"An Extra Smidgen Of Eternity"
"So," he said as two of the nurses drew a sheet over his remains and the others left the room to console Wanda, "That's it. I go through the rest of timeless time, on a new, higher plane of existence, and as I float godlike among the insubstantial void, all I'll ever be thinking is, Who the fuck was Cary?"
"Stories are hope. They take you out of yourself for a bit, and when you get dropped back in, you're different - you're stronger, you’ve seen more, you've felt more. Stories are like spiritual currency."
http://darkplanet.basespace.net/nonfict/sandman.html
If you have not yet picked up The Sandman: Book Of Dreams, a collection of short stories inspired by Neil Gaiman's graphic novels and edited by Neil Gaiman, you should do so just for the above story. It's about Wanda, the male-to-female transsexual from "A Game Of You" and it's about her friend Darren, who is in a hospital bed dying rapidly from AIDS. Wanda is telling him a story, and Death comes to him before he finds out how it ends. He gets very upset -- he wants to hear the end, he wants to find out who was the guy Wanda had been fucking behind the Countess' back. He tries to defy Death herself, but Wanda is too upset to finish. So Death makes a deal with Darren and tells him he can come back later, as a spirit, so Wanda can tell him who Cary was.
The story is about dying before the story ends. But it's also about being an endless part of the story, forever in time, having that "extra smidgen of eternity" because part of you will always remain, in the story.
The story made me smile big and go "Awwww!" and sniffle a little.
And you know what, The Dream King really does look a bit like Daniel Day-Lewis.
I think the story tells a lot about life and death and how it just keeps going, this one long cycle, this neverending story. We can always come back later to hear how it ends.
That is why I write stories. It's also about leaving a piece of yourself out there, in the insubstantial void, where spirits floating godlike can know who you are.
"Stories are hope. They take you out of yourself for a bit, and when you get dropped back in, you're different - you're stronger, you’ve seen more, you've felt more. Stories are like spiritual currency."
http://darkplanet.basespace.net/nonfict/sandman.html
If you have not yet picked up The Sandman: Book Of Dreams, a collection of short stories inspired by Neil Gaiman's graphic novels and edited by Neil Gaiman, you should do so just for the above story. It's about Wanda, the male-to-female transsexual from "A Game Of You" and it's about her friend Darren, who is in a hospital bed dying rapidly from AIDS. Wanda is telling him a story, and Death comes to him before he finds out how it ends. He gets very upset -- he wants to hear the end, he wants to find out who was the guy Wanda had been fucking behind the Countess' back. He tries to defy Death herself, but Wanda is too upset to finish. So Death makes a deal with Darren and tells him he can come back later, as a spirit, so Wanda can tell him who Cary was.
The story is about dying before the story ends. But it's also about being an endless part of the story, forever in time, having that "extra smidgen of eternity" because part of you will always remain, in the story.
The story made me smile big and go "Awwww!" and sniffle a little.
And you know what, The Dream King really does look a bit like Daniel Day-Lewis.
I think the story tells a lot about life and death and how it just keeps going, this one long cycle, this neverending story. We can always come back later to hear how it ends.
That is why I write stories. It's also about leaving a piece of yourself out there, in the insubstantial void, where spirits floating godlike can know who you are.