Don't you hate it when someone wants to tell you their dream? Unless the teller says "I dreamt about you last night" you have no real interest.
The author of a novel is never going to have a dream about you. So why must so many of them tell us dreams? I've just finished two books loaded with dreams. One of them I recommended below, but only because the rest of the book is so good. Still, I wish he hadn't done it.
I hate dreams in novels. Why should I have to interpret a dream? I want the author to interpret it in the sense that she/he uses another device to give me the same information.
A line or two of a dream is acceptable if it's meaningful and easy to understand. But pages of dream recall? Never. I think writing long dreams in a novel is the lazy way out. Oh, I can hear you now saying, but complicated dreams on the page take a great deal of skill. Skill for what purpose? Perhaps to show off? I wish I could put a ban on dreams longer than two sentences.
Just tell me the story.
2 comments:
Agreed, hate long dream sequences. Especially the author plays games and pretends it's reality. Hate that in visual media too.
I like to play with a dream but I keep it very short and to the point. Basically foreshadow/tease the reader with a non-sequitur and a mention of an unknown character.
"I was wrong. I did get some sleep. A couple of restless hours here and there, punctured by guilty nightmares of things I thought I'd finally forgotten. And Trisha. That night in my dreams, I saw Trisha's swollen face."
In any dream-thing, I try to get in and out fast.
Just tell me the story.
BLESS YOU!
You don't know how many times I have said that. I am not alone in my pursuit of this simple request, then.
BLESS YOU! A THOUSAND TIMES, OVER! BLESS YOU!
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