Tuesday, June 28, 2005

The Power of Dreams

I'm a great believer in the power of dreams. Have had many which have told me truths about myself that I hadn't got round to facing. Have had others which have told me the truth about relationships I was in. (I wish I had listened more carefully.) Have recognised a soul-mate from a dream and wasn't wrong. Was told in another that someone needed my help even before my waking self had recognised it.

I write my dreams down as soon as I wake, because I know they are important.

I keep dipping into Naomi Epel's book Writer's Dreaming, and in fact have used extracts from it on my course where I do a writing-from-dream-exercise.



Epal interviewed 26 writers about their dreams and their creative process what is facinating is how many of the writers featured have used dreams to help them in their work. Many more writers talk about entering a "dream-like state" when they write.

William Styron saw the heroine of his novel in a "waking vision" standing in a hallway of a boarding house in Flatbush, a number tattoed on her arm.



And Bharati Mukherjee (a writer I was lucky enough to meet not long ago) has dreamed the endings to stories and to her novel Jasmine. She says:
As I'm getting to the end of a story, the ending that, during my waking hours, I think will happen is sometimes subverted or obliterated by the dream. It happens as I'm just about to write that scene. ... In many of the stories in The Middleman, the endings are not the way I had planned them.
(The Middleman is one of the best collections of short-fiction I've ever read. Just don't know how Mukherjee can get so far into the heads of all these so different characters ...)



Just for fun, dear readers, here's a little quiz for you. A famous writer had the following dream. At the time that Epel's book went to print, this writer had not yet used the material in his writing. Later it became the basis of a novel.

Now then, can you name the writer and the novel. (Anyone who has done my course is not allowed to answer!) First prize as usual is to buy me lunch.
I don't have repetitive dreams but I do have an anxiety dream: I'm working very hard in this hot little room where I lived as a teenager - and I'm aware that there's a madwoman in th attic. There's a little tiny door under the eave that goes to the attic and I have to finish my work. I have to get that work done or she'll come and get me. At some point in this dream that door always bursts open and this hideous woman - with all this white hair stuck up around her head like a gone-to-seed dandelion - jumps out with a scapel.

And I wake up.

I still have that dream when I'm backed up on my work and trying to fill all these ridiculous commitments I've made for myself.

25 comments:

Unknown said...

I don't know :(

bibliobibuli said...

So no lunch from you! Never mind, you can bake me a carrot cake instead as a consolation prize.

Anonymous said...

Hi Sharon

Writer : Stephen King
Novel : ?? Salem's lot, It, The Body?

Did a google search and came up with this excerpt from Naomi's book. Interesting reading. Reminds me of King's On Writing.

http://www.observationdeck.com/writers/king.htm

Lydia

bibliobibuli said...

Lydia, You're such a canny one googling around! Glad you found this link.

Looks like I'm going to get TWO free lunches out of this. Steven King is the right author, and as you can see he did get the setting for Salem's Lot from a dream.

But remember that I said that the novel that this dream lead to hadn't been written at the time that Epel's book came out. It can't therefore be salem's lot, and it isn't it or The Body. ... So there's still a chance for another winner.

Anonymous said...

Sharon

Is it Nightmares and Dreamscapes? If that's the wrong answer then this super-sleuth would have become an outa-sleuth.

Lydia

bibliobibuli said...

Nope. Give you one more clue to make it way way way too easy ... a film was made of the book.

Anonymous said...

my dreams never come true.:(

Anonymous said...

Aiyo Sharon

Too many of Stephen King's books are made into movies, how to guess? Green Mile and Dreamcatcher jump to mind. Never mind, let other people win the prize and take you to lunch.

Rgds
Outa (Hokkien for lousy) sleuth

Allan Koay 郭少樺 said...

MISERY.

too easy for a hardcore fan like me.

bibliobibuli said...

Yay! So when do you want to collect your prize???

Lydia, don't forget you are a winner as well.

Allan Koay 郭少樺 said...

wah lau eh! got prize wan ah?

:D

Anonymous said...

How can? Misery was released in 1987 (novel) and the film in 1990. Sharon said that at time of Naomi's writing (her book published 1993), Stephen's book was not out yet. Sharon, you gave wrong clue, lah. Anyway both visitor and I also Pa Sang folks, so maybe we can cash prize together :)

Rgds
Outa sleuth

bibliobibuli said...

Oooooppppssssss. Lydia you are completely right about the dates and it's me with egg on my face. But the dream obviously does refer to Misery even through the link is not made in Apel's book. As an apology for frustrating the brain cells I will buy both of you lunch myself. (Just call me up to claim, your prize some time soon. Good excuuse to see you anyway.)

Allan Koay 郭少樺 said...

and Robert Heinlein says There Is No Such Thing As A Free Lunch! (TINSTAAFL) bah! i have proved him wrong!

Chet said...

>> even through the link is not made in Apel's book ...

Ms Bakar

It's Epel, not Apel. And it should be "though", not "through".

*ducks and runs away*

bibliobibuli said...

TINSTAAFL?!!!! ROTFLMAO!
Don't gloat Mr. Visitor.

*Throws a heavy rock at the retreating Chet.*

Allan Koay 郭少樺 said...

ackcheli, it should have been TANSTAAFL

"There ain't no such thing as a free lunch"

Anonymous said...

Sharon, no worries. It's good to work the grey cells a bit. Visitor, congrats!

Cheers,
Not-so-outa sleuth after all

bibliobibuli said...

Lydia, you also a winner 'cos you did all the hard work and got Stephen King right. Without your contrib I don't think the Visitor could have got the next bit right.

Grey cells? Maybe I should have more competitions, but make sure I get my clues 100% right first.

Chet said...

And your spelling, too.

bibliobibuli said...

Chet - do you think there's a job vacancy going for my Inner Critic or something??

Allan Koay 郭少樺 said...

ya lor, thanks Lydia!

Kak Teh said...

all these while I was asleep and dreaming? what have I missed?

bibliobibuli said...

This has been a very happening place, Kak Teh. ;-D

Anonymous said...

Sama-sama, Visitor. You don't need the clue anyway, right? Sharon, Look forward to more trivia where I can play Magnum PI again.

Rgds
Lydia