‘Can there exist, in principle, a proper beginning to any story at all? Isn’t there always, without exception, a latent beginning-before-the-beginning?’
Amos Oz
Saturday 3 October 2009
If a dream > 2 sentences I don't read it
Other people's dreams are dull, in real life and in fiction. I wish writers would confine their characters' dreams to one sentence or two. I skip over them if they are any longer.
9 comments:
Anonymous
said...
I agree so much, I hate reading about other people's dreams.
I do sometimes find that I can follow other people's recounting (verbal or written) of their dreams in detail and be hooked from start to finish - though these are the exceptions rather than the rule.
Still, one of the dreams which a friend had and which still makes me laugh out loud can be described in two words with a short parenthesised note:
Other people's dreams are interesting if you know that person well, or if you are in the dream, otherwise I just can't sustain interest. Fictional or real.
I can imagine someone else having an interesting dream. What I can't imagine as interesting in the slightest is someone else having sex. I say we eliminate sex scenes from novels. ;-)
They are horrible to write, and maybe even more horrible to read, but I think you need a few here and there. I am turning into my granny though, I am increasingly squeamish about sex scenes in movies...
9 comments:
I agree so much, I hate reading about other people's dreams.
My eyes glaze right over. Give me a short & snappy dream, that is fine, but any long meandering details and I'm skipping paragraphs.
I do sometimes find that I can follow other people's recounting (verbal or written) of their dreams in detail and be hooked from start to finish - though these are the exceptions rather than the rule.
Still, one of the dreams which a friend had and which still makes me laugh out loud can be described in two words with a short parenthesised note:
Cat Curling (curling as in the sport).
As in cat as the puck?
Other people's dreams are interesting if you know that person well, or if you are in the dream, otherwise I just can't sustain interest. Fictional or real.
Yes, cat as the puck - I think it's a wonderful image. I agree that knowing the person is a factor.
I'm just perturbed that my dream last night was that I realised I had a 1970s-style moustache, and a badly-trimmed one at that.
In fact I'd call that a nightmare.
you weren't listening to the village people before you slept?
Now there's a question I've never been asked before...
I can imagine someone else having an interesting dream. What I can't imagine as interesting in the slightest is someone else having sex. I say we eliminate sex scenes from novels.
;-)
They are horrible to write, and maybe even more horrible to read, but I think you need a few here and there. I am turning into my granny though, I am increasingly squeamish about sex scenes in movies...
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