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Masque of Dreams
The masques of 17th century Europe presented dramatic entertainments based on mythic themes and enhanced by lavish costumes and sets. The entertainments in Bruce Boston's Masque of Dreams fashion myths of their own and are enhanced by the voice of a poet, often lyric and at times pyrotechnic. Journey to the heart of a mutant rain forest that strikes back against the encroachments of civilization. Join a Victorian stage magician in his search for real magic. Descend to the depths of an omnivorous singularity where everything is everything. Meet a true gentleman farmer and stand with vorpal sword in hand.
Explore these masques of illusion and identity that entertain as they mine the limits of reality and dreams.
298 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
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16 people want to read
About the author
Bruce Boston
356 books118 followersI've published more than sixty books and chapbooks, including the novels Stained Glass Rain and the best-of fiction collection Masque of Dreams. My work ranges from broad humor to literary surrealism, with many stops along the way for science fiction, fantasy, and horror. My novel The Guardener's Tale (Sam's Dot, 2007) was a Bram Stoker Award Finailist and a Prometheus Award Nominee. My stories and poems have appeared in hundreds of publications, including Asimov's SF Magazine, Amazing Stories, Weird Tales, Strange Horizons, Realms of Fantasy, Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, and The Nebula Awards Showcase, and received a number of awards, most notably, a Pushcart Prize, the Bram Stoker Award, the Asimov's Readers' Award, the Rhysling Award, and the Grand Master Award of the Science Fiction Poetry Association. For more information, please visit my website at http://www.bruceboston.com/
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 26, 2016
Stories made from dream substance, idiosyncratically presented, the foremost of which are now collected.
Bruce Boston has a tendency towards absurd storylines set in fantastical worlds, stories that progress disjointedly or in irrational twists, stories where the red thread swerve left and right as they abandon old storylines and find new ones to follow instead; in other words, these stories act like dreams and Masque of Dreams contain thirty-seven of these spread across short stories and poems of several genres. Over the years Boston has turned his writings into an idiosyncratic artform which is likely best placed under its own taxonomy; like Lovecraftian horror is a subgenre based on the coherent uniqueness oh H.P. Lovecraft's literary output, so would I propose the term Bostonian dream-narratives to accurately depict not just the form and content of the individual story but to also include the similarities they share and how they turn those tales adhesive to one another.
Now that I have made this claim, allow me to briefly introduce some of these similarites; I will also take the oppurtunity to give samples of the various narratives presented herein, attempting to avoid unduly sized revelations while doing so:
It is unusual for short stories to have more than one protagonists and Boston's are no exception. This singular protagonist is prone to be of an intuitive description; you know what to expect of the sailor in 'Soldier, Sailor', of the bikers in 'Gulling South' and 'With Vorpal Sword in Hand', of the false medium in 'After Magic' as well as the occultist circus director in the same tale, and so on - even the holographer of 'Holos at an Exhibition of the Mutant Rain Forest' is easily recognized once one connects her to the stereotypes of an adventurous scientist. Expanding on this notion: once one considers the deuteragonists, and further agonists in turn, it becomes apparent that they too present themselves as intuitive to the reader. I would claim that dreams most often act likewise, after all one does usually not question why other persons are present in the dream, neither what their functions are; their presences and functions adhere to subconsciously stored concepts, we are thus already familiar with them and so do not require them explained but rather simply accept them unchallenged. Boston's treatment of his characters are therefore part of what makes his stories dreamlike.
The storylines of most dreams can hardly be considered linear. They often start out one way, but then breaks away from the original path, forging different ones instead. Yet the break is not complete nor does it result in the plotline drunkenly wandering off into random parts of scenario. Rather the dream keeps at least some, often most, of the original scenario and the dislocation comes in the form of a new foci, a new story element, that jerks the story in its direction as it appears. Once a new course has been established the dream acts as if this turn of events is perfectly natural while the waking mind would likely consider it to be utterly absurd. Most of Boston's stories are characterised by these illogical twists where the stories themselves makes no note of the odd changes that take place, instead they pretend that the changes are so perfectly normal as to be implicit. These jerks are but one of Boston's many deviancies with regard to the technical aspects of writing short stories, and throwing in the terms 'experimental' and 'playful' will rapidly improve any description of his works.
While on this discussion of the implicit, a dream considers all its elements in this manner; even the most fantastical of ideas turn into ordinary ones. The fantastical holds an important part of almost any dream narrative, and Boston's tales embrace them in any and all varieties, from the folklore inspired to the near-psychedelic. Whatever the subconscious could hold is allowed, from the embodiment of nature, to the mad desires of a sci-fi caliph, to cyberspatial addiction, to the jigsaw of flesh and minds created by an hyperspace accident, to the mystical powers of the blue pomegranate. And it is these figments of the overworldy which provides most of my own fascination of these narratives, not only are they of a kind which surely can only be concieved of by the unstructured dreaming mind, but they are also uttely unique. Every tale has its own concept which does not betray its inspiration, if any at all exists.
Finally, I would like to point out one more thing: One of the best parts of this collection are the first few sentences of each tale, the writing of which Boston has mastered to perfection. This is where the author seeks to capture the reader as fast as possible, and every one of these short stories manage to do so with redundancy. Here is an example: "Death is as ordinary and natural as any event, and murder hardly less so. If I kill a man in the woods there is no need for the city to know." This is how 'Soldier, Sailor' begins. I could not for my life create such an enticing introduction, and I know of none other who can do so on such a regular basis as Boston.
Masque of Dreams is an impressive collection, and one I admittely read with reverence. Most of Boston's collections and chapbooks can be hard to get hold of, but this one is fortunately still readily available. It's an excellent read for those who want to be soaked with inspiration from the concepts and then dried by the brilliance of of its implementation.
Bruce Boston has a tendency towards absurd storylines set in fantastical worlds, stories that progress disjointedly or in irrational twists, stories where the red thread swerve left and right as they abandon old storylines and find new ones to follow instead; in other words, these stories act like dreams and Masque of Dreams contain thirty-seven of these spread across short stories and poems of several genres. Over the years Boston has turned his writings into an idiosyncratic artform which is likely best placed under its own taxonomy; like Lovecraftian horror is a subgenre based on the coherent uniqueness oh H.P. Lovecraft's literary output, so would I propose the term Bostonian dream-narratives to accurately depict not just the form and content of the individual story but to also include the similarities they share and how they turn those tales adhesive to one another.
Now that I have made this claim, allow me to briefly introduce some of these similarites; I will also take the oppurtunity to give samples of the various narratives presented herein, attempting to avoid unduly sized revelations while doing so:
It is unusual for short stories to have more than one protagonists and Boston's are no exception. This singular protagonist is prone to be of an intuitive description; you know what to expect of the sailor in 'Soldier, Sailor', of the bikers in 'Gulling South' and 'With Vorpal Sword in Hand', of the false medium in 'After Magic' as well as the occultist circus director in the same tale, and so on - even the holographer of 'Holos at an Exhibition of the Mutant Rain Forest' is easily recognized once one connects her to the stereotypes of an adventurous scientist. Expanding on this notion: once one considers the deuteragonists, and further agonists in turn, it becomes apparent that they too present themselves as intuitive to the reader. I would claim that dreams most often act likewise, after all one does usually not question why other persons are present in the dream, neither what their functions are; their presences and functions adhere to subconsciously stored concepts, we are thus already familiar with them and so do not require them explained but rather simply accept them unchallenged. Boston's treatment of his characters are therefore part of what makes his stories dreamlike.
The storylines of most dreams can hardly be considered linear. They often start out one way, but then breaks away from the original path, forging different ones instead. Yet the break is not complete nor does it result in the plotline drunkenly wandering off into random parts of scenario. Rather the dream keeps at least some, often most, of the original scenario and the dislocation comes in the form of a new foci, a new story element, that jerks the story in its direction as it appears. Once a new course has been established the dream acts as if this turn of events is perfectly natural while the waking mind would likely consider it to be utterly absurd. Most of Boston's stories are characterised by these illogical twists where the stories themselves makes no note of the odd changes that take place, instead they pretend that the changes are so perfectly normal as to be implicit. These jerks are but one of Boston's many deviancies with regard to the technical aspects of writing short stories, and throwing in the terms 'experimental' and 'playful' will rapidly improve any description of his works.
While on this discussion of the implicit, a dream considers all its elements in this manner; even the most fantastical of ideas turn into ordinary ones. The fantastical holds an important part of almost any dream narrative, and Boston's tales embrace them in any and all varieties, from the folklore inspired to the near-psychedelic. Whatever the subconscious could hold is allowed, from the embodiment of nature, to the mad desires of a sci-fi caliph, to cyberspatial addiction, to the jigsaw of flesh and minds created by an hyperspace accident, to the mystical powers of the blue pomegranate. And it is these figments of the overworldy which provides most of my own fascination of these narratives, not only are they of a kind which surely can only be concieved of by the unstructured dreaming mind, but they are also uttely unique. Every tale has its own concept which does not betray its inspiration, if any at all exists.
Finally, I would like to point out one more thing: One of the best parts of this collection are the first few sentences of each tale, the writing of which Boston has mastered to perfection. This is where the author seeks to capture the reader as fast as possible, and every one of these short stories manage to do so with redundancy. Here is an example: "Death is as ordinary and natural as any event, and murder hardly less so. If I kill a man in the woods there is no need for the city to know." This is how 'Soldier, Sailor' begins. I could not for my life create such an enticing introduction, and I know of none other who can do so on such a regular basis as Boston.
Masque of Dreams is an impressive collection, and one I admittely read with reverence. Most of Boston's collections and chapbooks can be hard to get hold of, but this one is fortunately still readily available. It's an excellent read for those who want to be soaked with inspiration from the concepts and then dried by the brilliance of of its implementation.
January 9, 2013
“One of Wildside’s latest comes from poet Bruce Boston, whose prose sings like a mix of E. T. A. Hoffman and Hawthorne, Borges and Bierce. His Masque of Dreams collects nearly two dozen brilliant stories, ranging across all emotional and narrative terrains.” --Paul Di Filippo, The Washington Post
“...from gentle and gritty realism through science fiction to simple and complex fantasy...in quality from good to excellent....If Bruce Boston has written a poor story...I have yet to read it. Masque of Dreams is truly a pleasure...and I recommend it highly.” --Lee Becker, Fantasy Commentator
“...a great talent for richly evoking a place in ime...a gift for creating memorable characters....The stories and poems have in common Boston’s well-trained poet’s eye for detail, his beautifully crafted language, and his unfailing compassion for his characters... sure to leave readers dazzled by the depth and range of his talents.” --Tim Pratt, Locus
“...from gentle and gritty realism through science fiction to simple and complex fantasy...in quality from good to excellent....If Bruce Boston has written a poor story...I have yet to read it. Masque of Dreams is truly a pleasure...and I recommend it highly.” --Lee Becker, Fantasy Commentator
“...a great talent for richly evoking a place in ime...a gift for creating memorable characters....The stories and poems have in common Boston’s well-trained poet’s eye for detail, his beautifully crafted language, and his unfailing compassion for his characters... sure to leave readers dazzled by the depth and range of his talents.” --Tim Pratt, Locus
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews