Sunday, October 21, 2012

H.P. Lovecraft Sundays #7


Sunday is here and it's time for another short story review from the works of fiction by H.P. Lovecraft!



"Beyond the Wall of Sleep"
4.5 stars

"I have frequently wondered if the majority of mankind ever pause to reflect upon the occasionally titanic significance of dreams, and of the obscure world to which they belong."

An intern at a mental hospital describe a patient case that affected him tremendously, Joe Slater. The intern tells the reader that it is important to know what our dreams mean and he admits that he is fascinated in learning more about them. He goes on to say that Joe Slater was a special case: he had very wild dreams which led him to murder a neighbor.

The intern starts to study Slater in hopes to decipher what Slater is dreaming about. Slater can only recall his dreams right after waking up; these dreams are soon forgotten after a few minutes. Slater tells the intern that he dreams of flying through space and is very angry at a creature who keeps laughing at him. Slater hates this creature tremendously that he wants to kill it. The dreams are too much for Slater that his body becomes to weaken and very little life is left in him.

The intern becomes fascinated with these tellings that he soon brings out his old "radio" machine.The intern's machine is suppose to connect two brains together. What one person thinks/dreams will be transmitted to the other person. The intern connects the machine to his head as well as Slater.

When Slater falls into his dream state, the intern gets transported there as well. The intern soon sees what Slater keeps dreaming about and learns the the truth of existence outside our world.

I quite enjoyed reading this short story. It makes you wonder what your dreams really mean and it also makes you think if your dreams are sending messages of other life forms. Lovecraft did a great job describing the characters and the events in such a short amount of time. I also liked how he was able to connect some true life events into the story. Overall, this was a very great read.

If you would like to read this story, then you can visit The H.P. Lovecraft Archives or listen to the audio below:





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