My Review of Stephen Coghlan’s Urban Gothic

https://kyanitepublishing.com/home/catalog/urbangothic/

After reading Stephen Coghlan’s short story, the Last Ride of the Inferno Train, I was definitely eager to read more of his writing. When Kyanite Press announced the release of his “Dreampunk” novella, Urban Gothic, I added that immediately to my read list. Being a veteran myself, his story about a veteran suffering from PTSD, living a sedated, half-existence, immediately drew me in. I lost my cousin Patrick, to suicide a few years ago due to his poorly treated PTSD. It saddens me that his daughter will never know the fun person I grew up with. I suffer from PTSD as well. Not related to combat, but due to other issues from my military service (sexual assault, domestic abuse). I feel a deep empathy for our combat veterans of all theaters of war. I interned in college for the Vietnam Veterans of American and saw the toll unresolved mental health issues can take on a person’s life. While our society is becoming more and more aware of the criticality of this issue, I am glad to see it becoming more and more mainstream and not just brushed under the rug.

I have included a link to his website and an interview he did related to Urban Gothic below:

http://scoghlan.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MM18t5GhoKg

An ex-Army medic, Coghlan’s character is living a court-ordered, drugged half-life as part of his probation after beating a mugger to death in a fit of rage. He is so sedated that he is completely cut off from his dreams. He works the night shift at the local hospital, mopping floors. He does his best to forget the horrors of watching his buddies die in combat.

Then one evening as he’s walking to work, singing a song to himself to drown out the sounds of the city. He turns down an alley to see three creatures attacking a young woman. These creatures have the appearance of crazed clowns (like something out of Stephen King’s IT, or the cult classic Killer Clowns from Outer Space). Part of him wants to turn away, keep walking. But something inside of him snaps and he kills her attackers and brings her to the hospital.

When he carries her to the hospital and then brings her into a room, he realizes no one notices or sees him, no matter how much he tries to get their attention in the ER. It is as if they are invisible. He steals a gurney and supplies and treats her himself. When she awakes, she explains that she is not of this realm. She is Veleda, from the “Dreamscape.” As long as he remains attached to her, they cannot be seen. She urges him to leave her before he becomes to attached. Alec decides to leave the “Banality,” Veleda’s term for the real world and journey into the Dreamscape to help her.

Here is where I will diverge, as I had never heard of the term Dreampunk, which is what Stephen’s novella is categorized. But as I read it, I realized I knew what it was.

Dreampunk

While I wasn’t entirely satisfied with the definitions I read off the internet, I can see now after reading his novel that yes, this genre has been around for a very long time. Perhaps not clearly given a title/name (because now of course everything has to have a title), but it has been a driving force in literature for as long as humans can, well, dream. Dreampunk can take on many iterations and themes, but reading Coghlan’s story, the underlying theme is belief. The protagonist in his story needs to believe in the dreamscape and let go of the Banality, the real world which holds nothing but pain and suffering. If he cannot do so, he cannot win the ultimate battle. Not only for the future of the Dreamscape, but for the future of mankind’s dreams and his own self.

To better explain this theme, I felt it appropriate to delve into a few examples from both classic and modern literature that tie in well to what Coghlan touches on in this novella. Though not inclusive these give a good cross-section.

One of my favorite examples (and possibly most well-read) would be Louis Carrol’s much beloved Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. Both examples of where a young girl slips either down the rabbit hole or through a mirror into a surreal world where nothing is as it seems. While Louis Carrol’s world defies logic, being just a little girl, she accepts and makes her way through this bizarre world with much more ease than an adult would. In Alice in Wonderland, she is merely in a quest to return home by the proper time. In Through the Looking Glass, with its nod to the game of Chess, Alice is on a mission to become crowned queen.

The next best example would be Peter Pan, by J. M. Barrie, where three children, Peter, John and Wendy are flown away to Neverland by Peter Pan and his fairy companion, Tinkerbell. In this land, children never grow up.

Stepping into the US, and into controversy, is the Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum. Leaving aside the underlying political and racial issues with the story, on the surface it is about a naïve, young farm girl who is spirited away from her home of Kansas by a tornado to the magical land of Oz. She fights her way through witches and other fantastical creatures to find her way back to Kansas.

Forward into the future (and a favorite from my childhood, though it doesn’t seem to be wearing well with time) is the Neverending Story. Bullied, motherless school-boy Bastien, often loses himself in the world of books. One day he steals a magical book about the land of Fantasia that is being eroded by an evil called the Nothing. While reading the adventure of the warrior Atreyu, questing to save the world from destruction, he finds that he is somehow responsible for its ultimate fate, if he has the courage to keep reading.

Moving forward into the late 1990’s with one of my favorites, The Matrix. This movie crosses many genres, scifi, dystopian, a little bit of horror. But It does fall into dreamscape, as Neo Anderson wakes up with the help of Morpheus and Trinity, to realize that the machines have taken over the world and the computer simulated life he was living was completely fictitious. Will he regret taking the red pill?

I mention all of these because the underlying theme once more is belief. Alice, a young child, very easily believes that if she tries hard enough, in the first story, she can find her way home. In the second she believes she can make her way across the imaginary Wonderland chessboard and move from a pawn to a queen. In Peter Pan, it is about the belief in one’s self and capabilities and dealing with the realities of growing up. While living in Neverland with no rules forever sounds appealing, the children realize this is not where they belong. In the end of the Wizard of Oz, Dorothy always had the power to go home, she just had to believe. In the Neverending story, Bastien struggles to believe that he could be important enough to change the story, to save the world. Meanwhile Neo has to learn to believe that he is the one, he has to move within the Matrix and bend the rules to his will.

Coghlan’s character, Alec struggles with some aspect of each of these beliefs. Unlike Alice, who slips into the alternate reality with her ease and innocence, accepting with grace her bizarre encounters along the way, Alec cannot. Not only is he an adult, who has cast off his child-like acceptance of the world of dreams, he has known true horror. Battered and traumatized by his experiences in the military, he is medicated to the point that he doesn’t dream anymore. When he first passes into the Dreamscape, he becomes physically ill. Throughout the story (and Stephen does some great foreshadowing) you get a sense that there is some other reason why Veleda, his guide, came to him. But his inability to remember how to dream hinders him as the move through the Dreamscape. This touches not only on the themes of the Matrix where he must ultimately let go of the boundaries and rules he once knew in the “Banality,” but like Neo, Dorothy, and even Bastien, he must believe the power lies within him to do so.

*I really loved Coghlan’s scene from the Library of Dreams. This would be a surreal scene to see as a movie in an IMAX theater.

Characters and Dream Archetypes

I am desperately trying to avoid too many spoilers in this review, but it’s going to happen. One of the things that I felt that Coghlan does well in such a short novella is that he shows us some unique characters. Now I don’t know if he did this intentionally, but he definitely played well on Jung’s dream archetypes in this story. I will explain below.

Dream Archetypes

While science has proven that almost everyone dreams (except for some with extreme sleep disorders), not all remember their dreams. Of those that do, most share stories of strange dreams, inspiring dreams and frightening dreams. When you look at literature, across almost every genre, there is a fascination with dreams, both in fiction in non-fiction. We as humans want to know what our brains are trying to tell us as we sleep. The Quran, one of the most famous religious doctrines of all time was written based on the Prophet Muhammad’s “night visions” or dreams. In the Bible, there are multiple instances of dreams foretelling the future. Giuseppi Tartini’s, Il Trillo Del Diavolo (The Devil’s Trill) was purportedly inspired by a dream he had of the Devil playing the violin for him. One of my personal favorites is Stephen King’s, the Stand, where everyone dreams of either Mother Abigail or the Dark Man and come together.

*A side note, I loved Nadine’s constant insistence, “Don’t dream!” and then her confession later in her goodbye letter to Larry.

Meanwhile, I think we have all had this conversation around the watercooler/lunch table at work:

“Wow, I had the strangest dream last night!”

Dreams are so prevalent in literature, it has become cliché to start a novel with a dream sequence. It is one of the biggest tips you get from literary agents and publishing houses. Why? It’s been done—a lot.

Coghlan’s book is based on the world of dreams, but his protagonist can’t dream anymore due to his heavily medicated state. And really why would he want to? His dreams are filled with nightmares of horror and death. But moving into the Dreamscape, a world of imagination, he must confront his deepest psychological impulses and his true self to survive and save the Dreamscape from an evil King that has taken control and is bringing destruction to the world of dreams.

Here is where we get into the dream archetypes and who Alec meets along the way. I included this link I found that has a great and simple explanation of Jung’s four archetypes. I will break them down further in the context of Coghlan’s story, but please feel free to investigate further. All of the characters he meets are crucial to his journey through the land of the surreal, as they are all reflections and aspects of his own psyche. The things he both desires and pushes away from himself.

Common Dream Archetypes

The Self

This is the center of ourselves, our psyche

The Shadow

Our deep darker drives and desires. These we tend to suppress, yet we are innately fascinated by them. Freud might have called this our Id.

The Anima/Animus

The reflection of the female image/soul in the male, or the male image/soul in a female. Can manifest as almost a superhero or god-like form. Jung theorized that this starts as a child as we project ourselves onto our parent of the opposite sex.

The Persona

How we present ourselves to the world. Usually in direct opposition to the shadow, and sometimes even to the self. It depends on how much shame or pride we feel in ourselves.

From here, these four archetypes can manifest as the more traditional cultural archetypes. These are the standard archetypes we find throughout literature cultures (virgin/whore, hero/villain, maiden/crone, etc)

https://www.hccfl.edu/media/724354/archetypesforliteraryanalysis.pdf

In Coghlan’s world of the Dreamscape, every human living in the Banality, like Alec, is a “Creator.” Their avatars or “Doppelgangers” live out fantasies, dreams, hopes and of course, nightmares in the Dreamscape.

In the Dreamscape are characters that are native to the realm, like Veleda, Alec’s guide. She identifies herself as “A Seer. A seeker of truth and a teller of lies. A princess and a peon.” Her family once ruled the Dreamscape until the evil King took over. Now they are imprisoned and she has reached out to Alec for help. She becomes both Alec’s guide and charge as they move through their quest. Coghlan’s description of Veleda and her place in Alec’s psyche as he struggles to find himself fits smoothly with the definition of his anima, or the or the pure Platonic female reflection of his psyche that he has repressed both through his normal life and his military service. You can read in more detail about the anima/animus below.

The Archetypes of the Anima and Animus

Veleda represents his desire to seek the truth about himself, a truth he has pushed away even before the assistance of medication. Coghlan does a good job of alluding to the fact that Veleda has ulterior motives to bringing him to the Dreamscape. That if she had to, she might even betray him. He accepts her reasons for the betrayal, as they are part of his inability to let go of the Banality and move forward. His interactions with his anima help him to grow as a character and find ways to get back to his dreams he has forgotten.

Another interesting mesh of Alec’s anima, shadow and persona emerges in the form of M’lanth. M’lanth is a Shadow-Knight, native to the Dreamscape like Velda, and protector of the Doppelgangers that dwell in the surreal. M’lanth is a feminine reflection of Alec’s deep desires of being a warrior. His dream of joining the army and fighting for justice, good and hope. She protects the Doppelgangers so that their Creators can live good lives. She feels their pain when their Creator is hurt or suffering in the Banality. What makes her his shadow, is that she also represents his darker desire to seek revenge, snuff out suffering. A side of himself that society forces him to repress. M’lanth seeks revenge on those through torturous nightmares when the Doppelgangers and Creators she cares for are hurt by evil. She represents the vigilante, the Batman, that dwells in all of us. The shadow in the night that seeks out justice for those who are wronged. While they start off at odds, M’lanth and Alec come to a mutual respect by the apex of the story. She also represents the Persona he would like to present to the world, the Knight fighting for good and triumphing over evil. When he emerges from the Library of dreams in his glowing emerald armor, we are seeing this Persona shine through.

Next we encounter the Doppelganger of Alec’s Army friend Fredrick. Fredrick is yet another mesh up of archetypes. Fredrick’s character is living a double life in the dreamscape as his creator is stuck in a perpetual coma, wrecked and burned body beyond repair. Dwelling in the world of dreams, he is healthy and strong. What we also learn is the hidden love between Fredrick and Alec that was never spoken. Fredrick takes on a representation of Alec’s anima, in the sense that he appears over and over as almost the damsel in distress sub-archetype for Alec to rescue. But in a sense, he is also Alec’s Persona, in touch with the Dreamscape, and has fully let go of the Banality. He also drives Alec to push past what they experienced so that they may hopefully have some sort of future together here in the Dreamscape, away from the oppression of cultural norms and expectations. This is a nod to Alec’s Shadow. Now the term Shadow has negative connotations, but really it is just a reflection of the desires we suppress, sometimes to fit into society. Coghlan uses this dream archetype in a great but subtle way to show the toll the lack of acceptance society has toward homosexuality can take on people and relationships.

Now we get to the true Shadow, the evil King. Coghlan uses great foreshadowing all along, so it is no surprise to find that the evil King is no other than Alec’s Doppelganger. Severed from Alec, he has taken on every dark aspect of Alec’s experiences and nightmares. Bent on taking over the Dreamscape and controlling the human world of dreams he will let nothing stand in his way. His plan was to lure Alec to the Dreamscape so they could merge together and he would have ultimate power.

As the Emerald Knight and the Black-clad King square off in this ultimate battle, the fate of human dreams hanging in the balance the question is not just who will win, but how. In a nod yet again to the Matrix, we get back to beliefs. Though Alec has relearned how to dream, and clad himself in the armor of his Persona, can he bend the rules of the Dreamscape to defeat his ultimate Shadow archetype? Though I have tossed a few spoilers out there, I will leave this last one for the reader.

Coghlan’s “Dreampunk” was a fantastic, quick read. Writing that allows me to not only escape, but yet think at the same time is a true pleasure. My one beef with it, as with some other novellas I have read, was its brevity. There was enough material here for a full-length novel, if not two. Some of the transitions between scenes ended up being sacrificed for word count. I would have loved to read more. Coghlan definitely has the talent and capability to pull it off with rich surreal descriptions and intriguing characters. I look forward to his next venture into the “Dreampunk” genre.

Thanks for reading. My horror novella, The Dark Land, is coming to Amazon May 4th (pre-sale starts April 16th) if you sign up for my April newsletter by the 15th, you’ll get a sneak preview of a scene from the Dark Land.

Stay tuned for more writing excerpts, tales of Alaskan adventures, and of course reviews!