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Sent a proposal to Joe Sanders this morning for “The Sandman Papers.” I’ve been wrestling with the question of just what my thesis is for five days, now, and I’m finally satisfied that I have one. Readers unfamiliar with the Sandman comic series may want to tune out – no, scratch that; readers unfamiliar with the comic should go out and get familiar with it, right now. It is time well-spent.

The big question that held me up was whether Morpheus actually wins his challenge for Nada. On one level, he fails, since he only gets the key to the gates of hell. On another, he succeeds, since the key then draws Nada’s soul, held hostage by Azazel, to him. But then, having freed Nada, Morpheus is still destroyed by events growing out of his challenge: he meets Nuala, who calls him from the Dreaming as the Furies attack; he learns something of Destruction, the search for whom also precipitates the final murder of Orpheus; he earns a debt from Loki, who therefore seeks to destroy him. And yet, if Morpheus is destroyed by his challenge, it may be just what he wants. Death suggests as much.

So does Morpheus win where Azazel loses, or do both lose their challenges? The complications of Morpheus’s death wish finally cleared up when I realized Sunday afternoon that he is determined to free Nada even at the cost of his own destruction or imprisonment. He explains as much to his servants before approaching Lucifer. Ta-da! Problem solved: Nada is free, so Morpheus wins, despite the price he pays.

Now to settle down to writing the paper.