The Dream Master (1966)

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The Dream Master is the second full length novel written by Zelazny in 1966. The title page informs the reader that it had been a serialized short story in a magazine. Unfortunately, it reads like a fleshed out, stretched short story. It becomes disjointed, a series of scenes seemingly unconnected and written at different times, so much so you can tell which parts are original, and which parts are added.

The main story deals with Render, a psychologist who has become known as a pioneer in the new technology of "Dream Therapy," in which he uses a holodeck type machine to enter people's dreams and control them, constructing and deconstructing (in every sense of the philosophical term) until the underlying causes, as Freudian as they may be, are exposed and can be dealt with outside of the sleep state. Stepping outside of the boundaries his craft sets, he decides to help a blind woman, a professional psychiatrist in her own right, to "see" using dreams. But, as things go when man tries to play "God," things rarely turn out well. This is a book that would go along side Le Guin's Lathe of Heaven, Frank Bonham's The Forever Formula, or Chayefsky's Altered States. The latter most definitely, since they both deal with the idea of the collective subconsciousness, the idea that there are certain things we see and know that come from the primal state of our being, as a coding of our "form," embedded into our DNA.

Zelazny writes in spurts, in images, in hallucinatory frames, and I would imagine that, like so many other artists in the 60's (18 and 19), that some sort of stimulation was used to create the muse for these writings. It would remind someone of Coleridge's 'In Xanadu, did Kubla Khan..." or T.S. Eliot's "Wasteland" (April is the cruelest month). This is not to denigrate the story at all, rather, it rescues it from being unreadable. In fact, Zelazny's usage of myths, whether we know them or not, of poetic fits in between sections of plot, is what makes this an actually good book to ruminate upon. Masterful writing style, deep, thoughtful nuggets that you have to mine from the rocky wording, phrases that are pure gold, it makes the once award winning short story well worth reading, despite its obvious flaws.

Amongst the flat characters are soliloquies of how technology has so placed us in a state of security, of peace, that we become bored, even to the state of having nothing, verily, to live for. He deals with the usage of stories, of myths, to recreate the heart-rendering sorrows that mankind has lost, and the sub-culture of role-playing that has surfaced so that man can actually face that danger, instead of being lost to banality. This is a theme also taken on by Simak in A Ring Around the Sun, which was a masterful work. I doubtless will use some of Zelazny's thoughts in some of my future blog postings (giving credit, obviously), as they were truly amazing. Having never read Zelazny's work before, I will certainly find others in my Dad's sci-fi collection pilfered from the Bethany, OK library so many years ago, and read them as well. ( )

This story apparently first appeared as a short story called "He Who Shapes" and was then expanded into this short novel of only 150 pages.

Charles Render is a new kind of psychiatrist, who uses a machine to enter his patients' dreams and shapes them using myths and archetypes to help cure their neuroses. But it's a dangerous business, and the technique can't be used on patients suffering from psychosis, as they may be strong enough to pull the therapist into their madness. When Render starts to treat a blind psychiatrist who wishes to become a shaper herself, he is warned that the shock of being able to 'see' may have a similar effect, but ignores the warnings.

This is the second book I've read this year in which dogs have had their intelligence enhanced and been physically altered to allow them to that speak (the other being "Holy Fire by Bruce Sterling). In neither case would I say that it has been a great success; the dogs seem sad and pathetic and have lost more than they have gained.

This book rather reminded me of a Jennifer Lopez film called "The Cell" about a therapist who entered her patients' subconscious minds in the same kind of way. ( )

http://tamaranth.blogspot.com/2010/11/201080-dream-master-roger-zelazny.html ( )

Charles Render is a leading proponent of the new psychiatry: he is a neuroparticipant therapist also known as a Shaper. He uses powerful technology to link into the subconscious mind, the dream world, of the patient. Within this dreamworld, Render can carefully work his cure, although the procedure is not without risks to both doctor and patient.

Now the striking Doctor Eileen Shallott wants Render to teach her to become a Shaper. There are a couple of problems though. Eileen Shallott is blind from birth, so first Render must use his shaping skill to introduce her to vision. Secondly, he is strongly attracted to the lady in question but any emotional involvement will increase the complexity and risk of the required procedures.