The Residents of Wardate

The Residents of Wardate trilogy...

Spoiler alert! Haven’t read any of these books yet? Don’t read any further, please return here when you have.

I know, “it was a dream after all” narratives have been done to death but I make no apologies.

Dreams are fascinating - an amazing feature of being human. No one really knows why we dream what we dream, but no doubt they are linked to our experiences, current and past. When asleep in a dream state, rarely is it apparent that we are dreaming no matter how nonsensical, illogical, and haphazard. Only when we wake up do we realise it was a dream and how irrational it all was. Minutes later, chances are, we've forgotten all about it. However, despite this, often, days or weeks later we return to the same dream scenario.

A few years ago, I underwent open heart surgery and was under the knife for 36 hours. My brain was effectively switched off with an anesthetic... 



It was a momentary state of nothingness with a complete absence of dreams. Once the drug entered the canular to shut down my systems, it seemed that no time lapsed before I regained consciousness, in pain, uncomfortable, and with a mother of all thirsts. Perhaps that’s what death is, just switched off - not for 36 hours but forever - thankfully, no one will ever know. However, when we dream, we experience tangible time. The duration is often compressed - days into an hour or so, nether-the-less, the brain is clearly active. Thought processes are going on despite a severe lack of logic. Emotions are heightened and fears, magnified.

In a dream state, our physical body is redundant therefore its state is immaterial. Poppy Cock’s dreams are no exception to all this.