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AMBER_GRAINS

                                            June 25, 1993

The Sandman has always seemed somewhat
influenced by Zelazny's Amber to me:

Notably the Gallery of sigils is
reminiscent of Zelazny's deck of
trumps.

Both begin with their main
characters trapped on earth,
both escape and slowly make
their way back home: Dream's
slow crawl back to the center
of the Dreaming was the first
thing that reminded me of
Zelazny's "walking though
shadow".

Also, both Dream and
Zelazny's Corwin return from
Earth with their characters
changed, somewhat humanized.

I don't think there's much
correspondence between the
various members of the
"royal" families, but then
Zelazny's pantheon wasn't
as well thought out as
Gaiman's...

(For that matter the Phil Jose
Farmer "World of Tiers" stories
Zelazny drew inspiration from
did an even worse job.)

Also, both Gaiman's
Dream has the
multiple, elaborate
names of royal
convention, much
like Zelazny's hero       (Zelazny's "Sam" is known
in _Lord of Light_.       as "Sam Calkin, Prince
                          Siddhartha, Mahasamatman,
                          Binder of Demons, Lord of
   You might figure       Light").
   this is a trivial
   similarity, since
   you could say the
   same thing about
   any number of
   royal/religious        But the question
   characters through     is what was Gaiman
   out myth and           *really* thinking
   history...             of, not what he
                          *might* have been
                          thinking.



                  And, it's obvious that currently
                  Gaiman is telling a story about
                  stories... but what is it that     SATIRE
                  Gaiman wants to say about them?

                  I notice that everyone in this
                  story keeps insisting that they
                  are merely killing time by telling
                  stories to each other in the
                  Worlds' End.

                  Is there some other point to it?


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