In fact, there comes a point where any reader can start to question whether or not Gaiman wrote this work by himself, or if he had serious help from a team of women, so complete is his representation of the female sphere. But perhaps more importantly, no type of woman is marginalized – He embraces all facets of the female gender, whether they are heterosexual or homosexual, of a different sex or a millennia old. This story contains nearly every facet of a woman’s life that is inherently “female”, from pregnancy to periods, to Bacchae-esque rituals of frenzy to the details of putting on make-up, to the inner longing of being a Princess to shopping for diamonds at Tiffany’s.
In fact, Gaiman has stated before that he writes his stories as either “masculine” or “feminine” works, of which volume five is obviously of the latter. Many of his protagonists are women, and depicted as if real people, without iconic emphasization of their female figures. Gaiman himself is very aware of gender in his work as is casually very feminist – a word I use in the meaning of “equality with men”, not in the common association of “superior than man”.
Primarily made up of female characters, the story focuses on their actions and inner worlds above all. “A Game of You” is, above all, an exploration of what it is to be a woman.
We see the novel through her eyes, and her important concerns and deep friendships link us to the story. She is the grounding factor in the madness of the dream-world, the constant death and gore, and the “normal” among all the marginal. Unlike the previous works, this volume is primarily a personal story, about one individual: Barbie is an ordinary character, with an ordinary life, wondering of her worth and trying hard to be interesting. However in this volume, Gaiman expands her into a full three dimensional character with which we can all emphasize with. In fact, by starting off as a part of the “Barbie & Ken” couple, Barbie’s one dimensionality is actually emphasized extremely ironically. Sandman’s Volume five is the story of Barbie, who was in the second volume “The Doll’s House”, at the time merely a background character with little development. Text: Sandman Volume 5, “A Game of You” by Neil Gaiman Question: Discuss your assigned volume of Sandman in a manner consisting of your learnings about comics you can choose from theme, structure, genre, artistry, comparative works, fandom, etc. (Essay assigned by Mehmet Emin Adanalı during his class FA 489: Graphic Novels, Boğaziçi University)
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