Ain't You 'Most Done?

Publication(s)

  • First publication
    • The Sandman: Book of Dreams, 1996
  • Wolfe collection(s)

Summary

A man who had never dreamed is given the chance to dream the life he wished he had, as a folk musician.

Analysis

  • The dream location is the permanent traffic jam of Bluesberry Jam.
  • The frame story is in the world of Neil Gaiman's Sandman. The characters Dream (Morpheus) and Death appear.
  • Magus Mufflers seems to be a play on Midas Mufflers.
  • The traffic-jam world uses "Grunday" for Wednesday. This may be a reference to the nursery rhyme "Poor Solomon Grundy. Born on Monday..." about a character who has a very short life. It could also be from Grannus, the Gaulish god of healing and mineral springs. (Just possibly, it's a cute reference to the fact that Sandman is a DC comic -- Solomon Grundy is the name of a Hulk-like DC super-villain. Perhaps this ties in with the people's rage on this day when rebellion will begin.)
  • Grunday is mentioned as a typo in a school schedule for some other day (probably Wednesday) in Death of the Island Doctor.
  • Some have complained that this uses the Wolfe cliché of "the dead protagonist." It's not actually that until the very end. Tim has a heart attack and is on the verge of death. Morpheus offers him the chance to dream "as long as may be," that is, until the end of his life. In the midst of the dream, Death comes and tells him "It's time."
  • Sources of quotes
  • Meanings of names
  • References to other works
  • Theories about what happens under the surface, what the narrator isn't telling us, who the narrator is and when and why s/he is telling the story, what the whole thing "means," etc.
    If there are multiple or competing theories, each one should be given a name with a three-bang (!!!) header; if the page begins to get out-of-hand from the size of these, as could happen in a few cases, they should be shuffled off to their own page(s).
  • Etc.

Unresolved Questions

  • Was it A or was it B, or was it X or Z?
  • Was it he or was it she, or was it you or me?
  • Who dunnit?
  • Did the Star Child really start WWIII at the end of 2001?

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