Robert E. Howard’s The Dream Snake Review

[SonicSouls]

The story’s opening demonstrates the strengths and weaknesses of Robert E. Howard. He has a poetry background, so could be skilled at using figurative language in his descriptions. This gives even the frivolous ones you don’t see in most fiction. However, note the frivolous part. In my opinion the second paragraph of the story could’ve been cut out because I think the first does a good job at setting the mood:

“The night was strangely still. As we sat upon the wide veranda, gazing out over the broad, shadowy lawns, the silence of the hour entered our spirits and for a long while no one spoke.”

This implies that something is wrong. It also implies the setting and that there’s multiple people. What the second paragraph does is further describe the setting. However, because the setting isn’t relevant to the story, it’s frivolous. The opening paragraph gave all the grounding in a world that we needed to begin the story. However, some of the pulp magazines he published in paid by the word, which explains some of it. I still think he’s better than H.P. Lovecraft who sometimes had descriptions that seemed to exist purely for monetary reasons.

The story continues with a man describing a weird dream he keeps on having. The majority of the story consists of dialogue from this man. Sometimes the way they describe it comes across as unnatural. Because of this, I think it would’ve been better to see it from the perspective of this man. That way we could have narrative, action, and dialogue mixed in. Or, they could have had the other people respond to his ramblings.

The dream in question has the man in Africa. In the dream he has a past life unrelated to his actual one. But it’s only apparent in the dream. However, the dream is so vivid that the line between reality and the dream has increasingly blurred. They find that their servant has disappeared and that their hut has been wrecked. He is unable to figure out why. Then he recalls seeing a track on a hill and realizes that a giant serpent must’ve entered his cabin. The rest of the dream is spent trying not to be killed by this serpent or dream snake. However, he has yet to see this snake. He closes his story by saying that in dreams lately, the tracks have been getting closer.

He eventually goes to sleep only to scream. He dies, and his face resembles someone crushed by a giant snake, or so the narrator conjectures. I think this ending is predictable, but it is a natural ending to what was built up before. And there’s a nice build up to it. How the man sees the tracks which are getting closer, keeps reliving the same dream, and has never seen this serpent. It also leaves a somewhat open ending. Were they killed in a dream? Or were they just having a reoccurring nightmare, and died through natural means? People would then attribute it to being killed in a dream. Overall, I think this is a good short story. It has some rough patches, but it has a good structure, pace, and ending.

 

[hitmouse]

“The night was strangely still. As we sat upon the wide veranda, gazing out over the broad, shadowy lawns, the silence of the hour entered our spirits and for a long while no one spoke.”

This implies that something is wrong. It also implies the setting and that there’s multiple people. What the second paragraph does is further describe the setting. However, because the setting isn’t relevant to the story, it’s frivolous.

I don't think that passage necessarily implies that something is wrong. It could equally describe a tranquil reverie. There is nothing specifically menacing or discordant in that sentence, to my mind.

What is the second paragraph? Why is it necessarily frivolous to add further description?

 

[SonicSouls]

The second paragraph is:
"Then far across the dim mountains that fringed the eastern skyline, a faint haze began to glow, and presently a great golden moon came up, making a ghostly radiance over the land and etching boldly the dark clumps of shadows that were trees. A light breeze came whispering out of the east, and the unmowed grass swayed before it in long, sinuous waves, dimly visible in the moonlight; and from among the group upon the veranda there came a swift gasp, a sharp intake of breath that caused us all to turn and gaze."

I deemed it frivolous to add this much description because the story begins with two paragraphs of essentially no forward plot progression. Especially considering that the setting plays a minimal role in the story. Looking at it now, there are some parts that foreshadow the dream. The "grass swayed before it in long, sinuous waves," could be foreshadowing of the mans' dream of the snake. However, by putting so much focus on this setting, it implies that it will be important. But because the main focus of the story is on the dream itself and not reality, its frivolous description. The characters in the story don't care about reality. They care about the dream. One could argue that its there to build an unsettling tone.

However, the man who has the dream, Fanning, already does that with his introduction to the dream. An excerpt of it is:
"Now I guess I'd better tell the whole thing or you'll be going off and putting me down as a lunatic. Don't interrupt me, any of you! I want to get this thing off my mind. You all know that I'm not a very imaginative man; but there's a thing, purely a figment of imagination, that has haunted me since babyhood. A dream!"

Him begging the others to listen before declaring him insane implies that the tale he's about to tell is far-fetched. However, him realizing that it's far-fetched, describing himself as not being imaginative, but still being terrified is there to create a sense of unease. The fact that he has had a singular dream haunt him since he was a baby also contributes to this, as it's unnatural. Because this serves as a good introduction to the unease we should be feeling, the extra description is frivolous.

 

[hitmouse]

I think "frivolous" is a bit harsh, possibly.

Starting with a couple of short paragraphs to establish scene and general mood is not unreasonable, even if the prose is a bit purple by modern standards.