(urth) Short Story 87: The Detective of Dreams

[Dan'l Danehy-Oakes]

This is probably my favorite Wolfe short story, and the first I read. It
blew the top of my head off.


On Sun, Aug 10, 2014 at 7:59 PM, Marc Aramini <marcaramini at gmail.com> wrote:

> “The Detective of Dreams” first appeared in *Dark Forces* in 1980. It is
> recollected in *Endangered Species*.
>
> SUMMARY: A man identifying himself as Herr D—enters the narrator’s office
> on the rue Madeleine, probably in Paris, and hires him to get to the bottom
> of a series of dreams, for which his offered reward reeks of hyperbole:
> “Find and destroy the Dream-Master … and you shall sit upon a chair of
> gold, if that is your wish, and eat from a table of gold as well.” The
> narrator reveals that he knows the real identity of Herr D--, which is that
> of Baron H—of the secret police of K--.
>
> The narrator makes his preparations, pinches his female assistant Andree,
> and leaves by train across the Alps to arrive at the station of I--. He
> makes his way to his first contact, a woman who sells lacey dresses in a
> stripped and compartmentalized ex-church, now housing a series of small
> shops and booths. He encounters Fraulein A--, who tells him of her fine
> dresses and tries to suppress tears. The narrator expresses surprise at her
> single status, and Fraulein A-- reveals she has no interest in men or
> women. When pressed, she reveals her nightly repeating dream (also
> mentioning Freud)– she passes through a narrow gate and sees a sumptuous
> feast, but she is dressed in only a plain dress such as she works in, and
> she is cast out by a man she seems to recognize, who is tall, robed like a
> king, and wears a strange crown (probably of thorns). She is cast out into
> the garden, where she smells a terrible beast, and wakes up. No matter what
> she wears to sleep, the dream is the same.
>
> He then goes to discuss the dreams with another victim, Herr R--, a
> banker. He tells of his youth selling cabbage leaf rolls and how he has not
> put his mother up in the finest house in Lindau, and reveals that in his
> dream the Dream-Master has hurt his hand. In his dreams, he is an important
> man who is summoned by the owner of a large and opulent house, the same as
> in Fraulein A--'s dream, to an accounting. He is told that he owes a
> certain sum he cant remember, then begs and weeps for mercy. He says,
> “several times I have told him that I am a wealthy man in this world, and
> that if only he would permit me to make payment in its currency, I would do
> so immediately.” The master replies, “That is a dream – you must know it by
> now. You cannot expect to pay a rel debt with the currency of sleep.” After
> Herr R-- falls at his feet like a child, the master says, “You would never
> be able to pay all you owe, and you are a false and dishonest servant. But
> your debt is forgiven, forever.” Herr R-- goes to burn the ledger page that
> contains his debt, but is met with another servant, who owes him a trifling
> sum, and he seizes him by the throat and demands payment. The owner sees
> him in disapproval, and the dream ends with a door to the chamber being
> opened by a vile, reptilian hand that strikes Herr R-- with dread.
>
> The next day our narrator meets with Baron H-- again and demands to know
> who is really behind the inquiry, and it is revealed that the countess of
> the province herself is having nightmares. Her husband fears assassination,
> and the narrator goes to see her and here of her dream, in which her
> husband is going to hold an execution in the garden which mirrors Christ's
> crucifixion, with modern weapons. She begs her husband not to, for she sees
> that the reflection of the count in the Dream-Master's eyes is the real
> count. At the end of the dream, the count gives the order to continue, and
> “the soldiers fire. The Dream-Master falls forward, though his bonds hold
> him to the tree. And Karl flies to bloody rags beside me.”
>
> The detective determines that they all cross the main street, the
> Hauptstrasse, at approximately the same point, and he goes there to
> observe. Eventually, he himself feels observed. Finally, he realizes the
> identity of the Dream-Master. “The stupidity, the wonderful stupidity of
> myself, who had not recognized his old stories! … For the Dream-Master had
> set up His own picture, and full length and in the most gorgeous colors, in
> his window. He goes into the church and the priest gives him communion: “I
> knelt, and there … I destroyed the Dream-Master as He has been sacrificed
> so often, devouring his white, wheaten flesh that we might all possess life
> without end. Dear people, dream on.”
>
> COMMENTARY:
>
> Wolfe has listed “The Detective of Dreams” as one of his favorite short
> stories in a few interviews; here, the didactic message is easily
> discernible to those with any familiarity of the parables of Jesus of
> Nazareth. The victims of the Dream-Master see His face frequently but are
> unable to recognize it in their dreams, instead seeking a physical cause
> for their terrors. This lack of familiarity with the spiritual grants their
> visions the quality of terror – and it is the endings of the dreams that
> allow a more horrific message to creep into the story – the looming threat
> of their fears realized, a nameless terror almost as eldritch as the
> fantasy of Lovecraft. This is especially clear in the dreams of the banker
> Herr R--, who sees a little more of the creature’s arm each day as the door
> to damnation opens bit by bit, inexorably. He wants to stop it, but cannot
> comprehend the spiritual change necessary to impede the opening door of
> damnation because he is too much a part of this world, which, at least in
> this story, is but a dream of the spiritual reality.
>
> Underneath the story lies the certainty of the encroachment of the modern
> world on hallowed traditions: the church has become partitioned shops, the
> great house of the nobility has become a bank, and, all too soon, the
> monarchy and nobility of Germany will shatter, too, with Austria and
> Prussia and all these nations changed and perhaps even dissolved as World
> War II comes to shake the earth.
>
> What are the failings of these individuals? Fraulein A lives without love;
> her chastity is sterile, and she feels little affection for either women or
> men. Her attempt to put on a dress worthy of the wedding does not hide that
> she herself has no appreciation for the symbolic love behind the wedding
> ceremony. Herr R—has gotten by on understanding men to exploit their
> psychological whims, a banker who does not have a sense for numbers. Even
> though the parable lists the debts at ten thousand talents, he can never
> remember what he owes, for it is kindness, forgiveness, and a surrender of
> profit that he truly owes, something he cannot put into words or wrap his
> mind around.
>
> In his dream we see the concept of demons as servants of God: “I am aware
> that the owner possesses certain other servants, who have never been under
> my direction … they are hideous, vile, and cruel; I know too that he thinks
> me but little better than they, and that as he permits me to serve him, so
> he allows them to serve him also.”
>
> The Countess' dream has its own form of punishment that is more certain
> than the slowly opening door of Herr R--: since the Count will have no
> mercy, this quality prompts his own explosion.
>
> The dualistic world view Wolfe presents is nowhere more clearly stated
> than in the dream of the Countess von V--: “In my dream quite suddenly, his
> eyes seem far, far larger than mine, and far more beautiful, and in them I
> see reflected the figure of my husband … it is his reflection, and not the
> man who stands near me, who is the real Karl. The man I have thought real
> is only a reflection of that reflection.”
>
> It is tempting to relegate “The Detective of Dreams” to nothing but an
> exegesis of superstitious faith, a celebration of that mystery, that, to
> those steeped in the iconography and history of the Church, is obvious. The
> identity of the Dream-Master with the Eucharist is taken quite literally -
> “This is My Body, which will be given up for you.” It represents a
> sacrifice for salvation that is reenacted with every taking of communion,
> one which is lost as these various individuals continue to exercise their
> will and desires and see the warnings as secular threats rather than a call
> to a different kind of reformation.
>
> LITERARY ALLUSIONS
>
> Especially in 18th and 19th century fiction, the practice of replacing
> character names with a letter, such as Squire B—in Richardson’s *Pamela*
> (recast as Squire Booby in Fielding’s *Shamela*), was quite common, and
> the motivation for doing so has several explanations. One is to lend the
> story universality – devoid of place names and given names, the characters,
> and especially the settings, can become any place without the author having
> to make sure every intersection in the story is properly placed. Dickens in
> particular eschewed this practice, but here the model most obviously in
> play is Poe’s “The Purloined Letter”, which never names its influential
> cast, from the prefect of police, G--, to the amoral minister, D--. The
> hero, Dupin, uses the methods of logic and deduction coupled with a
> creative imagination to solve mysteries, and also lives in Paris.
>
> The other reason for the elided proper names is derivative of the early
> conceit of the realistic novel, that the actual events were something like
> a memoir or happenstance that, to protect those involved or avoid scandal,
> replaced the names with letters. Why then does Wolfe use this technique,
> but give the first name of Count Karl von V--? In addition, we have a
> German speaking community near the alps accessible via train in a time
> after Freud's publications and the death of an Emperor, so the concealment
> only works to a certain degree of exactness.
>
> It is interesting that only in his current case does the detective of
> dreams omit names, as he boasts of his previous credentials with full
> names, which are touched on below.
>
> More frustrating, however, is the difficulty of placing the story
> completely in a setting because of these almost random letters, and, even
> though it might be a waste of time, we will examine this more below. It
> might be that the letters are arbitrary, though we do know that Herr R puts
> his mother up in Lindau, in Bavaria (which does have a part of the Alps
> within its borders). Near Lindau is a small city called Immenstadt which
> has a train station, but none of the other letters seem to match up unless
> we transport the action to Austria – it seems that the theme, that this
> world is the dream, makes the setting less important than the “real” waking
> world – the spiritual one.
>
> Even though it is commonly regarded as a 19th century detective tale, it
> is actually set in the early parts of the 20th century before World War
> II forever changed the ideological landscape, and this transitional point
> is one of the themes – the characters are approaching the modern world in
> their understanding and concerns, and they are faced with a spiritual
> puzzle they are ill equipped to deal with.
>
> Perhaps an additional reference is to the work of Chesterton, especially
> The Everlasting Man, which Wolfe mentions in his afterword to the story in *The
> Best of Gene Wolfe. *There are a few interesting passages about dreams in
> Chesterton's text:
>
> Out of some dark forest under some ancient dawn there must come towards
> us, with lumbering yet dancing motions, one of the very queerest of the
> prehistoric creatures. We must see for the first time the strangely small
> head set on a neck not only longer but thicker than itself, as the face of
> a gargoyle is thrust out … the feet, each like a solid club of horn, alone
> amid the feet of so many cattle so that the true fear is to be found in
> showing, not the cloven, but the uncloven hoof. Nor is it mere verbal fancy
> to see him thus as a unique monster … but the point is that when we see him
> thus as the first man saw him, we begin once more to have some imaginative
> sense of what it meant when the first man rode him. In such a dream he may
> seem ugly, but he does not seem unimpressive; and certainly that two legged
> dwarf who could get on top of him will not seem unimpressive. … In other
> words, I say it is better to see a horse as a monster than to see it only
> as a slow substitute for a motor-car.
>
> I am convinced that if we could tell the supernatural story of Christ word
> for word as of a Chinese hero, all him the Son of Heaven instead of the Son
> of God, and trace his rayed nimbus in the gold tread of Chinese
> embroideries or the gold lacquer of Chinese potter, instead of in the gold
> leaf of our own old Catholic paintings, there would be a unanimous
> testimony to the spiritual purity of the story.” (from Chesterton's Preface
> to T*he Everlasting Man*)
>
> Removed from his religious context and put in a nightmare, Christ invokes
> that strange terror that the image of a horse might in a dream when all its
> strangeness is actually clarified.
>
> BIBLICAL ALLUSIONS
>
> Wolfe seems attracted to the idea of Christ as a teller of instructional
> stories, which are here recast as dreams with ominous implications. The
> stigmata in his hands from the crucifixion are obvious, and the majority of
> these scenes can be easily found as parables in the gospel of Matthew,
> though there is a significant overlap in content in the synoptic gospels.
>
> Fraulein A—‘s dream is from the parable of the wedding banquet, found in
> Matthew 22:1-14, quoted below from the New King James Version, but her
> dream starts with the garden and gate: “it’s not a large gate for wagons or
> carriages, but a small one, so narrow I can hardly get through. Have you
> read the writings of Dr. Freud of Vienna? … I am sure he would say that
> entering that gate meant sexual commerce.” This talk of a gate involves the
> start of Matthew 7:13-14 -
>
>
>
>  13Enter by the narrow gate; for wide *is* the gate and broad *is* the
> way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 14Because
> narrow *is* the gate and difficult *is* the way which leads to life, and
> there are few who find it.
>
>  The narrator is quick to dismiss the possibility of sexual repression,
> for the Fraulein's problem is quite the opposite – an asexuality born of
> indifference to humanity. Here is the parable of the wedding banquet:
>
> 22And Jesus answered and spoke to them again by parables and said: 2“The
> kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his
> son, 3and sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the
> wedding; and they were not willing to come. 4Again, he sent out other
> servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my
> dinner; my oxen and fatted cattle *are* killed, and all things *are*
> ready. Come to the wedding.”’ 5But they made light of it and went their
> ways, one to his own farm, another to his business. 6And the rest seized
> his servants, treated *them* spitefully, and killed *them.* 7But when the
> king heard *about it,* he was furious. And he sent out his armies,
> destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. 8Then he said to his
> servants, ‘The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not
> worthy. 9Therefore go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite
> to the wedding.’ 10So those servants went out into the highways and
> gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good. And the wedding
> *hall* was filled with guests.
>
> 11“But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who
> did not have on a wedding garment. 12So he said to him, ‘Friend, how did
> you come in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. 13Then
> the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast
> *him* into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
>
> 14“For many are called, but few *are* chosen.”
>
>
>
>  Fraulein A’s ending puts a far more sinister and implied threat into the
> outer darkness, which has encroached upon the garden around the estate:
> “some terrible beast has entered the garden. I smell it – like the hyena
> cage at the Tiergarten – as the door opens. And then I wake up.”
>
>
>
>  The banker Herr R—‘s dream is from the parable of the unforgiving
> servant, found in Matthew 18:21-35 -
>
> 21Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin
> against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?”
>
> 22Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to
> seventy times seven. 23Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a certain
> king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24And when he had
> begun to settle accounts, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand
> talents. 25But as he was not able to pay, his master commanded that he be
> sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and that payment be
> made. 26The servant therefore fell down before him, saying, ‘Master, have
> patience with me, and I will pay you all.’ 27Then the master of that
> servant was moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the debt.
>
> 28“But that servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who
> owed him a hundred denarii; and he laid hands on him and took *him* by
> the throat, saying, ‘Pay me what you owe!’ 29So his fellow servant fell
> down at his feet and begged him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will
> pay you all.’ 30And he would not, but went and threw him into prison till
> he should pay the debt. 31So when his fellow servants saw what had been
> done, they were very grieved, and came and told their master all that had
> been done. 32Then his master, after he had called him, said to him, ‘You
> wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. 33Should
> you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity
> on you?’ 34And his master was angry, and delivered him to the torturers
> until he should pay all that was due to him.
>
> 35“So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his
> heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.”
>
>
>
>  While the banker is incapable of remembering the sum of ten thousand
> talents, it seems that there are also other things he owes the Dream Master
> – mercy, forgiveness, and compassion for his fellow man. The difference in
> both of these parables is that, beyond a secular punishment, we see the
> promise of hell:
>
>
>
>  The throne of gold that Baron H-- offered our narrator might also echo
> Matthew 19: 28-30, presaging the narrator's consumption of the body of
> Christ.
>
> 28So Jesus said to them, “Assuredly I say to you, that in the
> regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you who
> have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes
> of Israel. 29And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or
> father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My name’s sake, shall
> receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life. 30But many *who are*
> first will be last, and the last first.
>
> Chapter 7 of the Gospel of Matthew holds many of the themes which are
> found in the dream of the Count (it is reprinted in its entirety in the
> discussion of “Many Mansions.)
>
> The damnation we see threatened in the dreams certainly has biblical
> precedent, as in Matthew 25:41-46-
>
> 41“Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you
> cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels:
> 42for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me
> no drink; 43I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you
> did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’
>
> 44“Then they also will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You
> hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not
> minister to You?’ 45Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say
> to you, inasmuch as you did not do *it* to one of the least of these, you
> did not do *it* to Me.’ 46And these will go away into everlasting
> punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
>
>
>
>  THE LETTERS AND THE SETTING
>
> If the late emperor of which our narrator speaks of for popularizing the
> beard and mustache is Franz Joseph, then the text actually seems to be set
> in the early 20th century, as Franz died in 1916 (but he did rule from
> 1848 to 1916 as Emperor). This could very well make our area a state in
> Austria if the letters are accurate at all, probably the state of
> Karnten/Carinthia, with Klagenfurt its capital. Klagenfurt had a large
> train stop on the Vienna-Trieste railway which was destroyed in World War
> II. However, the problem with this is that they are not as close to the
> Alps or Lindau as Immenstadt, mentioned above, was, and perhaps Klagenfurt
> is too large (though it has some interesting local stories, since it's name
> means the ford of complaint – one legend says that an innocent apprentice
> was executed over a theft that wound up being a mistake, and that the
> lament of the people when they found out rang out, thus the name of the
> town). However, the setting might be forever open to speculation.
>
> The only name that is given amongst those involved is that of Karl, the
> husband of the Countess. Karl means free man, and it is this freedom of
> choice between good and evil that is implicit in Wolfe’s Christian fiction.
> He could select mercy.
>
> D--: The Baron in disguise who hires the detective to hunt the dream
> master, he is also the head of the secret police. This is his mother’s name
> and the reason he selected the pseudonym.
>
> H--: The Baron’s true name
>
> K--: The city, state, or principality which the Baron represents. Could be
> Klagenfurt (the city) or Karnten (the state) in Austria.
>
> I--: the city or station name which used to the be the capital of a
> province (I cannot determine this with any accuracy, unless it simply
> implies the Inner Stadt district, unless it is perhaps Immenstadt in
> Bavaria rather than Austria)
>
> J--: now a province of K — (could be Jezersko, which was a part of Karnten)
>
> A--: A rather asexual Fraulein who makes dresses and receives the dream of
> the wedding guests
>
> M--: an antique dealer who handles chairs and chests
>
> O--: an antique dealer who stocks pictures
>
> G--: A Frau who calls Fraulein A—a manhater for not receiving her son
>
> R--: A banker who grew up on the streets and made his fortune by
> understanding men rather than numbers (Raffgier is one possible German word
> for greed, but no other letters seem to echo the traits on display)
>
> V--: The Count and Countess, though it is the Countess von V—who dreams
> that her husband Karl is executing the dream master.
>
> Fraulein A—indicates that the police working under Baron H—are not “our”
> police – this could very well show the strange position Austria occupied at
> this time, though the city is probably in Germany (or might even be in
> Switzerland from the details that we have, though that is the least likely
> possibility).
>
> THE DETECTIVES PREVIOUS CASES:
>
> Paulette Renan – our narrator found the quince seed in her throat –
> Paulette = little, Renan = (seal)? – early mythical and historical
> references to apples may have actually referred to the quince, and the
> quince seed, if eaten in large quantities, actually can produce hydrogen
> cyanide and be toxic. (The quince might have been the actual forbidden
> fruit in the story of Adam and Eve, and thus has a special place in the
> concept of original sin, which necessitated the presence of Christ in
> history, the “new” Adam).
>
> Captain Brotte – which means bread, discusses his finds amid the Antarctic
> ice, an unexplored region, and his name, bread certainly resonates with the
> Eucharist.
>
> Herr R-- says that he knows of the narrator because of a case concerning a
> mummy, and what is a mummy but an attempt to preserve the body for the
> afterlife?
>
> Joan gift from god O’Neil – grandson of Niall (which could mean
> cloud/champion), she lived behind a painting of herself (this echoes the
> reflection of the Count in Christ's eyes, in which the reflection was more
> “real” than the physical form visible to the eye).
>
> All these cases can in some way liken back to a Christian mystery or an
> attempt to pierce the veil of the unknown.
>
> UNANSWERED QUESTIONS:
>
> Is this a town in Austria, as I have assumed, or in Bavaria proper or even
> the Swiss Alps? The Count von V – answers only to the Queen Regent (there
> was a prince regent in Bavaria during this time period, and we definitely
> have trains), a Queen Regent I cannot seem to locate in early 20th
> century history near Germany. Can we place the date and city with more
> exactitude, and is the identification of the “late” emperor who popularized
> a certain kind of mustache and beard not Franz Joseph I, who died in 1916?
> From the mention of Freud, who did not publish his *Interpretation of
> Dreams* until 1899-1900 and did not have his group meetings until the
> early parts of the 20th century, this story is actually a 20th century
> tale, but is definitely set before World War II. Could it be after World
> War I? I feel as if the dissolution of German monarchs in 1918, with its
> kingdoms of Prussia, Bavaria, Austria, Saxony, and Wurrtenberg is
> definitely yet to come (what a mess those nations were, making placement of
> this city almost impossible – setting a fairly narrow window of time in
> which the action could occur.)
>
> When Fraulein A-- says “they are not our police”, does she refer to the
> fact that they do not work for the people, or that they are a foreign
> occupying force?
>
> Why are the dreams striking this city in particular? Is there a larger
> reason for the substantiation of divine warning here? Could it be related
> to the events that are about to occur in German history and the widespread
> persecution of the Jews? Or are we to see it as individual warnings?
>
> CONNECTION TO OTHER WORKS:
>
> The overtly Christian works are rarely as unabashed as “The Detective of
> Dreams”, and certainly this has much in common with his Sherlock Holmes
> pastiches, though it is more serious. This story's metaphysical
> underpinnings in which the spiritual world has more of reality than our
> physical world can also be found in “Trip, Trap.”
>
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-- 
Dan'l Danehy-Oakes
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