Column 17 - Why the Mystical Element in A Dream Across Time?
When we first went to St. Lucia in 1987 we went as tourists. Friends of ours were going to look at land and we went along for a vacation. We stayed at an all inclusive resort and were so transfixed by the island that we ended up eating only breakfasts at the hotel. We were out and about the island at all times. There was no allure to sit in a hotel and look out to sea. There was a magnificent island spread out before us.
At the time St. Lucia was still very much a banana economy and its infrastructure was in need of work to put it mildly. We referred to the roads as containing Toyota eating potholes. We joked that the entire island was lit by one forty watt bulb. But it was as if the spirit of the island took us by the arm and led us away into its adventure.
Our friends did not buy land and we all returned home. But we found ourselves researching the islands to compare St. Lucia and we began to think about maybe buying a little piece of land. We thought we could probably build a small house someday. Upon our return to the island we were again taken by the arm and led away. We purchased a hilltop piece of land and built a house which took over our lives.
Gradually as the years passed the tourist facade fell away and we looked deeper and deeper into the soul of a Caribbean culture.
While I was in graduate school there was something of a Jungian cell at Duke. Sigmund Freud was important but Carl Jung was revered. So, I read his works and became conversant with his views on mythology and human psychology. In St. Lucia I found myself looking through Jung's prism and discovering the mythology which was embedded in the island.
When you look deeply into a culture and its people it is hard to put the experience in ordinary words. We experienced things which did not seem ordinary but had a reality of their own. Some people have felt that A Dream Across Time was somewhat hokey and dealt in stereotypes about mystical native folk. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The only way we could convey the reality of our experience was to enhance it with a mystical and paranormal element. Then we found the true reality was there and we could bring it to our readers. In this spirit we continue the Demontagne saga in the second book, A Circle of Dreams, which comes out in June.
Continue the adventure at www.annierogers.com
When we first went to St. Lucia in 1987 we went as tourists. Friends of ours were going to look at land and we went along for a vacation. We stayed at an all inclusive resort and were so transfixed by the island that we ended up eating only breakfasts at the hotel. We were out and about the island at all times. There was no allure to sit in a hotel and look out to sea. There was a magnificent island spread out before us.
At the time St. Lucia was still very much a banana economy and its infrastructure was in need of work to put it mildly. We referred to the roads as containing Toyota eating potholes. We joked that the entire island was lit by one forty watt bulb. But it was as if the spirit of the island took us by the arm and led us away into its adventure.
Our friends did not buy land and we all returned home. But we found ourselves researching the islands to compare St. Lucia and we began to think about maybe buying a little piece of land. We thought we could probably build a small house someday. Upon our return to the island we were again taken by the arm and led away. We purchased a hilltop piece of land and built a house which took over our lives.
Gradually as the years passed the tourist facade fell away and we looked deeper and deeper into the soul of a Caribbean culture.
While I was in graduate school there was something of a Jungian cell at Duke. Sigmund Freud was important but Carl Jung was revered. So, I read his works and became conversant with his views on mythology and human psychology. In St. Lucia I found myself looking through Jung's prism and discovering the mythology which was embedded in the island.
When you look deeply into a culture and its people it is hard to put the experience in ordinary words. We experienced things which did not seem ordinary but had a reality of their own. Some people have felt that A Dream Across Time was somewhat hokey and dealt in stereotypes about mystical native folk. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The only way we could convey the reality of our experience was to enhance it with a mystical and paranormal element. Then we found the true reality was there and we could bring it to our readers. In this spirit we continue the Demontagne saga in the second book, A Circle of Dreams, which comes out in June.
Continue the adventure at www.annierogers.com
posted by Roger | 4:17 PM
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