arabisha wrote: You think that the dialogue intentionally leaves something out? I just took the way the conversation went to be Ahkmet's inability to express himself. I will look again.
Well, on behalf of SRD it definitely leaves something out. He never writes anything without purpose. And with Ahkmet responding the way he does it leaves a lot to interpretation. Earlier on in this thread
Joy wrote:
...a description of a creative mind at work...
I'm just adlibbing now, Could it be that this story is self-reflective in the sence that it mirrors SRD's creative writing process besides beeing the interesting story it is by itself. In it we have many of his themes and worlds and maybe "fantasies". First there is of course the dreams themselves. I mean, what could the first dream be but a description of something in the Land.
..."The place was a low valley," he said, showing the angle of the slopes with his hands, "it's sides covered by rich greensward on which the early dew glistened, as bright in the sunshine as a sweep of stars. Down the vale-bottom ran a steram of water so clean and crystal that it appeared as liquid light, dancing and swirling over it's black rocks and white sand. Above the greensward stood fruit trees, apple and peach and cherry, all in blossom, with their flowers like music in the sun, and their trunks wrapped in sweet shade. The air was luminous and utterly deep, transformed from the unfathomable purple of night by the warmth of the sun.
The peace of the place was complete," murmured young Akhmet,"and I would have been content with it as it was, happy to gaze upon it while the dream remained in my mind. But it was not done. For when I gazed upon the running trance of the stream, I saw that the dance of the light was full of the dance of small fish, and as my eyes fell upon the fish I saw that while they danced they became flowers, flowers more lovely than lilies, brighter than japonica, and the flowers floated in profusion away along the water.
Then I gazed from these blooms to the flowers of the trees, and they too, changed. Upon the trees, the flowers appeared to be music, but in moments they became birds, and the birds were music indeed, their flights like arcs of melody, their bodies formed to the shape their song. And the shade among the treetrunks also changed. From the the sweet dark emerged rare beasts, lions and jacols, nilgai deer with fawns among them, oryx fabled mandrill. And the peace of the beasts, too, was complete, so that they brought no fear with them. Instead they gleamed as the greensward and the stream gleamed, and when the lions shook their manes they scattered dropltes of watwer which became chrysoprase and diamonds among the grass. The fawns of the nilgai wore a sheen of finest silver, and from the mouths of the mandrill let fall rubies of enough purity to ransom a world.
I remember it all...
No not even in the chrons there is something like this but perhaps the chapters that deals with the Elohim ...This is some dream isn't it, ...what I'm getting at is...that dreams comes like a gift from God and end up in stories...I believe you were into that idea weren't you arabisha?
There are four dreams described in the story. The last one is of a very sexual character. And in this story, the theme with sexual abuse is of great importance, and one way or another it always show up in his works. The Gap, MN and TCTC and The Man Who...
Maybe a clue is in the quote from Isak Dinesen and Out of Africa the first page.
I t is not the freedom of the dictator, who enforces his own will on the world, but the freedom of the artist, who has no will, who is free of will. The pleasure of the true dreamer does not lie in the substance of the deam, but in this; there things happen without any interference from his side, and altogether outside his control.
(The dreamer is) the priviliged person to whom everything is taken. The Kings of Tarshish shall bring gifts.
...a creative mind at work...there are many ways to attack and analyse this story. I actually have difficulties understanding this last quote from Isak Dinesen(Karen Blixen by the way)...
As Akhmet says to the wise men after a telling:
You rave!
I'll be back...kast
