| Title | : | Творец снов |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 5699981020 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9785699981021 |
| Language | : | Russian |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 256 |
| Publication | : | First published October 1, 1966 |
Один из самых сильных романов Грандмастера НФ Роджера Желязны!
Творец снов Reviews
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Did anyone else think of this classic 60s SF novel when they watched Inception? I certainly did.
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O pripovedačkoj genijalnosti Rodžera Zelaznija zaista je izlišno govoriti.Jednom rečju,savršenstvo.
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A novel from 1966 set in a future with genetically engineered talking seeing eye dogs, driverless cars and automated freeways; and as a treatment for various psychiatric disorders, neuroparticipation where the analyst creates dreams and explores them with the patient. Render is a leading practitioner and agrees to treat a blind woman who is also a trained psychiatrist and wants to become a neuropractitioner. The writing is suitably dreamlike, I’m not sure I always knew what was dream and what was real. References to mythology, poetry and Freud throughout. An enjoyable read but not one I fully understood(but I’m not sure you’re meant to).
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I don’t know why this one is largely under the radar. Imaginative, nicely written, vision of the future which isn’t so wrong -love the dog.
But is there anybody who has read this and understands the ongoing part of the man walking along the road who ends up killing himself? Is this Render? Is this how he escapes being trapped in another person’s dream? Is everything that happens in the book a dream except for this part of it?
rest here:
https://alittleteaalittlechat.wordpre... -
The Dream Master is a classic Nebula Award winning novel that isn't as well-remembered as it should be. Perhaps it's been overshadowed by Lord of Light and the Amber books... it's a moving, well-written piece, and deserves a wider current audience.
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Huh. I just finished reading The Dream Master, and I’m not quite sure what to say. I’m a little embarrassed to admit that I didn’t quite understand everything.
I know that this was originally based on a Nebula-winning novella called He Who Shapes, and I definitely wonder if the novella is the superior version of this story. It seemed like there were a lot of scenes and sections that weren’t really necessary.
But, once again—maybe I just didn’t get it.
Sometimes when I read Zelazny, I’ll come across something that doesn’t make sense. I’ve learned to just go with it, trusting that eventually something will happen that gives me an epiphany and makes me realize what that nonsensical section was all about. That’s what I did in this book—I just kept going. But there were still a lot of things that seemed sort of odd by the end.
The worst part is, I can’t even tell you specifically what those parts are, because I’ve already mostly forgotten them. Part of this is because of my terrible memory, surely, but part is because I found myself uninterested in large sections of this book because I couldn’t understand what their significance was at the time.
Also, there was a very long stretch of the book where I was asking myself when something was going to happen. There didn’t seem to be an established conflict or problem for a lot of the book. Sure, there’s the premise we know about (dream-shaping psychiatrist takes on the task of showing a blind woman visions in her dreams), but in the middle of the book that plot seems to be entirely abandoned for several pages in favor of . . . what? I’m not sure.
I’d be willing to bet that I’d get a lot more out of this book after a second reading, but that probably won’t happen for a while yet, as there’s still plenty of Zelazny books out there that I haven’t even read once.
This is my least favorite Zelazny book so far, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's bad. I'm just dense and missed something important, apparently.
UPDATE (01/19/2011): I just read "He Who Shapes" in The Collected Stories of Roger Zelazny, Volume One: Threshold. And I have to say, WOW. It was a lot better the second time through. I'm not sure if that's because the novella ("He Who Shapes") is better than the novel (The Dream Master), or if the second read-through made it easier, or what. It probably also helps that I read the "Notes" section at the end of the story BEFORE I started reading it, so that really helped me understand some of what I'd read in The Dream Master.
This story just got a lot higher on my list of Zelazny awesomeness. -
I encountered the novella in a Nebula Awards Collection while in college, then acquired the expanded version years later. Both were impressive, the novella moreso.
The question of inner states, of private thoughts has long intrigued me. As B.F. Skinner was apt to point out, the only aspect of human being which is scientifically scrutinizable currently is objective human behavior. I will go futher and assert that subjectivity does not exist in any strong sense. There are no truly private thoughts. This follows from the simple fact that we all think in terms of objective referants, be they based on objects of common experience or on some semiotic or symbolic language held in common with others. The ego or self is therefore an illusion.
What Zelazny proposes is a computer of such power and sensors of such acuity that two persons can share, and shape, the worlds of imagination, making the subjective objective with much greater vividness and immediacy than we can accomplish now by, say, telling one another our thoughts, dreams and imaginings.
The possibility of such participation mystique is already suggested by those amazing claims of made by victims of so-called alien abductions. Almost anything is imaginable and it is not very remarkable for a single person to make virtually any experiential claim. What's remarkable is when two or more persons independently make extraordinary claims which are subsequently verified in the sense of being shown to correlate to some objectively shared experience.
To give an example taken from the literature: Two women, strangers to one another, report to their psychotherapists, also strangers, of being abducted, of being teleported into a craft inhabited by nonhuman intelligent beings, held against their wills, subjected to examinations, then returned. The therapists independently record these reports. Then, time having passed, one of them hears the other deliver a paper at a professional conference which sounds weirdly familiar. Later, she checks her notes, pulls out the recording, contacts the other psychologist and arranges to compare notes. The result: their two clients seem to have been on the same craft at the same time, the story of one correlating with that of the other even to the degree of describing the other. What has happened here? Does this prove that alien beings are abducting women?
Not necessarily, not in the sense that the aliens and their craft objectively exist in our world. It may mean that, but it may also mean that there are other domains, other worlds which some of us may sometimes enter, which are, in their own terms, as real and objective as ours--worlds like those constructed in the novel with the help of sophisticated equipment.
Alien abductions are one of many interpretative schemas placed on what may be a kind of experience, a schema that is currently popular. Some years ago it was common to hear of cases of satanic infantile sexual abuse. For some populations it is still common to report heavenly (or hellish) visitations or visions, such as in the mass case reported early in the last century from Fatima, Portugal, where literally thousands of people saw something from "another" world. Indeed, a recent book, which I'll review if I live long enough to get to it, attempts to interpret Fatima in terms of alien visitations.
Interestingly, when one considers alternative explanations such as those adduced above, one engages in an "argument" of sorts not unlike that which occurs between the two main characters in Zelazny's fascinating story. -
Univerzum nije izmislio pravdu, nego čovek. Na žalost, čovek je prinuđen da stanuje u univerzumu.
On koji oblikuje (The Dream Master u originalu) je novela koja me privukla svojom temom - psihoanaliza u snovima! Zelazny ovdje lijepo spaja Frojda i Junga s mitologijom, psima koji govore i promišljanjima o tome da li je ljudski mozak evoluirao od industrijske revolucije.
Ovaj dio mi je zanimljiv (malo sam editirao):
„Moć da povredite nekoga evoluirala je u direktnoj sprezi sa tehnološkim napretkom. [...]Čovekova potencijalna sposobnost da pravi, prosto rečeno, džumbus, multiplicirana je mas-produkcijom; njegova sposobnost, da povređuje psihu drugim putem ličnog kontaktiranja širila se direktno proporcionalno poboljšanju sredstava komunikacije. "
To konstatira glavni lik, ali vjerujem da je o tome razmišljao sam Zelazny, možda na nekom dobrom šitu, jer je malo kasnije napisao ovaj opis:
"Klizili su kao dvoje galebova; veći plesač u boji poliranog antracita a manji u boji mesečevog zraka koji kroz otvoreni prozor pada na krojačku lutku omotanu svilom."
Zato volim 60-te, kako u glazbi, tako i u SF-u - tada se moglo slobodnije izražavati, a očito da su opojne droge i psihodelici pozitivno utjecali na kreativnost kreativnih ljudi.
"Kosa joj je padala do ramena i činilo se da je malčice lakša nego one noći kad su se sreli"
...
Ovaj gore dio osvrta sam napisao dok sam čitao prvi od pet dijelova novele, a nakon toga sve pada u vodu tamnu, tamniju od tamne strane Mjeseca kojeg proždire vuk iz Crvenkapice - da malo imitiram Zelaznyja.
Dakle, radnja počinje kada poznati Oblikovatelj - psiholog koji pomaže ljudima novom metodom psihoanalize u snovima - dobije jednu slijepu pacjenticu kojoj pomoću te metode pokuša pokazati kako da vidi. I krenu zanimljivo te njihove seanse, ali onda kao da je Zelazny stvarno pisao na tripu.
Scene/snovi(?) se izmjenjuju, nisam siguran tko tu koga... sanja.
Mislim da kužim što je htio postići - mislim. Mislim da je htio izbrisati tanku blijedu liniju boje mjesečine koja dijeli svijet snova od onog kojeg mi nazivamo stvarni svijet - mislim. Mislim da je htio prikazati i kako bi izgledala psiha neurotičara gledana iznutra - mislim! No, što dalje ide to je nejasnije što želi reći i o čemu to uopće piše. Upleo je tu i grčku mitologiju, poeziju, neka svoja promišljanja o nekim desetim temama i što sve ne. Sve je to samo nabacano bez nekog smisla, kao da je time htio dobiti privid dubine. Povremeno se između toga uplete i neki lijep opis, ali nažalost to mi nije dovoljno.
Kao da je htio napisati ekspresionističku sliku o dadaizmu u stihovima bitničke pjesme.
Šteta. Šteta. Šteta.
"Mnoge stvari može um u sebi držati. Um uči. Ali ne može sebe naučiti da ne misli ništa." -
The Dream Master is a very competently written snooze-fest. I expected so much more. The book’s concept fascinated me. Its author had entertained me in his Amber novels, and dazzled me with his brilliant Lord of Light. The book was a Nebula Award winner. My expectations were high. But the story never took off, never drew me in. The characters never engaged me. I was not entertained. I was not dazzled. I was bored. This book wasted my time.
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Charles Render is a Shaper, a type of psychiatrist who adminsters therapy via sort of a psychic virtual reality. Enter Eileen Shallot, a woman blind from birth who wants to be a Shaper and wants Render to teach her to see.
I actually don't have a lot to say about this one. While I liked it, it was a little on the meh side of the Zelazny spectrum. I really liked the Shaper concept and the talking dogs but didn't really care about the characters. -
The Dream Master holds well despite being almost 60 years old. It has an outstanding premise - Charles Render specialises in neuroparticipation. Basically, he creates and controls/constructs dreams of his patients to get an insight into their neuroses and problems. Render takes on a patient with congenital blindness and a hunger for visual stimuli. And for becoming a neuroparticipant therapist herself.
Zelazny takes readers on a wild ride through dreamscapes and forces them to do a lot of mental gymnastics. Science-fiction blends with surrealism and serious psychological baggage. The dreams we navigate range from wonderful to terrifying.
Render’s sharp wit and no-nonsense attitude appealed to me; He’s a strong lead. Eileen? A mystery wrapped in an enigma with lots of inner demons.
Zelazny’s writing is smooth, but he wasn’t interested in holding a reader’s hand while introducing more weirdness and it takes a mental effort to keep up. The Dream Master gets dense and mind-bending. I could even risk saying the story gets lost in its complexity, sometimes. Add to this the fact Zelazny’s penchant for ambiguity and leaving some questions unanswered and you have a potentially divisive story.
It’s not perfect, but I still give it a thumbs up for its boldness and a trippy adventure. -
Missed opportunity.
The whole book feels like a dream: Feels disconnected until you take a step back to somehow formulate your own connections. This wouldn't be a problem if it followed a structure that feels like you are watching a show: sudden cuts to other pieces of the story.
It wastes a lot of time in meaningless factors. To be completely honest, the whole story is understood by reading the first 50-ish pages and then the last 60. Everything in the middle is kinda... "ignorable". -
This is the first book I have read by Roger Zelazny. A slightly less than "normal" male friend in the 1980s told me to read Roger, so forty years later I have started.
Sci fi in the 1960s was so delightfully wacky and The Dream Master is a good example. A "psychology engineer" invents a device by which he can enter a person's mind, experience their thoughts and then tweak those thoughts to a supposedly less traumatic state through creating virtual realities for the person to experience.
It works fine for him until he meets his match trying to help a blind female psychologist. Ha Ha!
Anyway, if this sounds oddly similar to today's world of continuous on-line barraging by info, ideas, and imagery, most of which is nearly impossible to verify as even remotely true, let me tell you we are in big trouble! -
Auf dem Gebiet der psychiatrischen Behandlung gibt es eine neue Methode, mit deren Hilfe der Arzt direkt in die Gedankenwelt des Patienten eintaucht um seine Probleme zu lösen. Dabei bedient er sich recht kreativer Methoden, um verschiedene Traumwelten zu erzeugen und vorhandene Traumas zu durchbrechen.
Diese neue Behandlungsmethode ist allerdings nicht ungefährlich, ein unaufmerksamer Arzt kann sich in den Gedanken seines Patienten verlieren und schließlich verrückt werden. Genau diese Gefahr kommt unmerklich auf Charles Render zu, ohne dass er es wahrhaben will. Seine Patientin, Eileen Shallot, ist ebenfalls Arzt und sehr ehrgeizig aber von Natur aus blind. Genau wie er möchte sie gerne "Traumformer" werden und tut dafür alles. Zuerst ist Charles skeptisch und glaubt nicht daran, dass Eileen dafür geeignet ist, er versucht es aber trotzdem und hat einzigartige Erlebnisse...
Roger Zelazny hat ein anspruchvolles Buch geschrieben. Das Thema "psychiatrische Behandlung" wird nicht oft in der SF aufgegriffen und schon gar nicht auf diese Weise. Ungewöhnlich ist, wie gut der Charakter Charles dargestellt wird und wie auf jegliche Effekthascherei verzichtet wird. Robert Silverberg ist ähnliches in
Es stirbt in mir ein paar Jahre später gelungen. Empfehlenswert! -
Evoked an automatic association with Christopher Nolan's "Inception". Not one of Zelazny's best, but it is a good one.
აი თურმე რა ქონდა ინსპირაციად ნოლანს ინსეფშენზე რო გადაკიდა ხალხი ერთმანეთს
ის ბზრიალა ტიტრების შემდეგ დავარდა and other hilarious jokes you can tell yourself
შეიძლება საუკეთესო არ არის მაგრამ მაინც ზელაზნია და შესაბამისად რეკომენდაცია გაწეულიც <3 -
Terribly anti-climactic and contrived plot. Paper thin characters. Cringeworthy romance. Typos and errors galore. The only salvageable aspect is the writing itself, which pushed me to get through this book as fast as I possibly could. Not quite sure how this won a Nebula Award....
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The Dream Master is a science-fiction novel by Roger Zelazny, 1966, originally published as a novella titled He Who Shapes that won a Hugo Award in the same year. In 1981, the writer wrote an outline for a film based on the story. 20th Century Fox purchased the rights from Zelazny and developed a script for the movie, Dreamscape, 1984. Zelazny did not appear on the credits for Dreamscape due to having no involvement in writing the script or treatment for the motion picture.
In a future where overpopulation and technology suffocate society, comfort and psychological issues are at odds. Charles Render delivers a psychotherapeutic innovation that can make your nightmares disappear. Render can manipulate your dreams and drive your demons away. Elliot Shallot delivers Render an almost impossible challenge in asking for his help. Will Charles Render be her knight in shining armour or a lost soul inside a tin suit?
Lucid, nightmares or any other type of dreams are all great. I'm not the only one that thinks so. People devote their lives to studying the meanings behind the images we see in our altered states of consciousness. I'm fascinated that some dreams have helped create some of the most memorable songs, books and films in history.
In Japan, studies are underway to help create a dream-reading machine. Scientists have discovered how to use an MRI machine to help identify the images we dream about using hormone signatures. Hopefully, this technology is nothing more than an idea at the moment, but would you want to use it anyway? Dreaming is one of the most curious situations we experience as human beings, and I don’t think I want to turn that into reality yet.
I find it hard to review a book after one read. I have some issues with The Dream Master, only because it's a story I feel I do not understand yet! However, the books I do write about are the ones that will stay in my collection forever and will be read numerous times in the years ahead. I enjoy writing these reviews because I can go back and see how my view of the book changes over time. Plus, I have no idea what other people think of this book? After this is finished and people comment, it lets me see the story in a completely different light. I am just trying to apologise if you believe this review is all over the place, which it is. Selfishly, it's where it belongs.
The Dream Master takes place in the future, a world that involves talking canines and self-driving cars. Charles Render specialises in neuroparticipant therapy, where a patient is set into a dream simulation where Render can control the host's dream state. Render can manipulate the patients' underlying neuroses and turn nightmares into pleasant dreams. Thus, helping people take control of their life in the real world. Charles meets Eileen Shallot, who asks Render to train her how to become a neuroparticipant therapist herself. Eileen wants to understand what her patients will have to go through, even though she is blind. Charles Render, always one for pushing boundaries, agrees to help his client.
I will admit, The Dream Master is not the book I was expecting. After watching Dreamscape, I envisioned the story to be darker, gritty and more realistic. What I got was something that felt satirical, intelligent and confusing. The confusion could be down to my intelligence because there are some big words in the story, plus big names in philosophy, classical music, and all manner of highbrow entertainment. The thing is, I enjoyed the confusion. I’m still a bit lost on what moments took place in a dream state or reality, which only adds to the appeal of the book.
As I said earlier, there is a talking dog in the story, and it was a bit of a kick in the nuts to accept. However, there is a passage about a man walking onto a freeway into oncoming traffic, and it is beautiful in a strange way. I still do not know who that man was or if he was even real? The dog even drove a car, and my childish imagination went straight to the Wacky Races. Still, Charles Render's character is so multi-layered and well written that you forget about the jarring moments in the story. Render comes across as a confident well-regarded man of the community, but you soon learn that his character can't accept the death of his wife and daughter. I think Charles finds control in his work, and somehow that makes him feel like he can control life itself. His son was a little weak in the story, and I felt his arc fell at the waist side somewhat. I suppose his character is just there to show how Render does everything possible to protect him from any harm.
I don’t like taking notes about how and when things happen in the story because a story should be good enough that you can remember all those moments instantly. I could discuss the ending, but again, I think my understanding of what happened was not what I expected. It was left to the last minute, without any real conclusion. But then again, I could be wrong, so that’s why I will go back and give it a second try. Maybe, because I have watched Dreamscape and watched so many films that cover this subject, the Dream Master didn’t have the grand ending that I expected. However, at one hundred and fifty-seven pages, it's pretty dam tight.
I suppose this review sums up where I am with this book! I didn’t love it, but I did? There are passages I did not enjoy, but I feel like that is my fault somehow. It is one of the most curious books that I have ever read. It was so cryptic and appealed to my very nature. A book within another book; that is hiding another book on a shelf in an office somewhere in Delaware is my best way to describe it. Sometimes it felt like the future, and other times was like the roaring twenties. If you are reading this and have never heard of the book before, I highly recommend it. I wish I could add more about the story, but I want all my knowledge of the story to come from the pages and not google. It felt reminiscent of a heavy night of drinking. Waking up and having flashbacks appear to you for weeks after, some moments will make you cringe, and others will make you want to go back and do it all again.
As for Roger Zelazny, I am not familiar with his other work, but The Chronicles of Amber looks pretty fantastic. I will check his other books out in the future. I did not know what to expect when I started this site. I wanted to find somewhere I could get some enjoyment and fulfilment. I guess I found it because I didn't know about Dreamscape until I found it on My Journey into Science-Fiction Project. I have now watched the film and read the book, and it has been a great experience. I can't ask for much more in life. It's just pure enjoyment, and there is so much more to come in the future. -
I originally read this book back in the early 80's and remembered it fondly.
I just reread it and was sadly disappointed.
Maybe they just floated over my head when I read them as a young adult, but the endless obscure literary references got increasingly annoying, and I kept wondering what they had to do with the story. It was as if Zelazny was trying to impress his readers with his vast knowledge and understanding of science, music and literature... like it was a job interview.
Dude... what happened to the story?
Three quarters of the way through the book, I kept wondering when something interesting was going to happen. The chain-smoking did little for me, as did the faux ballet/theater/whatever it was.
Showing a blind woman colors and animals through a shared dream, and being able to discuss it with her intelligent, talking dog seems like to promising premise to a good, involved storyline... but it did not pan out that way (at least for me).
I was left befuddled, speed-reading through the mishmush to try to find the story I remembered.
Maybe it is best to leave those books I read long ago alone, as my perspective has changed... but they have not. -
An interesting premise with a weak execution in a needlessly fragmented narrative. It wasn't a long novel but I felt that it would have either worked better as a short story or fleshed out in more depth as a longer novel.
Surprisingly, this book one a nebula award (or so the blurb on the cover claims) which just goes to show that winning an award is not always a good indicator of quality. Despite its award this is not one of Zelazny's well-remembered novels and, as far as I am concerned, for good reason; it's simply not that good. Particularly disappointing when you know the author is capable of so much better. -
Sharp, poignant, and philosophical—The Dream Master is a book that doesn’t hold the reader’s hand. It poetically and succinctly explores death, dreams, psychological pain and pleasure, and the unknown with multilayered characters and psychological themes rarely touched upon by science fiction.
At only 155 pages, this book is an easy read, yet it’s filled with so many ideas. And despite talking dogs, virtual reality sets, and self-driving cars, it’s quite grounded in its conceptual framework. It’s cerebral without sacrificing the human experience.
And the ending? Even though I saw it coming a mile away, it hit just as hard as I’m sure Zelazny intended.
Right now, for me, it’s 4/5 stars. But I think this is the kind of book that really could benefit another read—perhaps another after that—to get the full scope of what’s inside this powerful little book. -
Es por esto que amo la ciencia ficción. La necesad de Zelazny de meter mitología para todo a veces resulta muy molesta, pero logré que no me molestara mucho asumiendo que era parte del ejercicio de Render. Quizás los diálogos eran algo forzados (leí una traducción bastante mal editada, quizás eso no ayudó) y se pecaba un poco de "veamos cuantas referencias puedo meter por parrafo" pero aún así funcionaban o por lo menos funcionó para mí. La trama me fascinó. El mundo que nos presenta, un mundo de emociones controladas y una comodidad que busca domar lo que hace a un humano, me pareció muy relevante para el mundo de hoy. Adoré a Eileen Shallot y el conflicto de ella y Render por controlar sus emociones es lo que vendió todo para mí. Tanto en el plano profesional como personal, los personajes tratan de controlar sus psicosis y usarlas para su beneficio pero encuentran que una emoción es eso, algo imposible de controlar. Al final son sus mismas necesidades y sus pasiones, por la vida o la belleza o por otras personas que los destruyen al no poder domarlas. El romance implícito entre los dos también fue genial. Dos personas profesionales que no saben que hacer ante los sentimientos que comparten. Tenían momentos dulces y de muy buena química, pero se siente que ellos mismos no quieren tenerlos. Son adultos y quieren trabajar, pero no pueden evitar simpatizar entre ellos. Quizás por eso mismo pasó lo que pasó, el profesor de Render lo dice, eran demasiado similares.
No le puedo dar las cinco estrellas por algunos problemillas que vi en la historia. Las escenas de Sigmund y de Peter terminan involucrándose en la historia pero aún así se sienten como "filler". ¡Ni siquiera vimos la plática entre Jill y Eileen! La historia es Render y Eileen, es de ellos de quien queremos leer y a veces se siente que nos dan algunas escenas no necesarias en vez de darnos unas escenas que si se necesitarían. El final fue... interesante. Definivitamente en la rama ya clásica de la ciencia ficción del final del "¿qué mierdas estoy leyendo?", pero como es un libro sobre sueños, es apropiado. Creo que entendí lo que sucedía y creo entonces es un buen final. Lo que sí es que es demasiado brusco. Estaba en las últimas veinte páginas y pensaba "como va a cerrar tantos personajes" y al final si hay un cierre en lo más importante, pero las mismas historias que se sentían como "filler" no se les da una escena final. También siento que las escenas más "surreales" no logran crear el impacto que pudieran tener. En parte es porque cuando tiene que ponerse onírico, Zelazny solo hace copy-paste de diversos mitos y ya se va a dormir, siento que un maneja más profundo de las imágenes oníricas hubiera dado a las escenas de las sesiones de Eileen más fuerza. Qué eran buenas, sí, pero tenía que usar más mi imaginación para dar la sensación que deberían tener...funcionaban, pero no daban el "plus".
En general, este libro me encantó. Algo le faltó para ser de mis favoritos de todos los tiempos y siento que hubo partes donde la escritura no estaba a la altura pero lo recomiendo a cualquiera que quiera leer ciencia ficción interesante. -
"The universe did not invent justice. Man did. Unfortunately, man must reside in the universe."
A little hard to review this one. It's one of those books that I like even though it makes me feel very intellectually diminished. It makes me feel like a ape trying to figure out sarcasm, to put it simply.
You see, even though I clearly missed a lot of references to a lot of things, I feel I did understood more than less of what was going on, but some parts I just didn't understand. Some simply seemed unnecessary. This book was originally a short Story called He Who Shapes and I intend to read it in the future. Maybe I'll be able to comprehend it more by then.
That being said, I still enjoyed the book a lot. That's Zelazny for you. Even if you don't understand something, he makes you just go with it and days after you get this delayed epiphany and all is a bit clearer.
The book deals with a "neuroparticipant therapist" name Charles Render. Render does his thing by shaping shared dreams with his patients. In these dreams he exerts his will to do as he wishes and is omnipotent. I found this concept very cool, but that just shows my lack of vocabulary.
Render is a strong willed man, will personified, if you may. He's a very successful doctor in a prestigious field. But he's kind of bored. Then Elaine Shallot enters the scene. She wants do become a neuroparticipant therapist too. The problem is that she's blind from birth. Having never seen, she has never dreamt like ordinary people. She asks render to take her as a patient and basically show stuff to her, so that she be acclimatized to seeing and, in so, being able to perform as a therapist herself.
The problem is that this is a very dangerous thing and since the beginning Elaine is able to exert control over the dreams that she shouldn't. Despite this and advice from his former teacher, Render continues with the treatment. Be it by the challenge and opportunity to do an unheard thing is his area or because he was physically and intellectually attracted to her. I think the latter is more like it.
Also, there's a genetically engineered talking dog with the intelligence of an ape and vocabulary of 400-500 words. His name is Sigmund (at least this Freud reference I caught) and he's Elaine's guide dog.
"—And if something that strong should break, in a timeless moment of anxiety." smiled Barlelmetz sadly, "may the shades of Sigmund Freud and Karl Jung walk by your side in the valley of darkness." -
I feel I should give this rating a disclaimer. If this book were not a re-read, if I had come into it completely new, it would have been a 3 to 3.5 for me. But the memories I have of this book are so pervasive and so revolutionary back when I read it that I can't give anything that formative less than five.
Honestly, these recollections were not all The Dream Master. I just started cutting my teeth on "adult" sci-fi at the time, and threw myself recklessly at anything that purported to be a classic. This is why I had the fortuitous luck of reading Zelazny's The Dream Master right up against Ursula Le Guin's The Lathe of Heaven. Both dealt with dreams, albeit it in different ways. One was a tool consciously then unconsciously wielded, the other was an unconscious wildness that others sought to tame. Both ended in a manner that was both tragic and suitable.
What I remember was the description of the son as he described how an inventor dreamed of efficient machines while he pulled off the legs of grasshoppers and how the metal gears must have sounded like the shrieks of all those murdered grasshoppers. I remembered comparing it to the Kafka-esque descriptions of lacquered shells in The Lathe of Heaven, the otherness of nature and how it is molded. I remembered cars that drove themselves and didn't stop when someone walked into traffic, and deep set eyes of a guide dog who could speak but not exactly like a human nor howl like the dogs he had been mutated from.
I remember glancing at the computer for practically every other scene, looking up things like Eloise and Abelard (which I still remembered) and enantiodromia (which I did not), fascinated at how symbols played out while the language and structure unraveled. The references and scenes helped me to better appreciate the rest of the scenes, and the narration of dreams kept my imagination going at full throttle to picture it.
So essentially what I am doing is justifying why I love this novel even though it can feel padded with the many threads and does not come qualitatively close compared to Zelanzy's other works. Because this is a book that can work like Render's machine, and it has left its mark when so many other novels are completely forgotten; although this mark may be malleable and refitted with a new awareness, it lingers the same way a particularly memorable dream will retain flashes and remnants even when you wake. -
Ab auf die Couch!
Ich habe nichts gegen Verwirrspiele in Büchern. Ich habe aber deutlich was gegen diesen künstlichen Kryptizismus, mit dem manche Autoren versuchen, Pseudotiefe in ihre Werke einzubringen - ich nenne das den
Morrison-Effekt, der nur darauf abzielt, den Leser mit offenem Mund vor der Erudiertheit des Geistesgewitters zurückzulassen, anstatt ihm die gleiche Komplexität in einer lesbaren, nachvollziehbaren Form auszuarbeiten. Es ist einfach Faulheit, wenn ein Autor die Interpretation und Aufarbeitung eines Gedankengangs dem Leser überlassen will. Zum Glück gibt es genug Beispiele, die zeigen, dass schwierige Plots auch in lesbarer Form darstellbar sind, anstatt ihre Komplexität wie eine Monstranz vor sich herzutragen.
Leider fällt ein Großteil von "The Dream Master" nicht in diese letztere Kategorie, sondern verliert sich in - ja, was? Eine Idee, gerade in der Science Fiction, ist natürlich der Ausgangspunkt für eine Erzählung, aber sie darf nie Selbstzweck sein. Man hat relativ schnell eine Ahnung, in welche Richtung sich der Plot entwickelt, doch wird durch künstliche Nebenstränge, einen hochgradig artifiziellen Schreibstil, der sich an sich selbst und seinen Zitaten ergötzt, sowie ein, gelinde gesagt, etwas einfaches Ende (natürlich verpackt in ein Paket aus unverständlichem Gebrabbel), aufs Glatteis geführt. Der Kryptizismus dient dazu, all diese Mängel zu überdecken, was ihm manchmal mehr, manchmal weniger gelingt. Oft ist es einfach zu offensichtlich, wie beim Perspektivenwechsel, der gegen Ende immer drängender wird, mit dem die Verwirrung des Protagonisten abgebildet werden soll.
Die Idee ist großartig und wurde von diversen Epigonen aufgenommen - eventuell muss ich die zugrunde liegende Kurzgeschichte doch lesen, die von den meisten Rezensenten hier als dem Kurzroman deutlich überlegen eingeordnet wird. -
I feel so odd bestowing a mere three stars upon a Nebula-winning novel. The concept is creative and intelligent, the language is beautiful and powerful, the world-building is (as usual with Zelazny) effective... but I think the main character just didn't engage me. I neither liked Render nor cared enough about him to disregard my lack of liking, so I felt no stake in the progress of the narrative. I think I would find much more compelling a version of this story from Eileen's point of view.
-
Dream Master is my first Zelazny and probably an odd place to start with him. It doesn't quite seem to be his normal fare, and based on reviews I've read, it's not the favorite among Zelazny fans. But I really enjoyed it, despite its very strange and ambiguous nature. I think ambiguous is exactly what Zelazny waz going for, though, with the subject matter being the manipulation of people's dreams.
The more I read classic sci-fi, the more I love spotting the influences used in modern pop culture. I had never heard of this book until I randomly came across someone reviewing it on YouTube, and after reading, I would be surprised Christopher Nolan had not read this before making Inception. I also heard that Haruki Murakami was inspired by this when he wrote Hardboiled Wonderland (which I haven't read yet, but intend to).
While I really enjoyed this, I felt like it did hover in that awkward place where it might be made better by either being a little shorter or a little longer. It was originally a short story, and I could see it hitting really hard in that format. As a novel, I would easily have read another 50-100 pages to get more out of this world. The idea of using crafted settings as a means of therapy is fascinating, and I would have loved to delve even more into the treatment of troublesome patients. The book talks about how the particular therapy method isn't used in cases of psychopaths and that would have been a fun aspect to explore. However, the story we did get, about trying to train a new therapist to use this technique despite their physical disability, is still very entertaining.
Also, the talking dogs. Give me a whole sequel about the dogs.
Dream Master is short, weird and ambiguous, but I dug it. I look forward to reading some less obscure Zelazny.
3.5/5 (rounded up to 4) -
4.5 stars. I Was Listening to the audiobook and reading ebook at the same time.
Who is the master of the dreams? The Dream master or someone else?
The premise of the story is compelling to take a peak of the introduction of the book. After I decided to read a few chapters then I immediately was enamored with the concepts of the story. People were living in a world which has advance technologies, the protagonist, Render who is a practitioner of operating Neuroparticipant Therapy. His innovative therapy is to use the devices to enter patients’s dreams and probe the unconscious area of brain. One day he met a women and she suggested that learning the methods of the therapy due to the cause of her innate blindness. After they started cooperating the treatment, the notion of being afraid of the dark side of his treatments of dreams became stronger within the therapy. He eventually will found out that the woman Eileen was being manipulative since the treatment has started. She would take over the dominance in the dream realms.
The concepts about dreams and how the dram specialist probes the unknown territory of consciousness and subconsciousness are interesting. It is might be one of the innovative fantasy/Sci Fi book I have read so far. Talking dogs are one of the highlights in the book. Render’s son went to the museum and having the conversation with the colonel which is interesting. The writing is superb that seems not like Zelazny’s other books that I have read; Fabulous descriptions of dreams, mythos are the strong point of this book.
This novel was a novella length before it was edited to the novel length, so that is not very novel like to read, some parts of the story seems a bit jarring to read. It would be consider a new weave novel so that it feels like reading the experimental of the novel concepts of the dream therapies. If you want a modern style plots to read you wouldn’t find it here.
My personal rating: 9 out of 10 points. -
“I have the damndest desire for a cigarette, but I have left mine in another world.”
To set the scene: The Dream Master takes place in an overpopulated future. Zelazny’s imaginations have aged well. We have self-driving cars, endless accessibility to modern comforts, and myriad forms of highly sophisticated avenues of entertainment. Conditions of poverty and illness appear to have been alleviated. In short, all the blossoming of a hypothetical modernity full of wealth have been achieved, leaving the remaining ailment of loneliness, purposelessness, suicide, and depression as symptoms of a physically comforted society.
To treat this modern malaise, a new form of psychotherapy has emerged called “Neuroparticipant Therapy,” where the therapist, known as a “Shaper,” explores the subconscious and conscious desires of the patient within an immersive dream projection facilitated by what we would call highly sophisticated virtual reality technology. Our protagonist, Charles Render, is a Shaper. Charles guides his patients into their subconscious in order to achieve a diagnosis of neurosis, aiming to provide the patient with a means of defining their discomfort and moving forward with their life. As defined in the novel, Neuropy “induces desired states of self-awareness and adjusts the neurological foundation to support them.”
The novel begins with such a sequence, where Charles is guiding his patient through a dream projection of their subconscious desires. This particular patient, a politician, takes the form of Caesar on the day of his assassination. But in this projection, Caesar is not murdered, but begs to be killed while another life is taken. Emerging from the dream, Charles diagnoses his patient with a subconscious will to be a victim of a political assassination, as this patient has no friends and no enemies; a possible murder of such magnitude would allow him a feeling of purpose.
Being at the forefront of his field, Charles is contacted by a blind therapist named Eileen Shallot, who is aspiring to become a neuroparticipant therapist. Since Eileen is blind, and the sensory input may be over stimulating, entering into a dream world and maintaining control over Eileen’s subconscious projections may prove dangerous. This is an important point of the novel; if a Shaper loses control over the patient’s subconscious desires, they can fall victim to absorbing the patient’s ego structure. For example, if a Shaper was working with a schizophrenic and lost control over the dream projections, the Shaper would walk away with the condition of the patient, effectively becoming schizophrenic.
“The quality of psycho-participation phenomena can only be gauged by the therapist himself, at that moment outside of time and space as we normally know it, when he stands in the midst of a world erected from the stuff of another man’s dreams, recognizes there the non-Euclidian architecture of aberrance, and then: takes his patient by the hand and tours the landscape… If he can lead him back to the common earth, then his judgments were sound, his actions valid.’”
Charles begins a series of beautifully described therapy sessions with Eileen, guiding her through what it means to see the world. Using Whitman’s poems as a foundation for seeing the beauty of the world, they glide through manifold visions of landscape, flora, animal life, cityscapes, and even the more unattractive elements of nature like burned forestry, industrial wastelands, and dead animals served as food. Throughout the novel, there is a concern for Charles from his lover and colleagues regarding Eileen’s astounding willpower and desire to become a neuroparticipant therapist. She has an iron-clad drive and is highly self-actualized and is at times able to control the dream state outside of Charles’ governance. The novel takes us deeper into the risk that unfolds until the potential for collapse becomes dangerously possible.
Zero complaints here - exceptional atmosphere, characters and world building, with a truly harrowing ending.
