This week: Dreams and Fantasy Edited by: Robert Waltz  
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I am a dreamer. Seriously, I'm living on another planet.
-Eva Green
Only in our dreams are we free. The rest of the time we need wages.
-Terry Pratchett
Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.
-Edgar Allan Poe |
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The word "dream" has at least two distinct meanings. To be clear, in this editorial, I'm going to talk about the experiences your mind has at night, when you're asleep, and not the "wish or desire" meaning.
The inspiration for this editorial was an article recently published about why we dream, which you can find here. The article itself goes into a particular hypothesis (not, as the author writes, a "theory") about the purpose of dreams -- basically, that they can prepare us to respond in waking life to unexpected scenarios.
It occurred to me that this is also one of the purposes of science fiction and fantasy. Both genres delve into the extraordinary, and have their characters react to things that they or the reader might not have encountered before. In this way, then, one can draw a parallel between one's dreams (entirely self-contained in the mind during sleep) and fantasy stories (penned by other people). For example, suppose you were walking in the woods and you saw a unicorn, or a dragon: your response might be different depending on whether you were an avid reader of dragon and unicorn fantasy stories or not.
Now, I would be remiss if I didn't point out that there's no real evidence for or against this hypothesis. And it may be trivially true; that is, dreams could have the effect of preparing us for the unexpected while actually serving another important psychological or physiological purpose. Or they may not have a purpose at all, biologically, being only a side-effect of other processes.
The above linked article, by the way, also lists other leading ideas for why we dream. The true answer could be some, all, or none of these, but it's still interesting to see the possibilities, and possibly incorporate them into stories.
Which brings me to another thing about dreams: since many things in dreams follow their own logic, or no logic at all, they can be fertilizer for fantasy writing.
Whatever their scientific purpose, they have the effect of taking us out of the physics of everyday interactions with others and with the environment. In a dream, you can, for example, be walking along a road, then find yourself driving a car, then riding a bike, then maybe even flying. In a dream, those who have died might appear to speak to you, which may or may not be frightening. They can delve into your deepest fears but also reveal your highest aspirations (perhaps this is why the word "dream" can also be used for a waking thought about how you want things to go).
As such, for those of us who can remember at least snippets of our dreams, there's a lot of potential inspiration there for crafting situations in stories.
There's one other thing about dreams that I'd like to discuss here, which is when characters have dreams. Being fantasy, you're certainly not limited to our mundane ideas about what dreams are "for." A character might have a recurring dream about falling, and thus avoid high places. Or they might be sent prophetic dreams by whatever gods hold sway in your fantasy universe, dreams that will be ignored only at the character's peril.
Also, a character's dreams can serve to illuminate their personality, with its hopes and fears, or even be used to advance the plot (for instance, if one of the dead people who visit them in a dream is actually a sending from the Other Side).
Whatever the truth or speculation about dreams, though, they're a part of real life, something that everyone has experienced whether they remember the dreams or not -- so using them in stories can be a good way for the reader to connect with the characters. |
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Last time, in "Fairy Tales" , I discussed how fairy tales change over time.
Elycia Lee ☮  : Thank you for the newsletter. I've always wanted to become a fairytale writer. I didn't think it would be so challenging. I guess I was inspired by Enid Blyton. She was all I read when I was a child. Then, I ran out of Enid Blyton books to read so I read others. You are right. Fairytales are so contemporary nowadays... It's nice to think how it influences our writing... I still get drawn to the time before Hollywood... Or is there ever a time before Hollywood? It has always been associated with Hollywood eh? I mean... Warner Bros...?
The movie (and TV) industry certainly influenced all of us (to the point where, when TV was all black and white, people reported that their dreams were in black and white). But it's only a change of medium; storytelling goes back millennia before that.
Beholden  : Thanks very much for including my poem, Billy Grubb at the Gates of Dawn, amongst your Editor's picks.
Hope it got you some extra readers!
BIG BAD WOLF Feeling Thankful  : There's nothing wrong with a remake or a retelling - the trick is to add a new twist, one way, or another. One could make a story lighter or darker. For instance - Little Red Riding Hood. I can see a version where Red and Wolf are good friends. Likewise, I can see a version were Wolf is a despicable villain, with cruel and evil plans. Oh, and here's a real twist - Wolf's the Good Hero Cop Guy, and Red is a Dangerous Criminal, with a Wanted Sheet a Mile Long.
Funny, because I talked about that specific story in a blog entry a while back. I figure a modern interpretation would involve her running off with the wolf... but I expect you already thought of that.
brom21  : Thanks for the NL. I truly wonder what the first ever written story was. It had to reflect common life and conflict. So there was probably little or no worldbuilding. That had to have come when man really started to imagine. Stories could have been conceived from dreams too. Thanks again.
You have either influenced or predicted this week's editorial; I'll let you decide which one.
So that's it for me for June! See you next month. Until then, as always...
DREAM ON!!! |
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Fantasy: June 30, 2021 Issue [#10851]
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