How do people in general feel about dream sequences in books? I've noticed lately that I almost start doing eyerolls when we get to a 'that night they dreamt...' part of a novel.
I used to be quite fond of them, especially when used well, like #murakami in the Windup-Bird Chronicle or the dreams of Paul in #dune
But currently reading almost any novel I have the feeling that in a majority of books the dream sequence is just a cheap trick to put some quick symbolism in a novel that's otherwise completely lacking it. Or as an easy way of foreshadowing.
Where I personally think it can be used so well to actually deepen the depth of a character. How does someone's subconscious deal with processing all that has happened lately. And what feeling it leaves behind. But that really rarely seems to be the case.
Book 12, 2024: Novelist as Vocation - Haruki Murakami. I used to read Murakami a lot but sort of lost interest along the way. I picked up this in a bookshop’s closing-down sale, and quite liked it. It collects essays about being a writer, some earlier ones of which were printed in a Japanese magazine. The more recently written articles resonated with me more (fewer exclamation marks, for one thing), especially the essay about being physically in shape as a writer, and one about how he targeted success in the US. #Murakami#books#reading@bookstodon