NOTABLE WORKS REVIEW: “Dream’s End” by Henry Kuttner and Catherine Moore
NOTABLE WORKS
REVIEW: “Dream’s End” by Henry Kuttner and Catherine Moore
Reviewed by Kyla Lee Ward
Short story first published in Startling Stories magazine, July 1947. Variously anthologised.
Story link: https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/68170/pg68170-images.html
TRIGGER WARNING: This review addresses mental health.
In this collaboration by two of the 1940’s most notable weird writers, Dr Robert Bruno is connected by wires to his patient and sedated, offering himself as an “empathy surrogate” in an experimental treatment for psychiatric disorders (in this case, severe, clinical manic depression) that have not responded to other therapies. He awakens to accolades, his patient already showing signs of improvement – until without warning, his world devolves into a literal nightmare. He wakes, realising that his previous waking was simply a dream, and proceeds more cautiously with the necessary follow-ups to the experiment, until once again…
While a classic tale of hubris, neither Gregson (the patient), nor Bruno are demonised – Bruno actually criticises a colleague’s dread that insanity could be “caught”. And this proves true, as Bruno’s symptoms are subsequently diagnosed as an anxiety neurosis triggered by the stress surrounding the experiment. He is supported by his friends, family, and the institution that employs him, and the tale ends with Bruno facing his predicament, rather than some pat resolution such as a suicide or a change of POV confirming he is “lost”.
For me, this story provides an effective and recognisable portrait of clinical anxiety through the metaphor of the unending dream – not merely how the sudden onset of a panic attack warps the world, but how it feels to live with the prospect of it happening again. Bruno has support, but he walks this road alone, winding through familiar surroundings and beside people from whom he is nonetheless separated in this respect. He is diagnosed, but there is always the dread that perhaps something else is wrong, something more, something worse…
In my opinion, this story evinces both an understanding of mental illness and of issues surrounding its treatment. The therapy is extrapolated from technologies that were in their infancy at the time, and presented with a grain of salt (““You can prove anything by symbolism”, Morrissey said sourly.”) but its development was a lengthy process, including consultation with experts in diverse fields. A full explanation is given to Gregson’s wife before she grants Bruno permission to test it on her husband. After some months of more conventional therapy, Gregson is able to depart the sanitarium. But given its effect on Bruno, all further development of the empathy surrogate is halted.
Although both had impressive solo careers, Kuttner and Moore collaborated on many works during their marriage, which seems to have been a genuine and lovely case of a couple “living in each other’s heads”.
Kyla Lee Ward: Based in Sydney, Australia, Kyla produces fiction. articles and poetry, including Stoker and Rhysling nominees, and is co-author of the Aurealis Award-winning novel Prismatic. Her most recent release is the novella Those That Pursue Us Yet from Independent Legions Publishing, who also released her collection of dark and fantastic fiction, This Attraction Now Open Till Late. She is a founding member of Deadhouse Productions and a guide with the Rocks Ghost Tours. Her interests include history, occultism and scaring innocent bystanders.
