"as long as it's black and depressing"? *smile* That's one way to put it.. Dream is well in control of his realm though. It seems the world changes because he allows the dreamers to do that, rather than it being their prerogative. The descriptions of the consequences each time he lost love were amusing, in line with that..

*laughs* And I can just see that, the volumes of GQ never printed sitting there in his library..

~~~
Apocalypses are always just around the corner. Words mean whatever you want them to mean.
-Signal to Noise, Neil Gaiman

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Originally posted by clover:
And I honestly believe the Sandman is a very vain man, he likes to be fashionable and trendy and look good. So, he's the type of person that, while having his own style, is "a dedicated follower of fashion".

_Sir cloverheart of Mischief_
http://www.schotch.net/LesChats/rainbow2.gif

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I don't think he's vain. I really think that he wears his stuff so as to be as effective as possible. When he's entertaining in his realm or terrifying mortal, he wears impressive, flowing robes and similar things. When he's just wandering for one reason or another, he wears unobtrusive black clothing. In "The Sound of Wings," there's mention of how he and Death pass through the crowds and no one notices them. They might very well notice if he were wearing a full-on cloak and/or cape, right? Likewise, in The Season of Mists, when he is entertaining the Gods and Goddesses, he puts on more formal wear.

I also have a sneaking suspicion, upon looking over The Season of Mists as well as Dream Country, that he doesn't select his clothing at all, that rather whoever is looking at him just automatically sees what they most expect to see. When he joins Destiny for the family gathering, he is already appropriately dressed, and doesn't need to be prompted the way Death does to change. Perhaps this is because Destiny expects him to be correctly attired. Likewise, perhaps Richard Madoc in "Calliope" expects anyone who is in his house without permission to be dressed as a "ruffian," Dream's leather jacket and black pants being enough, in the early nineties, to give that impression.

What about in "Dream a little Dream" (Preludes and Nocturnes)? He appears in his robes or a cape, can't remember, but constantine tells ihm something like "Are you expecting me to go out with you dressed like that?" and Dream then changes his clothing into a trenchcoat like John's, only black. And Constantine gets pissed at this and comments on his lack of sense of humour...
I think this proves that Dream choose show he wants to appear. Sometimes he goes along the expectations of the dreamers, sometimes he ignores the expectations in order to suit his own needs (appear impressive, fearful, casual).

Maybe Constantine expected him to be dressed in black robes, and he used his powers to slightly alter Constantine's perception. Maybe he was still weak from punishing Burgess and thus forgot about his appearance and appeared in "default" mode. Maybe he thought Constantine was going to put up a fight and wanted to impress him. Maybe Neil hadn't figure out the "Dream's clothing" situation yet and threw it in because it filled up a panel. It really doesn't tell us anything at all.
Maybe this is another one of those areas where ol' Neil decided to leave it up to the reader to guess hw it actually works. And maybe he put in evidence that disproves all different theories. He's a wily one, that Neil.

Ooh, ooh, I just had a brainstorm. Dream changes to mirror one's expectations; the key word being mirror. The Corinthian was made to be a dark mirror of humanity, and Morpheus's Masterpiece.

Suppose he is such a masterpiece because he is so like his creator? Suppose Dream is but a mirror?

Aren't all dreams --more than anything else-- after all?

But that's probably the answer... and when nobody is looking the mirror looks like itself --on those times we see Dream as a young man because we are human.


Allian-di

At the beginning there was only Genesis and me. I, of course, loved It and The Origin was, literally, the whole Universe. That caused me great grief, though, since I was Everything that Genesis was not, doomed to not be part of It, to be The Other, The Difference, The Opposite, The Adversary of what I loved most... I, being the Closest, was at the same time the Farthest.

Lucian Shadowbringer, No Fate

Yeah, I guess that's kind of what I was getting at. He shows us the Dreamlike aspects of ourselves, the same way that (OH MY GOD! B-B-B-BREAKTHROUGH!) Despair shows us what we despair of becoming, Desire shows us what we all desire, both to be and to have, Delirium shows us what we would be like if we were crazy, etcetera! And it's because only Dream and Delirium and Death interact with people in a way that we notice that Desire and Despair and Destiny's appearances don't change! Or something along those lines. I think we're very close to figuring it out.

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Originally posted by Melancolía:
But that's probably the answer... and when nobody is looking the mirror looks like itself --on those times we see Dream as a young man because _we_ are human.

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Interesting wording.. It becomes like the physics thing of observing the electron.. The minute we try to look at it, we change it. So can we ever see its, or Dream's true nature?

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Yeah, I guess that's kind of what I was getting at. He shows us the Dreamlike aspects of ourselves, the same way that (OH MY GOD! B-B-B-BREAKTHROUGH!) Despair shows us what we despair of becoming, Desire shows us what we all desire, both to be and to have, Delirium shows us what we would be like if we were crazy, etcetera! And it's because only Dream and Delirium and Death interact with people in a way that we notice that Desire and Despair and Destiny's appearances don't change! Or something along those lines. I think we're very close to figuring it out.

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But do we all despair of the same things?

~~~
"Whatever happens, you have to make it look like you knew it was going to happen. -Kaffee, A Few Good Men

No, we don't all despair of the same things, but we don't change perspectives, either, so we are always seeing our own despair in the books. Not someone else's, because other people don't get to see Despair- they just see themselves at their most wretched. In a mirror.Uh oh, I've lost myself.