The Function of Dream Sleep

"The Function of Dream Sleep" is a fantasy short story by American writer Harlan Ellison, first published in his 1988 anthology Angry Candy. Ellison stated that it was inspired by an actual dream.[1]

Plot summary

While grieving the deaths of several of his close friends, McGrath awakens from sleep to find that he is being bitten by an enormous mouth full of teeth; it then vanishes, leaving him with a profound sensation of loss. In seeking to understand what has happened, he discovers a hidden truth about the world.

Reception

The story won the 1989 Locus Award for Best Novelette,[2] and was a finalist for the 1989 Hugo Award for Best Novelette[3] and the 1988 Bram Stoker Award for Best Long Fiction.[4]

Kirkus Reviews has described it as "Ellison aptly dramatizing his own emotional catharsis."[5] Gary K. Wolfe and Ellen Weil have criticized the story both for the central premise — stating that the mouth (which they call "bizarre" and "surreal") does not represent "McGrath's pain and loss but his refusal or inability to process mature grief" — and for its structure, which they consider to be parallel to "any number of science fiction wish-fulfillment fantasies involving secret masters", and thus "inappropriate for a tale of suffering".[6]

References
  1. Introduction to Angry Candy, by Harlan Ellison, published 1988; "I saw the thread, and one day actually had the strange dream that opens 'The Function of Dream Sleep' and I knew I had to write that story to make some sense of all this misery and loneliness and aching."
  2. Locus Award Winners by Category, at the Science Fiction Awards Database; retrieved August 27, 2017
  3. 1989 Hugo Awards, at TheHugoAwards.org; retrieved August 27, 2017
  4. Past Bram Stoker Nominees & Winners, at the Horror Writers Association; retrieved September 21, 2017
  5. Angry Candy, by Harlan Ellison, reviewed at Kirkus Reviews; published October 19, 1988; retrieved August 27, 2017
  6. Harlan Ellison: The Edge of Forever, by Gary K. Wolfe and Ellen Weil, published 2002 by Ohio State University Press
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