Dreampunk! discussion

Hey, I'm curious what you guys have experienced so far of dreampunk literature. Please take a look at this short list of examples, and let me know which ones you've read and what you thought of them.

Secondarily, tell us which books on the list you'd like to read and which ones you have no interest in. We might do some group reads here, and I'd like a better feel for what you guys are into.

Tertiarily, let me know if you think there are any glaring omissions in my list and which books I could leave off to make room for your suggestions.

Off this book list I've only read The Alice stories and the Dark Tower series. I'm aware of some of the others through their film adaptations. The Dream Master and Snow Crash both look interesting so I'll be sure to add them to my TBR list. I've been trying to avoid anything of Gaiman's Sandman series until I finish writing my own sandman-centric books so that I don't have any outside influence on my work.

I think group reads are a great idea! The community would definitely become stronger if we're all sharing ideas and interpretations of works together.

I can't think of anything to add to the literature list at the moment unless you'd want to include "The Dream" poem by Lord Byron.

On the movie list, I'd include The Attic Expeditions and possibly The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.

Holy crap. "The Dream" by Lord Byron. This is going to sound really weird (as usual), but my magnum opus Adelaide in Ozghard (which I'm about 80% done with, after settling on making the thing a trilogy of novellas) stars an alternate universe version of Ada Lovelace and her father, Lord Byron. Of course, my character Adelaide is named after Alice and Dorothy, and her father Pierre Batiste is named after me (I'll let you figure that one out), but they're still roughly connected to the historical figures.

... Which brings me to this poem. When I started writing the book, I'd never heard of "dreampunk", and I didn't decide to involve dreams in a serious way until chapter 9. The further I go, the more dreamy things get, and I'm sure this poem has a role to play in the story. So thanks for bringing it to my attention!

Oh yeah, here it is, by the way: https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/The_...

Oh, I'm terrible at being a real-life Sherlock. I'll just pretend Pierre Batiste is your vampire name. :)

And that all sounds very interesting! I'm not really sure what the oldest piece of literature that could fall into the Dreampunk category is but, much like Jules Verne is to Steampunk, I think Lord Byron is definitely a grandfather of Dreampunk.

Yeah, Lord Byron and Lewis Carroll. They adopted.

"Pierre Batiste" means "Cliff Jones" because of the meaning "rock, John the Baptist". Not obvious at all, but that's what I do. Bury Easter eggs ten feet deep.

Hey, y'all. I recently completed a novelette called "Second Sight", and you know... I really recommend you read it. I may be a little biased, but I'd say it's more exciting than spending a day with Batman. Better than ten Superbowls. I don't want to oversell it; judge for yourself.

https://www.wattpad.com/story/1494874...

Hi. I'm new at this group and it seems like, according to the description on Reddit, Dreampunk seems to be a style leaning one way to Urban Fantasy and a cousin of Cyberpunk and Steampunk in a way. I also heard that Alice started it off, so it seems to run on the Portal Fantasy line of stories, Oz, Neverland, and Narnia being the classics. If this is the case, then another classic that is recent is Michael Ende's "The Never-Ending Story", which shows the first time a boy was solely subjected to the Portal Fantasy aesthetic. Then there's Labyrinth (movie) and others. And you can't wave a Pocky in Tokyo without being inundated by the genre in anime like Re: Zero, etc. In Amazon, I have found some books that seem to have the word in their title like Dreampunk: My Life on Mars, and a trilogy of cyber-aesthetic "dreampunk" starting with the book, "Dreamer's Chips". There's also Seann Macguire's Wayward Children series starting with "The Heart A Doorway". I hope it helps and please tell me if I'm wrong because again I'm new to this.

Brian,

Hey, welcome! This group hasn't been very active, but it hangs around. There's more activity on the Facebook group, really.

Thanks for all these suggestions. Yeah, I think you're getting the idea pretty well with. Sort of like a cross between magic realism and cyberpunk with the focus on dreaming and/or altered states of consciousness. Portal fantasy wouldn't always fit, but I'd say The Neverending Story does because of the way the book being read (inside the story) interacts with the reality of the frame story.

A lot of times, it kind of comes down to aesthetics and the mood whether you'd really call it dreampunk or not. Have you read through the examples on my site? Check out the movies and series too: https://cliffjonesjr.com/dreampunk/mo...

As a writer in the genre, one of my problems is the push and pull of reading fantasy novels and stories like these. On the one hand, I am fascinated by them, but I don't want to find myself copying their ideas into my own novels. It is okay when they are set in a similar setting because then I can reference the other's book in my own novel...but I don't want to use their ideas in trying to create my own world.
So, I've been hesitant to read some of these...
Does that make sense?

Sure, but I think once you've read a story worth copying, you're unlikely to just forget about it and unwittingly copy it. You'll be aware of what's out there and take care not to say what's already been said. On the other hand, if you haven't read much in the area you're writing in, you could wind up on well-trodden ground without knowing it.

Cliff,
But even if you are on unknowingly on 'well-trodden ground', you are simply dealing with the commonality of issues, and you're figuring it out on your own. Even if you end up coming to the same or similar conclusions and responses in your fiction it is still true to your own story.
It's just harder to not copy someone if you have read their ideas in their books.
Yet, as a counter-example, I have vampires in my book. I have read a great deal of vampire lore and fiction. I look down upon 'Twilight' for that exact reason. The author didn't bother to understand the lore and just made up stuff that violates the lore. Am I guilty of that by not reading other dreaming books? I don't know. It is an ongoing issue for me.

Heh, could be, but no big deal. I think established lore is more important for fantasy, and dreampunk tends more toward sci-fi. It can mix up all the traditional genres though, just depends on the story.

I think with sci-fi it's less about adhering to established ideas and more about presenting new ones. Either way though, it pays to know what's out there.

I think you are right. So, I will try to pick up some of the books you have suggested here! I think the anthology that you have highlighted is the best place to start, correct?

I just bought a copy of Mirrormaze!

Awesome, thank you! I hope you love it.

I do. The structure of it is fun...with the suggestions to go to different chapters. It really works well in ebook form with the hyper links.