The Annotated Sandman

               Edited by Ralf Hildebrandt and largely written by Greg Morrow

                        Issue 15:  "Into the Night"
           Neil Gaiman, Mike Dringenberg, and Malcolm Jones III

              Sixth part of long storyline _The Doll's House_
       Eighth story reprinted in trade paperback _The Doll's House_

Page 1 panel 2:  This is Hal talking.
	Panel 3:  They're talking about Jed.  He's probably concussed from
where the Corinthian would have hit him to knock him out, and dehydrated from
being locked in a car trunk for an indeterminate period of time.  A "drip" is
an IV (from "intravenous"), a fluid-filled bag leading to a needle which is
inserted into a vein in the forearm or back of the hand.  It's used to supply
fluid (typically a saline solution to roughly match the blood plasma),
medicines, and nutrition (as the simple sugar glucose).

Page 2 panel 1:  Ken and Barbie are deliberately this cute, ending each other's
thoughts and wearing the same clothes.
	Panel 4:  I'm familiar with the moral tale, but it is quite long and
I'll merely say that the point is that God does not abandon you during
difficult times, those times are when he supports you the most.

Page 4:  This is Ken's dream, one of money.  The top line reads "[typewriter
symbols] Talking talking money boy ar[e you] listening 2 [to] me?"  Below two
small pictures, of a building and a man (possibly Ken's self image, or a father
or boss figure), and also beside Ken's head, it reads "Mebbe [Maybe] 100
thou[sand dollars]".  Then "Mebbe talk talking money boy got 2 handit 2 u boy"
next to the man superimposed over a table of mutual funds values.  Mutual funds
are a type of investment.  Then a picture of the man superimposed over a stock
market listing, next to "Mebbee 100 thou/Mebbe more...."  A stock market
listing has the prices for stocks, which are pieces of paper representing
partial ownership of a company.  The buying and selling of stocks is important
to Western-style economies.  Then above a final picture of the man, we have
"talking money boy ar u listening 2 me??"

Page 5:  This is Barbie's dream.  Barbie's dream is the subject of an entire
subsequent long storyline, so pay attention.  Barbie's dream is a fairy tale.
The first panel of the dream pictures Barbie's self-image; the Porpentine, a
magic amulet, described below as "a confection of spun silver and rose quartz";
and Martin Tenbones, first known appearance, will appear later.
	"Porpentine" is used in Shakespeare's _Hamlet_, Act I Scene 5, to mean
"porcupine".  I suppose the amulet pictured here could be considered to
resemble a porcupine.
	Later panels also mention "The Cuckoo" and "The Disciples of the
Cuckoo", villains; and the Hierogram ("Holy" + "Writing"), which is closely
connected to the Porpentine.

Page 6-7:  Chantal's dream occupies the top half of the double-page spread,
Zelda's the bottom.  The illustration of the two sleeping implies that they are
lovers.  Their relationship was uncertain to the other residents of the house.
	Note that the original comic, a caption from Zelda's dream appears in
the central panel, but is virtually obscured by a lace overlay on the art.

The caption reads:
Mommy and Daddy told me to go away so here I am in the old bone orchard                               
nobody understands me nobody cares nobody else userstands it the beauty                               
of the lost necropolis is the Charnel charm,                                                          
                                                                                                      
The second caption:
                                                                                                      
oh but chantal comes along and shows me she's my soul sister me and her                               
true gothic heroines secret brides of the faceless slaves of the                                      
forbidden house of the nameless night of the castle of dread desire                                   

        Chantal panel 1:  Chantal's self-image is flat, all solid colors and
lines, a sophisticated-looking lady.  The style resembles artist Patrick Nagel.
The caption reads:  "Chantal is having a relationship with a sentence.  Just
one of those things.  A chance meeting that grew into something important for
both of them."
        Panel 2:  "They like the same things.  She took it to a party.  They
were a big hit.  The perfect couple."
	Panel 3:  "Everybody knows about her and the sentence."
	Panel 4:  "The sentence spent most of last year in Czechoslovakian for
political reasons.  But it was recently translated back into English.  In order
to stop the sentence being deported, Chantal has arranged to have it read into
the Library of Congress.  However--"  There are two languages in
Czechoslovakia, Czech and Slovak.  There is no Czechoslovakian.  But this is a
dream.
	Panel 5:  "...when the time comes she discovers that she can no longer
read.  She has no idea what the sentence is about.  Despondent and joyless,
Chantal begins to cry."  The entire sequence reads like a bizarre parody of a
real relationship.
	Zelda panel 1:  Zelda's self-image is childlike, reminiscent of Alice
of Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventure's in Wonderland."  In the caption, "bone
orchard" signifies the pictured graveyard.  "Necropolis" is equivalent to
"Death" + "City".  "Gothic heroines:"  "Gothic" is a genre of fiction that uses
remote and unusual settings to establish a mood of mystery and horror.
_Sandman_ is Gothic fiction.  The "forbidden house...of dread desire" is
probably a reference to lesbianism.
	Panel 2:  Chantal as mother figure?
	Panel 3:  What does the skull in the cupped hands mean?  Above this
panel, in the panel of Zelda and Chantal together, there are meant to be two
captions.  The two captions do not appear in the original comic publication,
but were replaced in the trade paperback reprint.  The first reads:
	With Melmoth we walk the corridors of Otranto
The second reads:
	And Chantal says I'm going to take off my veil Zelda and Oh God I know
it's going to be my mom saying Oh God Zee you're sick listen Robert do you know
wht I found in her room your daughter's disGUSTing
        Panel 4:  I presume that the "Hey, li'l moron" speech is something
Zelda's mother abused her with.  Zelda doesn't speak; perhaps she stutters?
"Godzilla":  Godzilla is the star of a series of giant monster movies made
cheaply in Japan.  Probably here, Zelda's mom is teasing her:  "Do you believe
in God...zilla?" or Zelda's mind is forming unconscious connections:  "Do you
believe in God?" becomes "Do you believe in Godzilla?"  It is also possible
that "Godzilla" is a cruel twist on the name "Zelda," teasing other children
might use.
	Panel 5:  Under the veil appears to be a spider's face.  Zelda and
Chantal collect spiders.

Page 8:  This is Hal's dream.
	Panel 2:  Pictured and referred to are Bette Davis, Judy Garland, and
Marilyn Monroe.  I suspect Hal dreams their secret is that they are all men,
too.
	These three figures are major inspirations for drag queens such as Hal,
as well as other aspects of gay culture.  Judy Garland, and especially her role
in _The Wizard of Oz_, has provided the gay community with the symbol of the
rainbow, and San Francisco (a Mecca for gay men) is often referred to as "Oz".
Being a "friend of Dorothy" is gay slang for being gay.
	The other two have a somewhat less strong connection.  Bette's physical
gestures and her classic "bitch" nature are copied by drag queens.  Marilyn has
a low singing voice which is easy to mimic.  Her apotheosis with respect to
straight America is probably not particularly relevant.
	The flamboyant public nature of the stars, combined with their more
private off-screen lives, reflects the dichotomy of their gay fans' lives.
	Panel 5:  Judy Garland as Dorothy in the movie _The Wizard of Oz_.
	Panel 6:  Judy pulls off her face to reveal the face of the Wicked
Witch of the West from the same movie.  Margaret Hamilton played the Witch, and
later went on to do many coffee commericials for Maxwell House brand.
	Panel 7:  The final face revealed is actually the Wizard of the movie,
though it's hard to see.  Frank Morgan was the actor who played the Wizard.
	The simple symbology in this sequence is that Hal wears a mask, either
when he's being a transvestite, or when he's not, and he wants to stop.
	
Page 9-10 panel 6:  A double page spread.  The "Big-Bad-Wolf-Man" is Fun Land,
a serial killer who tried to kill Rose.  "The pale stranger" is Dream.
	Panel 12:  Brevard County is a county in Florida, where Rose is
staying.

Page 11 panel 4:  Dream's responsibilities include protecting the Dreaming.
His responsibilities are part of what he represents as one of the Endless.
They are probably not imposed by some external figure.
	Matthew's dislike of hospitals stems from the abuse his body underwent
in his former life.  See issues of _Swamp Thing_.

Page 12 panel 1-3:  Ken's dream is now one of sex.
	Panel 4-6:  Barbie's dream:  A place, the Brightly Shining Sea, and
more characters, possibly villains, Colonel Knowledge and the Heiromancer
(equals "one who knows the future through holiness" or "prophet", or possibly
"holy wizard").  Colonel Knowledge may be a paranomasiac reference to carnal
knowledge.  In panel 6, Ken's dream begins to leak into Barbie's.

Page 13:  Zelda's and Chantal's dreams begin to intersect.  Chantal's dream is
a recursive story.  The captions read "Not quite in nightmare, but far from
comfortable, Chantal is held like a crashed computer in an infinitely
regressive loop of story.  It was a dark and stormy night.  And the skipper
said to the mate, 'Mate, tell me a story....'  And this was the story he told:"
The story from "it was a dark..." then repeats, then fragments.  "It was a dark
and stormy night" was referenced in an earlier issue.
	The recursive story comes from the book _Arm in Arm: A Collection of
Stories, Riddles, and Echolalia_ by Remy Charlip.
	Panel 3:  Zelda's story.  This is the beginning of M.R. James' short
story "Lost Hearts", although it is slightly misquoted; it should read `1811'
instead of `1911'.  James is one of the most famous British writers of
ghost stories.  Another is titled "The Haunted Doll's House".
	It had been suggested earlier that Zelda's story was _Vanity Fair_ by
William Makepeace Thackeray.  This is now believed incorrect.
	Panel 4:  Zelda's dream image has changed dramatically.  Note the lace
overlay on the artwork.

Page 14 panel 1-3:  Hal is recalling a former lover, Robert.  Hal is obviously
homosexual and not just a transvestite.
The song If I Were a Bell is from the Broadway musical "Guys and Dolls" and it occurs when the 
romantic leads, Sky Masterson and Sarah Brown, are on a 
romantic getaway together.  She sings it to express how happy she is.  A 
common stereotype is that gay people enjoy showtunes.

Page 15:  The commentary on Barbara is important in the context of the later
storyline.  Hal is pictured walking on the Yellow Brick Road toward the
paradise-symbol Emerald City, of the movie _The Wizard of Oz_.

Page 16-17 panel 1:  Two page spread.  Another place in Barbara's dreamworld,
"The Place of Lost Carnadine".  The "carn-" in similar words comes from Latin
"caro", meaning flesh.  It has also acquired the meaning of "dark red" from the
color of flesh.  The morpheme "-ine", if it is used here, means "having the
nature of".

Page 21 panel 2-3:  Again, we see _a_ Doll's House.

Page 22 panel 2:  Sigmund Freud was an early 20th Century doctor who invented
the practice of psychoanalysis.  In his theories, much of human behavior is a
direct result of the instinct for sex.  When the subconscious mind is thinking
of sex, the conscious mind tends to transform these thoughts into ones that are
more acceptable in some sense.  Thus a dream of flying is really a dream of
sex.  In dreams, almost any object that is longer than it is wide is considered
a metaphor for the phallus.  Freud recognized the inherent fallacy of this sort
of overanalysis with the statement, "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar."
The major flaw in Freud's work is his inability to deconstruct his own sexual
hangups.

Page 23 panel 8-9:  See issues of _Swamp Thing_ for what Matt Cable, who became
the raven, did.  Gilbert's quote is from Christopher Marlowe, _The Jew of
Malta_ (c. 1589) IV.i.40:

  	Friar Barnadine:  Thou hast committed -
	Barabus:  Fornication?  But that was in another country:  and
		besides, the wench is dead.

	Note that we saw Kit Marlowe in _Sandman_ #13, in 1589, although there
did not appear to be a reference to this work.

Page 24 panel 7:  Another reference to rules that govern Dream's behavior.
I suspect that the best explanation is that the mere existence of the Endless
engenders rules, that rules _are_ because They _are_.

Contributors include:
	Michael Kelly (mkelly@wimpy.helios.nd.edu) spotted the resemblence
between "Godzilla" and "Zelda."
	James Drew (jrd@frame.com) gave insight into Hal's dream.
	Tom Galloway (tyg@caen.engin.umich.edu) and Joel Tscherne
(ac985@cleveland.freenet.edu) brought up the Wicked Witch's background, while
Neil Gaiman (via Tanaqui C. Weaver (cen@vax.oxford.ac.uk)) explained that the
third picture in that sequence was supposed to be the Wizard's face.  Joel also
pointed out an additional rule governing Dream.
	Tom pointed out Matthew's dislike of hospitals.
	Andrew D. M. U. Weiland (aw1s@andrew.cmu.edu) identified Zelda's
plagiarism.
	Subrata Kumar Sircar , Tom, and Andrew
identified Gilbert's quote.
	William Sherman  identified "porpentine",
identified Frank Morgan, totally lost track of page numbers, amd spotted the
Emerald City.
	Tanaqui C. "33 1/3% Delirium" Weaver noted the lace overlays, and
suggests a meaning for Colonel Knowledge.
	Peter Bruells 
identified Zelda's story.
	Michael Bowman  originally supplied the
missing caption from page 6.
From: carlf@panix.com (Carl Fink)
   Re:  issue 15, in the discussion of Chantal's dream, when she discovers that
she can't read the sentence, it's worth noting that no one can read anything in
a dream.  That portion of the brain doesn't appear to function during REM sleep.
	Compu$erve's Ben Sano 72401,2736 identified Chantal's recursive story,
as relayed by Dave "Ed, the Anti-Dave" Stobbe .