by Ben Arzate
Norman Spinrad’s new, surreal novel is written in the form of a series of documents related to
the DREAMMASTER, a machine which allows its user to control their dreams like choosing a
film to watch. It consists of advertisements, manuals, records of dreams, and online dispatches.
Through these, a narrative emerges of dream pirates trying to liberate people’s dreams from
the company that owns the machine and the nightmares that result in the ensuing conflict.
“Since the dawn of time, the lives people lived in their dreams were far more exciting than what
happened in the waking, workaday world. Dreamlife was quite unpredictable, however, and
limited by the unevolved imaginations of users.
No longer! The DREAMMASTER 301 allows you to program your own dreams. This innovative
new technology will quickly become your favorite pastime. Now you can be everything you
always wanted to be and never thought of.“
Norman Spinrad is probably best known as an author of New Wave science fiction, a movement
in the ‘60’s and ‘70’s that pushed the limits of the form and content of science fiction beyond
what was previously accepted in the genre. This movement was a precursor to genres like
Cyberpunk and even Bizarro. His novels Bug Jack Barron and The Iron Dream were highly
controversial for their edgy content and political commentary. Even recently, Spinrad has
continued to court controversy. His novel Osama the Gun was written in 2007, but wasn’t published in the United States until nearly a decade later due to its themes.
One of his most well-known short stories is “Carcinoma Angels,” a psychedelic story about a
man going inside his own body to fight his cancer, which appeared in the seminal anthology
Dangerous Visions. The exploration of inner space and surreal imagery of that story is heavily
present in Welcome to Your Dreamtime. Rather than disease and mortality, this novel is
concerned with the imagination and how commercial interests continue to invade it.
The Internet was once seen as a potentially liberatory project for creativity and the exchange of
information. In the years since it’s gone mainstream, we’ve seen it shrunken into being
controlled by an increasingly smaller number of companies. It’s far more heavily censored than
before, it’s full of relentless advertising, it seems there are fewer venues on it for artists whose
work is strange or edgy, and cookie-cutter AI creations are increasingly drowning out everything
else. It seems like you’re not even safe inside your own head anymore. If you just think about
wanting to move or buy new furniture, you’ll be bombarded with related ads next time you’re
online.
Welcome to Your Dreamtime is an exploration of how this phenomenon affects the imagination.
This is most obvious in the chapter “Operating Manual,” which shows the introduction of the
DREAMMASTER to someone using it for the first time. All of the “dreams” it presents as
amazing possibilities are simply mishmashes of existing stories, celebrities, and mythologies. It
presents the dreamer as being like a Roman soldier, but their legion is filled with men who look
like John Wayne and Teddy Roosevelt. It brings to mind the imagination of a very young child whose creativity hasn’t progressed beyond having their Batman action figure fight their Darth
Vader one.
The imagination is further limited by the DREAMMASTER refusing to allow an exploration of
the taboo and outre in even the mind. The catalog of dreams only allows content limited to what
could be shown in an R-rated film. This is a major catalyst for a reaction by pirates who work to
ensure unrestricted dreams can be provided to people, breaking down the walled garden that the
makers of the DREAMMASTER intended for it. However, this also results in “nightmare
viruses” invading the dreams. This, on the other hand, seems necessary. By rebelling against the
control of dreams by commercial interests, they are brought closer to the natural state of
dreaming without the aid of the machine.
Welcome to Your Dreamtime is a fascinating, entertaining novel. It’s full of surreal imagery,
some of which is beautiful, some of which is absurd and hilarious, and some of which is repulsive.
It’s also a thought-provoking commentary on the way advertising and commerce continue to
encroach on every aspect of our lives. The odd structure and dream logic of many sections may
be off-putting to some readers, but fans of strange and avant-garde genre fiction are guaranteed
to enjoy this.
Pick up your copy from: Anti-Oedipus Press, Bookshop.org, Powell’s, or Barnes & Noble
Ben Arzate lives in Des Moines, Iowa. His articles, reviews, short stories, and poetry have appeared in various places online and in print. He is also the author of books. His newest novel, If today the sun should set on all my hopes and cares…, was recently released by Baynam Books.
Find him online at dripdropdripdropdripdrop.blogspot.com or at his substack benarzate.substack.com.
This post may contain affiliate links. Further details, including how this supports the bizarro community, may be found on our disclosure page.
