Writing in the Language of Dream
What does it mean when a writer says that he is "borrowing from the language of dream" ? (Kleffel).
Kazuo Ishiguro the author of The Remains of the Day, uses that phrase to describe the form and structure of his experimental novel, The Unconsoled. Writers have often used dreams in their work - to foreshadow or predict events, to illuminate the psychology of the dreamer or even as a fundamental part of the plot, where real events turn out to be dreams or vice versa. Ishiguro has found a new way to use dreams to create an environment that is both disorienting and familiar. His "language of dream" is the glue that links the form and the content. Time and space shifting, composite identities, insights into memory and the subconscious, miscommunication and missed opportunities, an atmosphere of anxiety and suspense, the absurd and the comic, a flexibility in relation to morals, experiencing emotions and a lack of resolution are characteristics of dreams. These dream elements also link conceptually to themes in the novel. The novel's major themes include the use of memory in evaluating out lives, the direct links between our memory and our psychology, our inability to be fully self-aware psychologically, the pressure of over-commitments and the repercussions of miscommunication in relationships, how a society looks back on it's collective decisions and the absurdities in modern living. In marrying this slightly absurd and surreal "language of dream" structure to the basic philosophical question of how to live in the modern world, the novel provokes the discussion of how lives are evaluated. More specifically and personally, how would we evaluate and live our lives if we, like Ryder, could come face to face with ourselves, as we were in the past and as we could be in the future.
Click Play to hear Ishiguro discusses "language of dream" as a new way to portray a character's inner life.
Clip 1: In the second Clip he explains how this method has a relationship to his
ideas about the novel itself. Clip 2:
Chapter 1 : An Intro to Characters and Plot
Protagonist and Narrator: Mr. Ryder, a famous pianist, who arrives in an unnamed European city to perform a concert and give an important speech for the citizens of the city.
The Citizens: Various characters who are all concerned with the crisis of deciding who should be the next musical leader for the city.
The elderly hotel porter: Gustav - he gives Ryder a long speech about the method and ethics of being a good porter during an elevator ride which should only take a minute. While he is showing Ryder around the room, Ryder knows exactly what Gustav is thinking. There is no explanation given as to how Ryder can do this and why he takes it for granted.
Location: When Ryder lays down on the hotel bed, he realizes that the room is "the very room that had served as my bedroom during the two years my parents and I had lived at my aunt's house on the borders of England and Wales"(Ishiguro, 16)
Dream Elements: Mind reading, anxiety, illogical timing of events, location /scene shifting without explanation.
By the end of chapter one, the rules of the environment are still unclear but a dreamlike atmosphere is being created. To orient ourselves within Ishiguro's strange fictional world we can use our own knowledge of dreams and the insights of dream theorists.
Read more:
Writing in the Language of Dream
Dream Theory in the Novel
Characteristics of Dreaming / Elements of this Novel (I)
Characteristics of Dreaming / Elements of this Novel (II)
How Dream Elements Link to Themes
Critical Reception
Suggested Reading
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