Dreams and Fantasy Novels

What if you slept

And what if

In your sleep

You dreamed

And what if

In your dream

You went to heaven

And there plucked a strange and beautiful flower

And what if

When you awoke

You had that flower in you hand

Ah, what then?

So this poem by Coleridge, written in 1834, expresses a common theme in fantasy (and sci-fi and horror) stories - the distinction between imagination and reality. What is the boundary, and is it as hard and rigid as we commonly think it is?

The Boundary

So, the boundary between dreams and so-called “reality” is not as concrete as you might think, and this is a recurrent theme in SFF. Lots of times we think of dreams as opposed to “reality”. But this idea is WRONG. See, dreams aren’t literally real, but they aren’t really “unreal” because they do express truths about ourselves, our lives, and the world around us. The brain has something called the default mode network, and it’s always working in the background, trying to sort all the sensory data we get and organize it into a useful expression of meaning. It does this with visuospatial metaphors that help us consolidate memory, form social identity, regulate our emotions and plan for the future. For example, if I’m experiencing mixed feelings about my job, I might dream that I’m having an argument about it with two other “strangers” - but these strangers are really parts of me. Is that “real”? Well, yes, and no! It isn’t literally a memory, and those strangers aren’t literally other people, but it’s still reflecting reality, isn’t it? 

Metaphor

The trick to this is the use of metaphor. And by metaphor, I have something specific in mind. Metaphor's, according to cognitive linguistics, is a mapping that we use to communicate ideas. It takes something vague, difficult to imagine or comprehend, or abstract, and it maps it onto something concrete and visuospatial (usually) in nature. Thus we have DANGER IS DARKNESS, a universal metaphor that we find all over the world, that maps "danger", which is an abstract idea of peril, and says danger is as if it were darkness. Darkness is not only dangerous (at least to humans with lousy night vision), but it's concrete and visual. That makes it easy to comprehend. Another one commonly used is ANGER IS HEAT. This metaphor transcends culture and language, and we know this because this same metaphor is found in unrelated languages all over the world. It maps "anger", which is a feeling that is nebulous, abstract, and not easily encapsulated or defined, and maps it onto HEAT, which is concrete, sensory (if not visual) and easy to comprehend. The mind links the two by saying this hard to understand thing is like this easy to understand thing.

The brain is constantly doing this. It's constantly crafting stories that take all the sensory data we take in every day and mapping it onto concrete visuospatial or sensory images, with the understanding of "my current situation is like this concrete visuospatial narrative". This right here is why my "number one dream hack" works for understanding dreams. And if you don't know what that is, I'll tell you, though there are long form videos I have on my YouTube channel to explain it, and if you're signed up for my newsletter, you'll have been given access to my 9-part series on dream interpretation. But anyway, the Number One Dream Hack is simply to take the content of the dream, call it 'X', and plug it into this sentence: "my life is proceeding as if X were true". This captures the nature of how dreaming works and the fact that it's taking your life experiences and condensing it down into a metaphorical story.

Dreams are Fantasy Short Stories

For all you fantasy writers and readers out there, THIS is the connection I'm talking about. The theme of the story, which may be something difficult like how we recover from trauma, and mapping onto a symbolic tale of adventure, inner turmoil, suffering, heroism and sacrifice using concrete visuospatial and sensory images. This is how dreams connect to imaginative fiction--they both really do the same thing, only a dream is centered on YOU and YOUR journey, whereas a work of fiction often times aspires to something more universal and collective in nature. But the process is the same. Fantasy novels in particular are able to express a fundamental truth about “reality” in metaphors like this, and in a way unparalleled by other genres, because there are no limits to the metaphors. They can be anything.

In fact, many fantasies deal with this exact issue I'm describing in itself. Lot’s of stories, for example, play with the idea of dream events “translating” into waking life. In my own fantasy series, the Raven’s Tale, book 1 being King of the Forgotten Darkness, I take this to another level, as there are two worlds. One is a near future world like ours, but with advanced AI that has eliminated all suffering and pain. But then there’s a fantasy world, full of dark magic, dragons, gods, and war. The main hero, Liam, must illegally go to the fantasy world to save someone he loves. In the story, the fantasy world is very real, but it’s also dreamlike. Then again you can also ask, is the modern world the dream and the fantasy world real? You be the judge.

The Difference

So I've talked about the similarities between dreams and fantasy stories. What about the differences? The main difference is simply that of length and complexity. A dream is usually about right now, but even then, sometimes dreams deal with world-spanning events and large swathes of time. In the dream state, there is a way in which time and space are much more fluid and things occur in a much more nonlinear way. This is absolutely necessary in order for us to be able to recognize patterns in large systems of events or environments, but it does mean that we have to let go of rigid, linear thinking, and sometimes we even have to let go of rigid cause-effect chains as well.

In any case, when a storyteller constructs a story, in a certain level it may be that they are trying to create an expression that touches on very profound, and sometimes even mysterious themes and emotions, so much so that telling it in images and symbols is the only way to really communicate those ideas. As such, dreams are fantasy short stories, and fantasy novels are like giant dreams.

But what are you reading right now? Let me know in the comments, and catch ya next time.

Keep Dreaming!

EG