people to make the most of the time
they're given on Earth.
When we first meet her, in "The Sound of Her Wings", we travel with
her on her rounds - she has dragged her brooding little brother along
to witness her work, so that he might gain an appreciation for his
*own* work. They stop to collect a dying Jewish man, who is singing
to himself. He recognizes her for who she is, and asks for a moment
to say the sh'ma - "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God! The Lord is
one!" - before he expires.
She waits patiently, then takes his hand and leads him off as he
questions her - "So. I'm dead. NOW what?" "Now," she says, "is when
you find out." I love that she lets him make peace with his mortality
before guiding him to the next part of his journey, and treats his
passing as simply a crossing into another stage of existence, rather
than something to be afraid of.
In "Brief Lives", we see Bernie Capax, one who is one of the Truly
Old. Bernie, however old, is not terribly observant. He meets his
accidental demise in the form of a tumbling wall. He's crushed, and
dies instantly. His spirit doesn't realize he's dead - he stands over
the rubble and exclaims "Not even a scratch!" - until Death arrives
and informs him "Well...that is your body under there." He's a little
distraught at first, then realizes that he's had a pretty good run:
"I did okay, didn't I? I got, what, fifteen thousand years? That's
pretty good, isn't it? I lived a long time." Death smiles, holds out
her hand, and replies "You lived what anyone gets, Bernie. You got a
lifetime. No more, no less."
This is one of my favorite scenes from the series, serving as a subtle
reminder that our time is limited and we should enjoy the one lifetime
we're given. Rather than deal in dread, Death celebrates Life and
encourages us to embrace it. Life is valuable because it is finite;
"It's the most important thing in the whole Universe," she tells us in
"The Time Of Your Life".
Of course, nothing I could say or write would truly do Death justice.
If you've not already read "The Sandman", you're missing the work of
one of the finest storytellers of our time. Get yourself over to the
library and fetch these books! In the meantime, you can find out more
about Death here:
Enter the World Of Death...
http://members.tripod.com/~Nighthawk333/death.html
Death and Sandman Images
http://www.vamp.org/Gothic/Images/death-image.html
The Wikipedia - Death(Sandman)
http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_(Sandman)
Everything I need to know I learned from Sandman
http://home.fuse.net/vetinari/EINTKILFS.html
The Sandman Commission Gallery
http://www.sandman.tv/sketches.html
DEATH
http://pc59te.dte.uma.es/cdb/series/vertigo/death.htm
Neil Gaiman's Death
http://membres.lycos.fr/hiyami/library/death.htm
Enjoy!
--Missy
Search terms: None. Bookmarks and my Sandman collection live close
to hand. |
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