From: colomon@dip.eecs.umich.edu (Colomon Foster)
Subject: Re: SANDMAN: galleries and sigils
Organization: University of Michigan EECS Dept., Ann Arbor, MI
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1992 04:24:09 GMT

(Andrew M. Solovay) writes:
>Last things first: Unity's comment isn't proof. Arguably, Rose
>didn't become the Vortex until she started tearing dreams apart,
>attracting stray dreams to her, etc.; but they still called her
>the Vortex before-hand.  Besides, one might expect Unity to be a
>little muddled about whether she had been a vortex, since she was
>sleeping through the whole business. In any event, the whole
>thing was unprecedented; can you say with confidence that it was
>the "potential" to be a Vortex which was transmitted, and not the
>Vortexness itself? (Remember, we did see actual Vorticity being
>transmitted, from Rose to Unity.)
 
By all normal rights, Unity shouldn't have had a clue what was going on;
instead she is very confident she knows what's going on. Obviously she's
getting info from somewhere, which is fairly accurate; why assume it is
wrong?  And obviously, I can't say with full confidence that it was the
"potential" instead of the actual thing being transmitted, but neither
can you say with confidence that the converse was true.
 
>Anyway, Desire says "There's a Vortex, the first of this age...
>and it's a *woman*." [Emphasis in original.] I've said why it was
>significant that Unity was a woman. Now you tell me: Why was it
>important (to Desire) that Rose was a woman? We never saw a hint
>of attraction between Rose and Dream.
 
Perhaps Desire hoped for an attraction between the two.  We don't know
that there is any reason why the vortex being female was important to
Desire's plot.  Anyway, eight pages later in the same issue, Dream says
"The vortex is a *she*, not an *it*."  [Emphasis in original.]  Why was
it important (to Dream) that Rose was a woman?  Perhaps the fact that
the vortex is human is what is interesting.
 
>On top of which, there's pleasing symmetry in having this
>conversation take place before the whole business starts (i.e.
>before Unity was raped) and having the last conversation (between
>Dream and Desire) take place after the whole business ends.
>
>Note that from all we've seen, Desire's involvement in the Rose
>Walker episode was long before Rose was born. It doesn't make
>sense for this conversation to take place in recent years.
 
It makes perfect sense for the conversation to take place in recent
years; Desire knows there is a vortex (a rare and major phenomenon)
and Despair doesn't.  Also, if the conversation had taken place when
you claim it did, Dream would *already* be snared, and Despair would
surely know it.
 
Look, it boils down to this.  There is *no* evidence from the comic
to suggest that the scene was not set in the present, though one
can stretch it to fit in in the past.  In order to do so, one must
 
    1) Assume that Unity isn't phrasing things properly at the end
    of the storyline;
 
    2) Assume that Despair doesn't see fit to comment on Dream's
    capture when she discusses Desire playing games with Dream again;
 
    3) Assume that Desire can detect a vortex that Dream apparently
    cannot;
 
    4) Assume that Neil started the book 70 years back in time and then
    jumped to the present with absolutely no indication;
 
    and
 
    5) Assume that the photograph on page 3 and the Big Brother
    comment on page 4 are anachronisms.
 
It is much simpler to assume that all is as it seems, and everything in
that issue is in the present.
 
                                                -Sol