The Function of Dream Sleep

Fantasy short story by Harlan Ellison

"The Function of Dream Sleep" is a fantasy short story by American writer Harlan Ellison, first published in his 1988 anthology Angry Candy. Ellison stated that it was inspired by an actual dream.

Plot summary

While grieving the deaths of several of his close friends, McGrath awakens from sleep to find that he is being bitten by an enormous mouth full of teeth; it then vanishes, leaving him with a profound sensation of loss. In seeking to understand what has happened, he discovers a hidden truth about the world.

Reception

The story won the 1989 Locus Award for Best Novelette, and was a finalist for the 1989 Hugo Award for Best Novelette and the 1988 Bram Stoker Award for Best Long Fiction.

Kirkus Reviews has described it as "Ellison aptly dramatizing his own emotional catharsis." Gary K. Wolfe and Ellen Weil have criticized the story both for the central premise — stating that the mouth (which they call "bizarre" and "surreal") does not represent "McGrath's pain and loss but his refusal or inability to process mature grief" — and for its structure, which they consider to be parallel to "any number of science fiction wish-fulfillment fantasies involving secret masters", and thus "inappropriate for a tale of suffering".

References

Introduction to Angry Candy, by Harlan Ellison, published 1988; "I saw the thread, and one day actually had the strange dream that opens 'The Function of Dream Sleep' and I knew I had to write that story to make some sense of all this misery and loneliness and aching."
Locus Award Winners by Category, at the Science Fiction Awards Database; retrieved August 27, 2017
1989 Hugo Awards, at TheHugoAwards.org; retrieved August 27, 2017
Past Bram Stoker Nominees & Winners Archived 2017-02-02 at the Wayback Machine, at the Horror Writers Association; retrieved September 21, 2017
Angry Candy, by Harlan Ellison, reviewed at Kirkus Reviews; published October 19, 1988; retrieved August 27, 2017
Harlan Ellison: The Edge of Forever, by Gary K. Wolfe and Ellen Weil, published 2002 by Ohio State University Press

v t e Harlan Ellison
Bibliography
Novels and novellas	Web of the City Spider Kiss A Boy and His Dog Mefisto in Onyx
Short story collections	The Deadly Streets Gentleman Junkie and Other Stories of the Hung-Up Generation Ellison Wonderland Paingod and Other Delusions Love Ain't Nothing But Sex Misspelled The Beast that Shouted Love at the Heart of the World Alone Against Tomorrow Approaching Oblivion Deathbird Stories No Doors, No Windows Strange Wine Shatterday Stalking the Nightmare Angry Candy Slippage Can & Can'tankerous
Short stories	”Adrift Just Off the Islets of Langerhans” “The Beast that Shouted Love at The Heart of the World” “Croatoan” “The Deathbird” “The Discarded” “The Dragon on the Bookshelf” “From A to Z, in the Chocolate Alphabet” “The Function of Dream Sleep” “How Interesting: A Tiny Man” “How's the Night Life on Cissalda?” “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream” “Jeffty Is Five” “Paladin of the Lost Hour” “The Prowler in the City at the Edge of the World” “"Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman” “Soldier from Tomorrow” “The Whimper of Whipped Dogs”
Collaborations	Phoenix Without Ashes Mind Fields
Television work	"Soldier" "Demon with a Glass Hand" "The City on the Edge of Forever" "Paladin of the Lost Hour" "Gramma" "Crazy as a Soup Sandwich" "A View from the Gallery" "Objects in Motion"
Consultant	Babylon 5 The Gathering In the Beginning Thirdspace The River of Souls A Call to Arms
Adaptations	I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream "The Human Operators" "One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty" "Shatterday" A Boy and His Dog (1975 film) "Djinn, No Chaser"
Anthologies edited	Dangerous Visions Again, Dangerous Visions Medea: Harlan's World The Last Dangerous Visions
Non-fiction	Memos from Purgatory The Glass Teat & The Other Glass Teat Harlan Ellison's Watching The Harlan Ellison Hornbook

Category:

Short stories by Harlan Ellison