Get me outta here!

I sometimes wonder whether dreams are only dreams. Yes, okay, this is going to be one of those surreal kind of blogs that sit on the very edge of sci-fi...sorry about that...

Last night I had a dream that I was on a planet far, far away (that sounds familiar!), and I was really happy. The planet wasn't necessarily beautiful - in fact it was pretty much rocky with a few oasis type places where the few people on the planet lived. There were no real buildings, no technology (don't scream...life CAN be worth living without computers...), and people only did what they needed to do to survive. It was some kind of utopian society, without the bullshit of everyone seeming to have something up their individual bottoms.

In the dream I knew about Earth, but I didn't want to go back. And, damn this dream seemed real. I've often wondered if there is something more to dreams - is it possible that they are not always just dreams, but may be something more? Perhaps even a way to see alternatives to what we have here?

I'd like to think so.

It's not that this planet is so awful, but sometimes I like to think there is more than this. Maybe it's even possible to enter a 'dream' and stay there.

There seem to be lights outside my house...hmmm...what do those men in white coats want?

Understanding Ursula

One of my favourite science fiction writers is Ursula Le Guin. Her first book 'The Left Hand of Darkness' was my introduction to the amazing worlds she creates - she goes so far as to map them out. But, I have to admit, I struggled at first to comprehend her stories - well, no, not her stories, but HOW she tells them.

On her website (well worth a visit http://www.ursulakleguin.com/) Le Guin describes three types of stories - those that walk and let us see every detail (what a nice field of blue flowers!), those that run and get us caught up in the action (what flowers? I'm running for my life here!), and those that dance and move us through detail and action and from that event to this event and into the past and into the future (I saw those flowers next year, but now I'm running past them...there's an alien on my tail!). Le Guin's stories dance - they spin the reader around the floor rather than taking them from the front door to the back door in a straight line.

This challenges the notion that all stories must be told starting at the beginning, moving through the middle, and finishing at the end. I like it!

'The Dispossessed' by Le Guin was very, very challenging and really showed me that stories do not have to be linear. I felt like a bit of an ignoramous (I love that word!) when I had 'huh?' moment after 'huh?' moment. Okay, this was mostly because I read this novel sporadically over a few months - don't do that if you are going to read it...you'll lose the plot (so to speak).

Now that I understand how stories can dance, I'm looking forward to getting down and boogying with 'The Dispossessed' again in a few months time. I'll let you know how it goes.