Direct embedding of something from the subconscious into narrative is one thing. But most of the time, your subconscious provides just the prompt or the beginning and then expects the writer to fill out the implications.

My novel Annihilation was inspired by a dream in which I was walking down the spiral staircase of a submerged tower, descending into the ground below. The darkness was lit by some unknown means. Soon, I noticed words written in English on the curling stone wall, at about the height where an adult human could have written them. But the words weren't written with ink or spray paint. They were written in living tissue of some kind.

As I walked farther down, I realized that the words were slightly swaying, and that they were getting fresher. I understood with a shiver of dread that whatever or whoever was responsible for the words was still down below me, and still writing. I went deeper into the tunnel and eventually saw a light beckoning from beyond the next curve of the staircase. I was about to encounter the source of the writing . . . and that's when I woke up, jotted some notes, and ran to the computer.

In a sense, my subconscious mind was handing off the idea to my conscious mind--or you could say that my conscious mind had told my subconscious: "No, no--don't tell me anything more. I'll take it from here." And my subconscious was trusting that I wouldn't balk from following up, no matter how strange the context.

[In a sidebar, Vandermeer comments:]

The novel's setting turned out to be a transformed version of a trail I've hiked for fifteen years. If my subconscious wanted to explore the irrational and bizarre, some part of me was also wise enough to surround the strange with something both real and personal.

EDITOR'S NOTE

Vandermeer's choice to stage surreal events in a familiar setting follows the maxim of science fiction writer & critic Sam Delany: the wilder the premise, the clearer the presentation must be. Readers need an anchor point--a reliable narrator, unambiguous prose, or, as here, a grounded setting. Not that Delany always stuck to his own rule! But I've found his advice wise. When telling my own highly surreal, shamanic, otherworldly dreams, I try to write very plainly. Don't gild the octopus.

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