The original Corinthian and the entire arc in the Sandman series concerning the "cereal convention" was one of the best stories in that early period of Sandman as the Vertigo concept was still forming.

In the end of that arc, the Dream King unmade the Corinthian because he had taken a form too banal for the function Morpheus desired him to have. It seems today that there is a sort of American nightmare in reality that fits the Sandman's original desire.

Summaries of three recent stories I watched on the TV News:

A disturbed student goes on a rampage at college killing scores of fellow students

A former policeman kills his girlfriend, pregnant with his own child, and hides the body and then feigns grief and worry over her disappearance

A popular entertainer kills his wife and child and then commits suicide all in his own home

Really, this seems like more of the nightmare that Morpheus conceived when he looked for a dark reflection of the American spirit. The real American nightmare born out of the superficial and illusory security of the American dream, home, school, family, authority.

Everyone I talk to about it shakes his head and says they just don't understand it, but I think that makes it more fearful because, at heart, there is always the unanswerable question: why am I any different? Could I be capable of the same horror?

Something to dream about.

Morpheus isn't specifically American. Neither is the Corinthian. And I'd got the impression that the original Corinthian was unmade because he was out making a nuisance of himself in the waking world instead of staying in nightmares, where he belonged. And not only that, but he was being sloppy about it.

The purpose of the Corinthian, I think, is empathy. Understanding the monstrous as a part of ourselves. I think you got that part right. Here's what it is: He eats your eyes. With his eyes. He devours the part of you with which you see the world. He is the part of you... or, since he's the writer, of Neil... that seeks to understand what others see, by any means necessary. He is the author, and he is the viewer. He is the part of the human being which delights in the monstrosity of others; and in sating this hunger, he himself becomes monstrous. The consumer of humanity's darkness.

In short, he's you. The consumer. The reader, the writer, the viewer. The part of you which delights in vicarious slaughter. And he can. He himself can kill, because he's not you. You can say, I am not a monster. That is not me. But the first we see of the Corinthian, we see through his own eyes. This is the mirror: He is not the murderer in the news. He is you. You are not innocent. By reading, and by your delight in reading, you have consumed the eyes of a murderer. A monster. And thus you too become monstrous.

... I effing love Neil. There's so much more essay to write here.

... and more justice to be done to those who kill than a mere blurb running across the newsticker under the talking heads at Fox News. That's what else we take from the Corinthian: These people, those who kill- they are no more monstrous than you. They have reasons for what they've done. Justification? Maybe, maybe not. But for whatever reason, it seemed to them to be a good idea at the time. They've done these things; but they remain human. How dare they. So we put them behind the masks of monsters, because we would rather not see murderers when we look in the mirror; and then we may pretend we don't watch the world through the eyes of the Corinthian.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: VegaRiad,

I wonder if the Corinthian is American. All the other serial killers at the convention were American and historically it seems that even though Jack the Ripper may be the most famous serial killer in history, the vast majority are found in America. Certainly, it made sense to set the Cereal Convention here in the states.

Even though there really isn't anything superficial to distinguish the original Corinthian-style serial killer from the average person, I think that in the story at least and in psychology there is a lot that distinguishes these sorts of murderers from not just an average person, but from even the vast majority of murders that take place every day.

To sort of psychoanalyze the story, I think that this is where the Corinthian originally failed his creator. Since the "serial killer" archtype became more like a werewolf or vampire, it was too easy for the dreamer to alienate his own self from the Shadow in his subconscious. Sure, they may look like us, but inside they are "not human" in the same way we are human.

However, I think it is much harder to make a monster out of something like a family man who kills his family and himself in one momentary lapse of normalcy. It harder to alienate one's self from that sort of event since we've all been on the edge emotionally in any of our relationships.

That sort of thing, I think, is a nightmare that really reflects the self rather than separates from it in the way the idea of serial killers has become a modern version of the werewolf myth.

I'm not afraid I'll turn into a serial killer because I know it doesn't happen that way. But I am afraid I might inadvertantly or selfishly hurt my family and the inexplicable extreme actions of people who just "lose it" are much closer to that kind of nightmare.

And Gaiman is great when it comes to this sort of modern fairy tale storytelling.

Oh, and to add to the "new" Corinthian, the interesting thing about the recreated character at the end was that he was a kind of "family man" devoted to the dream family, BUT he was also capable of extremely violent acts that kept the same family (at least Matthew) on edge.