First Impressions: Nightmares and Dreamscapes

I've finished reading the first story of Steven King's: Nightmares and Dreamscapes, and it is safe to say that this novel can hook you in incredibly fast, without any warning on its part. Previous Steven King novels have deemed themselves rather uninteresting in my eyes. The incredible lengths of the books utterly overshadow any sort of intrigue I used to have, and the lack of any tense moments that could absorb me into the story are few and far. However, Nightmares and Dreamscapes is a book composed of short stories that prove themselves to be far more interesting. You see, the short lengths of the stories encourage them to be straight-forward and not draw out a ton of detail to keep the plot going. Instead, these stories are filled with interesting characters with enough of an stimulating premise to satisfy. Being halfway into the next story, it appears that this intrigue shows no intrest in dying down.

The first story opens right away with an ex-third grade school teacher stalking his wife's killer. The killer, in this case, lives like a king and is near impossible to touch. The plot develops through telling the struggles of this teacher as he attempts to trap the killer after months of learning his routine. It also becomes established that his teacher is clearly insane, as he keeps hearing the voices of his deceased wife guiding him. Eventually, he hears a second voice that puts his actions into doubt, and almost tears his humanity apart entirely. While the premise may be very simple, it is executed in a very compelling way. Despite the teacher being a mad man, you cant help but support his actions as he slowly reveals his story. The ending is powerful enough to satisfy, as the teacher realizes his actions and leaves satisfied with his work. Its truly interesting how much he takes pleasure in knowing his trap worked and the outcome was just to his liking. It is exactly how a psychopath would expect to act, like that of a bomb-maker, considering his invention to be a work of art. The plot, characters, and conclusion are all compelling and left me wanting more as continued through the novel. 

Nightmares and Dreamscapes, thus far, is quite an interesting venture. The story becomes very tense at times, but dosen't attempt to throw any loops. However, the suspense is what made the story come to life and the energy flowing in parallel with the teacher's actions. All in all, Nightmares and Dreamscapes surprised me with how engaged I became. I truly hope the Steven King sticks to his well-crafted short stories, as this one proved to be one of the most tense and suspenseful I have read. 

Four Qualities

These are my takes on the personification of four qualities from the list.

Blame

Blame is a figure of many disguises. He spends his nights preparing his lies and etching them into his sweaters. His closest friends are Anxiety and Grief. He makes sweaters for people to wear. It is rather itchy at first, but eventually they fall in love with its design. Children love to buy these sweaters for their friends, but their parents are infuriated when they see them wearing it. Perhaps it was a little too unique for their tastes. Sometimes, Blame puts on one of his own sweaters, and finds something very wrong with its design and how well it fits him. This happens time after time again, sometimes his friends come to visit, sometimes they bring cake, sometimes they don’t come at all and he corrects it himself. Still his corrections are followed again and again by another mistake. His disguises do not help him and others forget his pain. He thinks sometimes he should invest in a new hobby.

Panic

Panic is the brother of Fear and Blame, and a time traveler of sorts. As a child, he was very nervous in public places and finds comfort in cheating on tests. He preferred to stay at home on weekends, where he is afraid he will encounter someone he knows. When he was boldly threatened like his other brothers, he does not face them directly, but goes to his need to survive. Panic was most effective when he loses his homework. He reacts faster than anyone else would, but deals with his issues differently than everyone else. Panic has visited many of the kings, presidents, dictators, leaders, princes, and traitors of history. He loves to create his own stories with them, along with the help of his brothers. Often, Panic thinks of what history would be like if he had not been there. He knows for a fact that they would certainly have been a lot less entertaining.

Forgiveness

Forgiveness is a very rare, stubborn, and entirely self-sufficient person. He loves to grow seeds in Blame's garden, but forgets to give him the fertilizer. Forgiveness rejects sharing his fertilizer with anyone else and nourishes them himself, despite Blame constantly interrupting him. When Blame tries to grow them himself, he finds that he has only made things worse, and soon a storm begins to approach. By the time this storm passes, Forgiveness has already grown its plants to its full height past any plant in the garden. It’s thick branches gleam against the sun, each of them blossoming a lovely flower that any person is allowed to harvest. It gives off a lovely scent that entangles anyone its radius that injects them with euphoria. This is what makes people crave its special medicine, but just as it had grown, when it is forced to by others, it will no longer sprout. That is when Blame will return to water its roots, thinking it will sprout just once more.

Resignation

Resignation is a stubborn teen. He refuses to listen to others, nor his superiors. He has a bad influence on others with his uncaring attitude, and only cares for his closest friends, Blame, Panic, and Regret. His days in school were dull to him, and his friends wouldn’t cease to pester him in classes.  Soon he found himself out of school, without work, and completely content. His days and nights are empty, uneventful, yet still entertaining. He no longer speaks to his parents, his siblings, and even rarely to himself. His stubborn nature has earned most of the admiration of others around class. Now he locks himself away, with little education, disconnected friends, and parents filled with regret.  All he wished was that he was back in class, but things would still be the same. Hopefully for him, things will change one day, when things change, but for now, his seat feels quite empty. 

Mitchell's Qualities: 

Power

Power is the loud principal that you were always afraid of as a child. He was mighty and forceful to the point when your teacher spoke those terror-stricken words “GO TO THE PRINCPAL” you knew you were in for it. Yet when you have done something good, he will congratulate you. He is a hypocrite and a friend. Power can control you or fight with you. He can try to make you like his subjects, Hate and Courage. Power has a hand over all that you do, but swears to be setting you free. Power is the almighty and is told to be in control of everything but Power has a challenger, Anarchy. Power and Anarchy have had a long history together, fighting one day and in hand and hand the next. You see Anarchy is Powers only weakness.

Honor

Honor is much like her siblings, Trust and Devotion, but falls under her own category. Were Trust does not have Devotion and Devotion does not have Trust, Honor has them both. As the eldest of her kin, she has grown up learning of many different ways to show herself. She has had many jobs, but not because she was fired, it was more because she was needed elsewhere. She can be seen in the face of a soldier going into battle not knowing if she will come back. You can see Honor in the face of a Policeman or Firefighter as they go into that burning building or hostage filled bank. Honor is said to be everywhere, and that is true. Honor is every man, women, and child as well as in the ground, waiting to be unearthed.

Shock

Shock was not born like he is now. He was much more like his friend Innocence and Protection. He learned everything from them as well as his parents Discipline and Confidence. He learned that the world was a good place, that crime and misfortune was all an illusion. His friends and family made sure he was sheltered and misleaded about reality. Then one day he started hanging out with Greif and Guilt. He began to see the world through a new set of eyes. Ones filled with reality and lack of imagination and creativity. He saw why Depression, the girl who always sat alone on the bus, was like she was. One fateful day he came home to his parents, screaming and full of terror, because of what Greif and Guilt showed him. He blamed his parents and friends, especially Innocence. He was full of horror. Know a days people don’t see much of old shock, because they are programmed to see certainty and realism. We were all told by Discipline to stop bother him and his family, but now we are all sure of one thing, he would wake up from that attentive and cognizant coma.

  Guilt 

Guilt is the small child full of worry and anxiety. He often brings home failed tests and assignments he swore to his mother he didn’t have. He and his friend Penance often go to Church and see their friends Faith and Confidence there. They confess their sins and wrongdoings to be saved. Penance always feels much better after doing so, but Guilt just feels worse. He confesses things like shoplifting, gluttony, and greed. Though he feels good doing these acts during the time, he doesn’t like the aftershock of it all. You see Guilt is always tied up with happiness. He has always admired happiness, but only from afar, just close enough to see her. He likes what she has to say, but has heard bad things about her. People say she is fake and impossible. If Guilt was better and could become like his rival Confidence, maybe he would be able to help her. Guilt always has a concerned look on his face, even more so than the school’s scapegoat, worry.

Qualities

A quality is something hat a person forms throughout their experiences in life. It is through these qualities that society judges that person, and how that person judges society. They are the very characteristics that make up most of modern society and how people often describe one another. Most often, a quality helps inspire a person to meet their goals or validate others.

A few of my qualities are being:
-Hardworking
-Humorous
-Creative
-Thoughtful
-Charismatic
-Cynical
-Commited
-Forgetful

The Plague (Short Story Prompt)

This is a short story I finished just yesterday, based on the scenario of a plague afflicting most of the population, and former members of the general public being sent out in sweeper teams to diminish the infected. I would have gladly made it longer, but I felt it would have gotten a bit too long for a short story. Who knows, maybe I'll catch up to it in the future. 

The van rumbled a bit as he took a quick look out of the window to look at the silent street. It was incredibly desolate, which was nothing new, but there was something odd about this one in particular. Usually, the streets were piled with bodies so many that by the time we got back to base; the tires had a new coat of red paint. Except now, the streets were completely barren, aside from the occasional broken-down cars, traveling cases, and the discarded food items and papers from the trash bins. Now, unlike everywhere else, the streets lack any evidence that people were once here.

Inside the van, were six armed men with standard military outfitting, each of them most notably wearing gas-masks. One of them was standing at the front, talking with the van’s driver. Amongst the group was a factory engineer, who continued stared out the window, wondering how much longer he would be forced to do this. To be sent out each day and be reminded of the world they once knew until they were driven into a massive complex within the Earth, which so many people referred to as “home”. Those with any actual military experience were thought "too valuable assets" to be sent out into the field this often, and were forced to stay back to operate things at "home", but most of the operating they did was very little, thus many people just made their own plans to live, which was fine. He wasn’t the only one who thought like this, but maybe that’s what happens when you take away someone’s life, they learn to adapt.

After a moment, the man standing at the front turned back to them.

“All right everyone,” he began, the gas mask muffling his voice.  “We’re going to be in the red-zone in a few minutes. You all know the procedure; we stick together, eliminate all infected individuals, but remember to tag them first.”

At this moment, the engineer handed out scanners to the rest of the group. Just as he finished handing them out, the van suddenly stopped. He turned back to the driver and asked what was wrong, who simply gestured to the blazing wreck before them. The man turned back to the group.

            “Okay, apparently our trip is being cut a bit short.  We’re taking a sweep-and-clear route up the street here until we can find a way around this blockage.” He pointed to one of the men in masks. “You, stay with the driver, I don’t want this van missing when we get back.” The man nodded his head in compliance. “Okay, let’s get going.” The sounds of guns being cocked and loaded were followed by the back doors flying open. The group stepped out onto the rather dark street corner. The ground had attracted a large amount of dust, so much, in fact, that it acted almost as mist going no higher than their knees. A gust of wind sent a nearby pile of papers flying before them and down a dark, long street, which forbade a sense of light due to the rising skyscrapers and lack of street lights.

            The group kept close together in a half-circle formation, moving cautiously down the street, keeping their eyes open to any dark alleyways and the many open doors of empty buildings. Eventually, one of them caught movement coming from inside a nearby hotel. The instructor gestured for them to enter, which they did rather unskillfully, as one of them tripped on the steps, and they were all clustered together as they entered. Nevertheless, they entered without much fault. Despite its fancy architecture, the hotel was not very impressive. It appeared to only have a few floors, and the breakfast room was visible from where they stood, and it looked as though it could barley house three families. After entering, they found a man lying beside a fountain that was centered in the lobby. He raised an arm and let out a moan:

            “Help…” he said, weakly.

As if he had just remembered his training, the engineer pulled out the scanner and a flashing blue right ran up and down the man’s worn out body. It gave off a rhythmic humming noise and a red light from the top of the device. On a screen beneath this light was the device’s recommended “course of action” for the user. The engineer turned to his instructor, who simply nodded his head. He adjusted the barrel of his submachine gun to the man’s temple, murmuring an almost inaudible “I’m sorry” before squeezing his finger and seeing the man’s forehead suddenly protrude a red color.

            Soon after, the group was on the move again. They eventually came to an entrance within a back alleyway that would take them past the wreck. While in the relatively small building, they heard sounds coming from up the fire escape, supposedly someone was running. They slowly made their way upstairs and one of them looked into the hallway before giving the all clear. Eventually, they heard sobbing coming from a nearby room. The group lined up against the wall and prepared to enter. The instructor gave the signal for them to enter, and with a swift kick to the center of the door, it flew open to reveal a women lying on her bed, crying into her hands. She gazed up at the group as they entered slowly. One of the members pulled out their scanner. Upon seeing this device, the woman gave a horrified, then angered expression.

            “No…” she said, her throat still tight from the sobbing. “You’re not taking her, not now!”

Then, from underneath the messy blankets, she pulled out a revolver, aiming it at the man with the device.

            “Gun!” One of the group members shouted.

The woman fired a round into the man’s chest, while the rest of the squad fired one quick burst of bullets, all of them entering her body. The man stood up, unharmed due to the protection of his vest. The engineer then heard more sobbing coming from within a nearby closet. He opened it and found a beautiful little girl on the ground, her face dug into her knees. She couldn’t have been more than nine years old.

            “Oh my god…” The engineer let out.

He knelt down and the girl looked up to his eyes through the gas mask.  He quickly pulled out his scanner and began to take readings. The rest of the squad was busy watching the doorways, searching the rooms, and taking reading from the woman’s corpse to pay attention to what else was happening in the room. As the scan continued, an amazing thing happened, or more what didn’t happen.  The device didn’t go off. He looked back at the little girl to see the tears streaming down her cheeks, but she wasn’t sobbing anymore.

            “It’s alright. It didn’t go off. You’re not infected.”

She continued to look at him for a while, until she finally found something to ask him.

            “Can I come with you?” She whispered.

            “Why?” He asked.

She was silent for a moment.

            “I think I might run out of food soon. They don’t want to leave here but…they’re all crazy.”

            “Wait, you’ve been getting food by yourself. Like…traveling the streets?”

She nodded.

“Then….how have you not-“

            “Can I come with you?” She interrupted him.

            “Um…yeah. Yes, of course. Just let me-“

He was interrupted by yelling coming from the hall.       

            Gunfire broke out in the hallway, with the group returning fire.

            “The Hunters!” He heard a man yell. “The Hunters are here!”

The engineer quickly stood up and moved toward the doorway. He saw every door fly open at once and people run into the halls shouting and firing their guns at the group.

            “Ah, shit! We’re trapped!” Yelled the instructor.

            “This way!” Came a young, feminine voice from behind.

Behind them a window was open, and on the other side of it was the little girl, waving the group towards her. Quickly, the group exited the room and made their way down the fire escape to the street level. Unfortunately, the attackers continued their purist, as they rushed out the back door toward the group. The group immediately turned and ran, with the engineer holding onto the little girl’s hand as they ran. After a hasty pursuit, the van came into view, with the member they left behind opening the doors and waving for them to hurry. They piled into the van and shut the door.

            “Get us the hell outta here!” Yelled one of the group.

The driver attempted to turn the wheel, but the van refused to turn.

            “The hydraulics must be screwed!”

The engineer quickly rushed out of the van to examine it, and found that the only problem was a piece of debris wedged into the hydraulic. He attempted to remove it, but it was stuck in far too tight. Behind him, he could see the crowd emerge from the mist, yelling for the girl back.

            “Here!” He heard the girl yell.

He turned and saw here wielding a wedge tool.  She tossed it to him, and using it, was able to wedge the blockage out. Grabbing hold of her, he helped her back into the van and shut the door.

            “Punch it!” The instructor yelled.

The van then swerved into reverse, and sped off back down the road.

            A wave of relief passed over the van and its inhabitants. The engineer sat back down at looked at the little girl.

            “So…you feel okay?” He asked.

She nodded.

            “Everyone else started feeling really sick. Even my mom. She started talking to my dad, even though he wasn’t there. A lot of people started bleeding too. From their mouths I think.” She described.

            “But, you’re alright? You haven’t gotten sick at all? Ever?”
She shook her head.

“Heh,” he went on “That’s good. Well, were going…somewhere else. A lot safer. There are no crazy people there. And there’s lots of food.”

She smiled at this, but it quickly faded when a memory popped into her head.

            “What about my mom?”

Even though it wasn’t noticeable, he frowned very quickly through the mask. He felt himself become overwhelmed by grief.

            “She, uh, didn’t make it. She wanted us to look after you.”

She looked down at the floor.

            “Oh…” She whispered.

He leaned forward.

            “Look, I know it’s a lot deal with right now, but I’ll take care of you, deal?”

She looked up again and smiled.

            “Yeah, deal.”

The other people within the group looked at them for a while, and there was a brief silence.

            “So…are there any kids there?”

            “Yeah. Not a lot, but…yeah, a few.”

This put her in higher spirits.

            “Cool!”

            “You’re pretty quick to adapt.”

She looked at him for a bit.

            “It’s alright.” She stated, looking out the window. “It just takes a bit of getting used to.”

The engineer looked out the window with her, as the dusty ruins of the city trailed off behind them.

Dandelion Wine Discussion Questions

1. The metaphor tells how the summer itself is just but a memory. The entire theme within the novel is but memories and how people have come to love, forget, cherish, and hate these memories, but how they make up a certain individual. This was what the importance was of the Dandelion wine, they were but memories to be remembered, but digested by those who made them. He in way is saying the memories in your past make you who you are.

2. He was putting to much attention into the machine rather than his family. She also likely believed that the machine was a solution to something missing in their marriage, which she failed to notice. They are unhappy because the machine showed them images of places they wished to be, but could never visit, thus when it was over and they exited the machine, they were unhappy because they could never visit it. Ultimately, the machine ironically made people sadder than it's original intention to make people happier. It reflects on how the very things that originally made people happy near completely alters their character, most often emotionally.

3.It represents the battleground between the town and nature. Its shows the unexplored regions that society has long forgotten, or wished to leave unexplored, for danger of what lurks within it, or just the pure sight of it. The deepness of the ravine and its unsettled area makes it that much dangerous, how it remains unaltered by man.

4. Yes, because it represented how she could no longer live in the past, or more focus on it, when her present was still there. It wasn't more that she was denying she had a past, but more that she was letting go of it instead of keeping it in the back of her head that she will always be that same little girl. No, since his novel is more based around how memories change people, not that people have to let go of those memories if they wish to move forward. It is simply in this depiction that Mrs. Bentley was so wrapped up in her past that she had to force it away from her instead of hoping for it to return.

5. Yes, because the point of the records were to keep lessons about the summer that they learned from the people within their town. As young boys, they take everything they learn from adults literally, as if it is the truth.

6. He is a serial killer, who at night, stalks the ravine and dumps the bodies into it. Yes, she does. They are angered, because there is nothing to fear anymore, thus no exitemnt.

7. It is believed that from the heat, he has gotten some sort of stroke. Jonas gives him to bottles of pure air to breath in through his nose.

8. No, because that is the entire point of the dandelion wine, they are memories that he has stored for each summer, until he is ready to take these memories. He must really dislike summer, considering his entire focus is how it is merely just a memory.

Short Response To Dandelion Wine

Thus far within the book, I have really enjoyed what I have been reading. While the book at first was hard to understand, I may have the gist of how things are working now. It at least follows the events of a set of characters, but they may not be necessarily in chronological order. The chapters themselves have been quite interesting, with the one that intrigued me the most would be the part where John is moving away. While Douglas remains in disbelief, John continues to grieve over the regrets he has had. Apparently, he has a short-term memory, so he is afraid that when he moves away he will forget about Douglas and his life here. It becomes more evident that Douglas is afraid of Tom leaving as well, when in a last game of freeze tag (or statue tag apparently). Before the game begins, John notices how it was the first time Douglas, or anyone for that matter, volunteered to be it. Everyone is forced to stop by Douglas (as part of the game), and he proclaims that everyone must remain still for the next three minutes, supposedly enough time to make John miss his train. John purposely becomes it and forces everyone to freeze, then slugs Douglas in the arm, and says goodbye before away behind him. When Douglas stops hearing him running, he realizes he has left to go pack, at runs after him, becoming very furious and proclaiming him to be his enemy at the chapter's end. The reason I believe these chapters are connected is because in a later chapter, it shows Douglas hearing John's train depart while walking with his friends, and accepts the fact of him leaving and starts a race with his friends. These types of scenes have made me come around on the book, simply because it becoming much easier to understand. Like one chapter in particular, with Mrs. Bentley, and how she desperately attempts to prove she was younger, when all along she just had to accept that she was now aging, and those times were behind her. Slowly this novel has grown on me, and hope that it remains as intriguing as time goes on.

Rules of Writing a Film Script

After a quick read of an example script, here's a few rules embedded within the story:

• Publish a master header at the beginning of the script
• Names should be in captials when a character is introduced for the first time. 
• Actions that are important to the narrative should be in capitals.
• Create a new paragraph suddenly when something new has happened and the shot has changed. 
• Names should be in captial letters every time a character speaks, 
• Dialogue is formatted in the center of the page.
• Action can interrupt dialogue with a paragraph.
• V.O. is used to indicated that a characters voice is over their thoughts. 
• O.S. indicated that a character is saying something off camera.
• After changing locations, describe the scene with a new header, which is indicated with a cut to indicate a transition.