(3) Why are there so many dreams in The Birdcatcher?
There are four dreams in the book, just the right number as far as I'm
concerned. But I understand why some people think that's excessive.
From the time I began to read fiction I paid close attention to the dreams.
I soon noticed that English fiction had few of them, and those you found
there were just poor imitations of the real thing. It was only when I began
to read Russian literature that I encountered realistic dreams.
Look at the series of dreams that Pierre Bezuhov has in War and Peace,
or - if you dare, for it is one of the worst of nightmares - Raskolnikov's
dream of the cart horse in Crime and Punishment. Or look at the dreams
in Pasternak's Dr Zhivago. When I read those, I was struck by their
realism and power. I wondered for years how Tolstoy, Dostoevsky and
Pasternak produced them.
In a writer's group where I once read chapter IV of The Birdcatcher,
someone said Christopher Stone's dream of flying up the valley of the
Song Cau in a helicopter was too realistic. Real dreams, she explained
to me, are vague and confusing. Several others in the room nodded their
heads in agreement.
Though I didn't say anything, I smiled inwardly, and sadly, for that dream
was completely real. Taken from one of my journals, it was a dream I had
one night in 1975, just after the fall of Saigon to the North Vietnamese
armies. It needed only a few alterations to fit the book.
Yes, I had concluded that at least some of the dreams in Russian
literature were realistic because they were real. Those three men kept
detailed journals, as most of the great writers have done, and they would
not have ignored their own dreams.
And, yes, I was saddened when that writer said Christopher Stone's
dream was too realistic, for it confirmed again what I had long believed –
that most North Americans don't know how to dream.
There is no shortage of books about dreams, and I don't want to
discourage anyone from reading them, but the essential thing that most
of the authors forget to say is this – that dreams, in their own way, are
real and they should be treated that way.
That's why the dreams of small children are so strong and vivid. They
haven't been convinced yet that the world of the night is meaningless
and should be ignored.
To have dreams that are not 'vague and confusing' all you need to do is
take them seriously. You don't have to 'interpret' them. Just treat your
dreams as if they're real experiences, pay attention to them, and they'll
become more focused, vivid and memorable.
Alan Conrad