Delirium (DC Comics)
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Delirium is one of The Endless, fictional characters from Neil Gaiman's comic book series The Sandman.
Delirium, known to some cultures within the mythos as Mania, is the youngest of the Endless, yet still older than the rest of existence. She is usually quite short, and thin. Her hair changes style and color constantly, as do her clothes. Her shadow never reflects her shape, and is tangible, like velvet. She is said to smell of sweat, late nights, sour wine, and old leather. Her sigil in the galleries of the other characters is a multicolored, abstract swirl. Her realm is a chaotic, constantly changing mass of colors and strange objects and shapes, and contains a sundial with the inscription "Tempus Frangit" ("time breaks," a Latin pun on the phrase "Tempus Fugit", "time flies".) Delirium travels with a "guardian" of sorts, a German Shepherd dog named Barnabas, on indefinite loan from her brother Destruction.
Born Delight, she transformed into Delirium long before the advent of humanity. She can be seen as a very young Delight in Endless Nights, a collection of stories about the Endless; a statue of an older Delight can be seen in Destiny's garden in Brief Lives. Most of the time, she is scatterbrained; she often forgets the thread of her conversations, and comes out with offbeat and seemingly inconsequential observations. Todd Klein, the series' letterer, draws her speech as letters which do not quite match in height or line up neatly, against a multi-colored background. Very occasionally she is able, with an effort, to become more controlled in thought and speech, at which point her speech is drawn more neatly and the background fades to near-white. Her speech as Delight in Endless Nights takes the same form, with somewhat orderly lettering and a faint rainbow background.
Most of the other Endless seem to be fond of Delirium, to varying degrees, and protective of her. She in turn is affectionate towards them, particularly Destruction.
Delirium features in many of the most inventive sequences of the series, particularly in the seventh collection, Brief Lives, in which she and Morpheus attempt to track down Destruction. One of the most striking frames of the whole series features Delirium lying on a hotel bed with a bottle of bubble-blowing liquid, blowing bubbles in a variety of impossible shapes—diamonds, crosses, cats, and what appears to be Totoro from the Japanese animated feature My Neighbor Totoro (this is probably a visual joke on the part of artist Jill Thompson). Also, in a very important moment in the story, Destiny imparts upon Dream the information and the means by which he may find Destruction. Due to Dream's distress at this revelation, Delirium is forced to collect herself so much that her usual mis-matched appearance disappears, and she becomes a very symmetrical creature, reflecting perhaps that in delirium, delight still exists, no matter how painful.
It may be noted that Delirium once exhibited a very deep form of order. Towards the end of Brief Lives, as she recounts to Destruction the steps she and Dream undertook to find him, her appearance - hairstyle, clothing, et cetera - recapitulates in almost the exact order it had originally appeared.
Delirium also seems to know many things none of the other Endless know. She says so when she is teased by Desire during the family meeting in Season of Mists. At the end of Brief Lives, Destruction describes a situation in which Death told him that everybody knows everything and they just pretend they don't, but neither he nor Dream really understand or believe this. Delirium, however, says, "She is. um. Right. Kind of. Not knowing everything is all that makes it okay, sometimes." ("One who knows too much eventually goes insane." "One who knows truth as truth and nothing else can't comprehend this world of lies.")
It is said that Delirium knows pathways outside of Destiny's garden, which only she may travel.
Delirium, like her siblings, has also exhibited a form of prophetic knowledge; however, her prophecies rarely make sense until it is too late to do anything about them, and no other character recognizes them. In Brief Lives, she persuades a man to give the dancer Tiffany money, when Tiffany would later be the only mortal to survive the explosion of the building she was dancing; in The Kindly Ones, she knows full well that her brother is in trouble and unsuccessfully tries to persuade him to help her find Barnabas; also, when read the quote 'Quoth the Raven', from Edgar Allan Poe's poem, 'The Raven', she says 'Whatever', which, down to the pronounced 'ev' had been and would be said by Matthew the Raven throughout the book.
It has been suggested that Delight was once engaged to be married, which may have caused part of her change. In Endless Nights, in the story "On the Peninsula", when Destruction is talking to the female archaeologist, she notes that Delirium might have had her heart broken. This could relate to Delirium saying she was sick - but time and The Endless are in a confused state, and we don't know when she was sick, so the illness she refers to could well have been when she changed from Delight to Delirium.
More likely, however, is that that sickness was depicted in another Endless Nights story, "Going Inside", in which Delirium has retreated into her realm so deeply that no one can retrieve her, save five insane human individuals gathered together by Daniel, Matthew and Barnabas, as only those who are already deeply insane can enter her realm unscathed.
The character of Delirium is influenced by Neil's personal friend and well-known musician Tori Amos: "..Neil believes I'm more Delirium than Tori, and Death taught me to accept that..." from Tori Amos's introduction to Death: The High Cost of Living.[1] Gaiman has also indicated that the character is also partly based on another friend, the postmodern feminist writer Kathy Acker.
[edit] Description of Delirium in The Sandman
Delirium is the youngest of the Endless. She smells of sweat, sour wines, late nights, old leather. Her realm is close and can be visited; however human minds were not made to comprehend her domain, and those few who have made the journey have been incapable of reporting back more than the tiniest fragments.
The poet Coleridge claimed to have known her intimately, but the man was an inveterate liar and in this, as in so much, we must doubt his word.
Her appearance is the most variable of all the Endless, who, at best, are ideas cloaked in the semblace of flesh. Her shadow's shape and outline has no relationship to that of any body she wears, and it is tangible like old velvet.
Some say the tragedy of Delirium is her knowledge that, despite being older than suns, older than gods, she is forever the youngest of the Endless, who do not measure time as we measure time, or see the worlds through mortal eyes.
Others deny this, and say that Delirium has no tragedy, but here they speak without reflection.
For Delirium was once Delight. And although that was long ago now, even today her eyes are badly matched: one eye is a vivid emerald green, spattered with silver flecks that move. The other eye is vein blue.
Who knows what Delirium sees, through her mismatched eyes?
- Neil Gaiman's Season of Mists
[edit] References
[edit] See also
| The Sandman (Vertigo) | ||
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| The Sandman Library | 1: Preludes and Nocturnes • 2: The Doll's House • 3: Dream Country • 4: Season of Mists • 5: A Game of You 6: Fables and Reflections • 7: Brief Lives • 8: Worlds' End • 9: The Kindly Ones • 10: The Wake • 11: Endless Nights |
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| from the World of The Sandman | The Sandman: The Dream Hunters • Death: The High Cost of Living • Death: The Time of Your Life • Destiny: A Chronicle of Deaths Foretold • The Little Endless Storybook • Death: At Death's Door • Dust Covers - The Collected Sandman Covers 1989-1997 • The Quotable Sandman • The Sandman Companion | |
| Characters of The Sandman | The Endless: Destiny • Death • Dream • Destruction • Desire• Despair • Delirium | |
| Dreams and nightmares • Gods, demigods, and major personifications Angels, fallen angels, and devils • Immortals, witches, and long-lived humans • Fair folk • Mortals |
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| Other topics | ||
| Neil Gaiman • Other books and series | ||
