#notebook entry

The relief in the ball, is a lyre, Orpheus' symbol. It was the musical instrument that he received as a gift from the god Apollo, who was considered his father in some versions of the original myth.

Note: In The Sandman Universe, Morpheus and the Muse Calliope are Orpheus' parents.

CHARLES: I found one of those at a maritime museum once. The Case of the Drowned Diver, wasn't it, Edwin? Superstitious sailors would use them to calm the seas.

Orpheus was well known as a talented musician; his music could intrigue people's minds with supernatural ideas and had the power to broaden their thinking to new and unusual theories.

When he joined the expedition of the Argonauts, he saved them from the Sirens' music by playing his own, more powerful and beautiful melodies. Later, it was also his music that allowed Jason to accomplish the purpose of his journey.

It makes sense that sailors used his symbol on an object designed to calm the seas and guarantee their safety while navigating.

When it comes to Charles, in particular, the way he ends up using the music ball (in the absence of a more technical name for that object) is both literal and metaphorical.

On one hand, he uses the music ball to put Angie, a sea monster, to sleep, thereby solving the case of The Lighthouse Leapers. On the other hand, he uses the instrument to save Edwin and himself from The Night Nurse—not just by literally pushing her into Angie's mouth with the ball in her hands, but by causing her to meet Kashina. This meeting prompts her to remember Kashi's words later, when Charles tried to save Edwin from returning to hell by pointing out it was a mistake, and again when he asked her to open a portal to hell so he could bring Edwin back.

In Orpheus' story, when Eurydice died from a snakebite, he charmed the ferryman Charon and Cerberus, the guardians of the River Styx, by playing the lyre and singing. By doing so, he also softened the hearts of Hades and Persephone, which gave him the chance to bring Eurydice back to the world of the living.

It's curious that the lyre symbolizes the power of persuasion for Orpheus, as this is a quality in which Charles takes great pride (he is indeed very convincing). Still, I hope that's where the coincidences end.

“The less you eat, drink, buy books, go to the theatre or to balls, or to the pub, and the less you think, love, theorise, sing, paint, fence, etc., the more you will be able to save and the greater will become your treasure which neither moth nor rust will corrupt—your capital. The less you are, the less you express your life, the more you have, the greater is your alienated life and the greater is the saving of your alienated being.”

― Karl Marx, Economic & Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844

Marx describes how capitalism flips life upside down. He’s saying: the more you deny yourself living, the more you accumulate wealth. The less you enjoy, feel, love, or create, the more money you can save, and in capitalism, that saving becomes your measure of success.

But this comes at a cost. You become poorer as a human being even as you become “richer” in possessions.

This section appears in Marx’s discussion of alienated labour, where he begins outlining one of his core early ideas, the concept of alienation. Marx identifies four dimensions of alienation in capitalist society:

Alienation from the product of labour.

Alienation from the process of labour.

Alienation from one’s “species-being” (human essence).

Alienation from other people.

The quote mainly illustrates the third type: alienation from one’s species-being. According to Marx, human beings are naturally creative and self-expressive; we realize ourselves through productive, conscious activity and social interaction. However, under capitalism, this creative potential is subordinated to the accumulation of capital. People no longer produce freely for their own fulfillment, but instead produce as a means of survival or profit.

In this quote, Marx is showing how capitalist logic encourages self-denial as a way to accumulate wealth. Every human act that expresses life (eating well, socialising, studying, creating) becomes seen as a cost rather than a value. The less one lives and enjoys, the more one can save; and in capitalist terms, this accumulation of savings becomes a sign of success. Marx argues that this inversion, valuing “having” over “being”, is a core symptom of alienation.

This connects to several of Marx’s later ideas. In Capital (1867), he develops the concept of commodity fetishism, where social relationships between people appear as relationships between things (commodities). Objects and money seem to possess value in themselves, detached from the human labour that created them. This process extends the alienation he described in the Manuscripts: the products of human activity gain independence and power over their creators.

The quote also anticipates the concept of reification, later developed by Marxist theorists such as Georg Lukács. Reification refers to the process by which human qualities and relationships are transformed into measurable, object-like forms. Under capitalism, time becomes quantifiable (“billable hours”), creativity becomes a “marketable skill,” and personal identity is shaped by ownership and productivity.