| Author | Message | ||
     Richard_gavin (Richard_gavin) Username: Richard_gavin Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 69.157.27.254 |
I've just posted the following entry on my writer's blog, but I've copied it here for obvious reasons: Dream journal: August 31st, 2008 I am sitting in a plastic chair on my front lawn in the dead of night. It is summertime. Crickets chirp from the hedges that frame my strangely narrow property. There are voices and other telltale sounds of a party going on in a nearby house. The waxing moon pours down enough white light for me to continue reading the book that is resting on my lap. The book I am reading is a hardcover edition of The Grin of the Dark , the latest novel by Ramsey Campbell. I am enthralled by the story, and am also profoundly disturbed. Somewhere in my consciousness I suspect that the incidents in Ramsey's novel are actually taking place beyond the hedges, perhaps in the home next door. I wonder if what's going on there is a party after all... Just then Ramsey and his wife Jenny emerge from inside my home. I suddenly recall that they'd been invited here to dine with my family, and that I had excused myself from the meal to finish the novel that so engrossed me. Ramsey approaches me and I shake his hand, saying that The Grin of the Dark is his finest novel since Ancient Images. Ramsey asks, "Really?" He seems both shocked and delighted. He and Jenny both pull up plastic chairs and we all sit listening to the noises from beyond the hedge. The moon begins to dim, but an impossible number of stars still provide us with illumination. None of us speak, yet I somehow intuit that what Ramsey and I are doing is waiting for these voices to offer up the next story that he and I are each to write. We are in the same yard, yet seem to be hearing different Muses. I wake up. The reason I have posted this account here, dear readers, is not to plug Ramsey's work (although I cannot recommend it highly enough), but because it is simply the most recent example of a recurring phenomenon with me: When I dream, I sometimes dream of other writers. It is a very pleasant (if odd) happening. Over the course of my life I have had dream-world kaffeeklatsches with everyone from Edgar Allan Poe to high school friends who showed an interest in writing. Whether these authors were living or dead was irrelevant during the dream, as was my being a fan of their work or not. The most important trait of these literary dreams is that we were always talking, or were focused on, the craft of storytelling. The dreams become lessons of sorts, even if their "message" might be completely muddled, if it's even there at all. These seem to be a different breed of dream than, say, dreaming of one's co-workers or of total strangers. Constant exposure breeds the former dream, the need for a cast in one's dream creates the latter. Writers dreaming of other writers seems significant, to my way of thinking at least. It leaves me wondering, how common are these kinds of dreams among other wordsmiths? Best, Richard | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.185.226 |
I had a dream of Ramsey a couple of months ago, so you're not alone! I've had occasional dream encounters with other writers I admire too, from Lovecraft and Machen to more modern authors. RCMBers turn up in my dreams too - I dreamed I met John a few weeks ago. I was hiking somewhere high in the mountains, and as I rounded a corner, who should appear but Lord P. himself, prospecting for precious ores (or so he claimed). I don't remember anything else about it - dreams usually fade so quickly from the memory. I really should keep a dream journal. | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.156.32.207 |
is this the sequel to 'Dream of Olwen'? | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.237.56 |
As far as I recall I have never dreamed of Ramsey or any other writer. A great many years ago, I did dream about a cyclopean city made of black stone (basalt?). The streets were interspersed with small canals whose stagnant waters were, again, pitch black. It took hours and hours to traverse the nighted avenues and plazzas, but the city was utterly and completely devoid of life. The only incongruence was provided by a lone television antenna affixed to one of the shiny black roofs. It seems kind of funny now, but at the time it scared the hell out of me. | ||
| Richard_gavin (Richard_gavin) Username: Richard_gavin Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 69.157.30.153 |
Hubert: Your dream city really puts me in mind of HPL's poem 'The Canal'. Des: I actually wasn't familiar with this piece of music until you mentioned it. Perhaps this dream was a sequel, who knows? Huw: I'm glad to know I'm not alone! I strongly encourage you to begin keeping a dream journal. I've always found this to be one of the most useful and pleasurable disciplines in my life. What would be very unnerving would be to learn that Ramsey had just dreamt about visiting one of his readers on a suburban lawn in the wee hours of the night... Best, Richard | ||
| Albie (Albie) Username: Albie Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 87.102.81.183 |
I had a dream about Ramsey recently. He was in my last flat, reading my dope induced stories and liking them. He wouldn't have been in my present flat because there's nowhere to sit. You see. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.237.56 |
"Hubert: Your dream city really puts me in mind of HPL's poem 'The Canal'." Yep, it does have that Lovecraftian ring to it. It wouldn't have been inappropriate to have a chance encounter with the man in that forsaken megapolis, but alas it didn't happen. | ||
| Richard_gavin (Richard_gavin) Username: Richard_gavin Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 69.157.29.135 |
Hubert, I think what you meant to say in regards to your potential dream encounter with HPL was "alas it hasn't happened yet!"  | ||
| Des (Des) Username: Des Registered: 06-2008 Posted From: 86.156.32.207 |
'Dream of Olwen' is beautiful music; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWqHDs0MIps I can imagine HPL enjoying it. And maybe Ramsey! | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.237.56 |
Richard, We can but dream  | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.178.202 |
Have either of you seen the low-budget film OUT OF MIND? It features just such an encounter with HPL. It's on vol. 3 of the H.P. Lovecraft DVD Collection. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.237.56 |
Afraid not, Huw, though I may have seen snatches of it somewhere. YouTube? I did go through a phase of utter and complete empathy with HPL's mother Sarah Susan Phillips back in the early nineties. Reading her diary in the John Hay Library, visiting the homestead of her forebears in the Foster, RI hinterland, talking to experts who had written about the Lovecraft family (especially the kind and gracious Ken Faig), walking the Butler Hospital grounds . . . It got so far that I unconsciously started seeking out girlfriends who looked like her, but that is another story. | ||
| Richard_gavin (Richard_gavin) Username: Richard_gavin Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 69.157.29.135 |
Huw, I'm a great admirer of OUT OF MIND, yes. It is one of the few Lovecraft-themed films to actually get it *right*. Best, Richard | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.182.75 |
Richard, glad to finally find another soul who has seen OUT OF MIND and loved it as much as I did! Despite the low budget, I found it fascinating and quite moving. | ||
| Richard_gavin (Richard_gavin) Username: Richard_gavin Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 69.157.35.61 |
Huw, Absolutely. OUT OF MIND is superb. Best, Richard | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.37.199.45 |
I enjoyed it, but felt it was rather formless as a representation of a writer for whom structure was paramount. The best stuff is Lovecraft himself speaking on camera – you can't tell me that was an actor. The rest is very watchable but doesn't hold together. To my mind, the best of the Lovecraftian films in the Lurker Films series are COOL AIR, THE MUSIC OF ERICH ZANN (wow! or rather ia!) and the Italian adaptation of 'Pickman's Model' (the most stylish and dramatic of the three). STRANGE AEONS, the adaptation of 'The Thing on the Doorstep', seems to succeed in everything EXCEPT the one thing you'd expect it to do well: the thing on the doorstep is nowhere near horrible enough. But the film provides a vivid and disturbing answer to the question about Edward and Asenath that has always been in my mind since first reading the story.  | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.219.8.243 |
Where are these available, chaps? | ||
| John Llewellyn Probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.253.174.81 |
I'm with Joel (er, where the Lovecraft shorts are concerned). The parts of OUT OF MIND I liked were the bits with HPL himself on screen but the rest didn't really work. COOL AIR, ERICH ZANN & that marvellous Italian version of PICKMAN'S MODEL are all worth getting the disks for, & I'll defintely be getting number 5 when it comes out. Zed - I got mine from Amazon | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.37.199.45 |
Also check the Lurker Films website. Their customer service is second to none. Anything you order is flown to you by night-gaunt and reaches you, neatly wrapped in acolyte-skin, an hour before you order it. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.22.237.56 |
"Anything you order is flown to you by night-gaunt and reaches you, neatly wrapped in acolyte-skin, an hour before you order it." I sense the machinations of the Great Race. | ||
| Richard_gavin (Richard_gavin) Username: Richard_gavin Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 65.110.174.71 |
Thanks to Joel and John for the suggestion of the other Lurker Films titles. I confess that OUT OF MIND and the two volumes of THE LURKER IN THE LOBBY short film collections are the only titles I've seen in this series. I'll have to collect the others. | ||
| Huw (Huw) Username: Huw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 218.168.177.52 |
I am waiting for STRANGE AEONS to arrive - I have the others. Can't wait for THE WHISPERER IN DARKNESS! | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.154.242.64 |
Where are these available, chaps? Zed - I got all mine direct from Lurker Films:- http://www.lurkerfilms.com/ I agree with Joel regarding their service - very friendly and international-shippingly helpful. It's embarrassing to admit but I just checked my copy of Pickman's Model and it's still sealed... | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.242.126 |
Thanks, chaps. I feel an addiion to my Christmas list coming on... :-) |