{"code":"dreams","title":"Living the Dream","has_text":true,"collection_type":"theme","subroute":"dreams","header_1":"Living the Dream","header_2":"Our second lives in perfect worlds.","description":"A collection of short stories on living a second life. Read or download. Celephaïs by H. P. Lovecraft, The Planet of the Dead by Clark Ashton Smith, A Dream of Armageddon by H. G. Wells.","quote":{"quote":"“Overhead in the sky something flashed and burst, and all about us I heard the bullets making a noise like a handful of peas suddenly thrown.” * A Dream of Armageddon","code":"a-dream-of-armageddon"},"image":true,"image_alt":"A pencil sketch of a sillhouetted man and woman kissing as biplanes shoot at them from the horizon over the sea.","image_filter":"contrast(2.5) brightness(2) saturate(0.4) hue-rotate(282deg)","image_title":"A Dream of Armageddon - Sketch","image_code":"a-dream-of-armageddon","stories":[{"story":"mr-skelmersdale-in-fairyland","description":"The narrator comes to a town and discovers that a man named Mr. Skelmersdale has a notorious tale about being taken away by fairies. He tries to befriend Skelmersdale and fish out this story but the man is hesitant, having been mocked by others for its preposterousness. Eventually, Skelmersdale opens up, telling of a strange experience he had in a ring of mushrooms out in the forest.\n*Mr. Skelmersdale in Fairyland* examines the fantasy of the perfect woman, and the consequences of falling in love with her."},{"story":"the-door-in-the-wall","description":"Lionel Wallace discovered the *Door* when he was five years old. Inside was a paradisal garden filled with beautiful sites, animals, and people. But throughout the rest of his life whenever he chances upon the door again, he finds himself too busy to enter. Eventually, he begins to regret never taking the chance to see the garden again more and more.\n*The Door in the Wall* has many interpretations, but strikes at the heart of our sense of nostalgia and imagination."},{"story":"a-dream-of-armageddon","description":"While reading a book on dreaming, a man is approached by a stranger who is eager to talk about the subject. The stranger chronicles a romantic series of dreams that unfolded to him over many nights of sleep, and which he struggled to separate from reality.\n*A Dream of Armageddon* calls to us who think we are too old for fantasies of adventure, and beckons us to rekindle our childish dreams."},{"story":"the-chain-of-aforgomon","description":"In the diary of a disappeared man is found the story of his attempts to see into his past lives through the use of an occult drug. In his adventures, however, he discovered that his two lives are much more connected than he had assumed.\nClark Ashton Smith creates a rich, deep universe in *The Chain of Aforgomon* that is well worth getting lost in."},{"story":"the-planet-of-the-dead","description":"Francis Melchior, a curious and nostalgic man is looking at a star when he falls unconscious and wakes up as if his entire mundane, human life had been a dream.\n*The Planet of the Dead* challenges us with the theory that our human lives are inferior to the lives of our very own dreams."},{"story":"polaris","description":"Under the light of the North Pole Star a man has visions of a ghostly city that become stronger and stronger each time, eventually allowing him to move and interact with as an inhabitant.\n*Polaris* introduces Lovecraft’s more anguished and desperate desire for dream-worlds and the escape from a mundane reality."},{"story":"the-silver-key","description":"Randolph Carter journeys to his ancestral home to rekindle the dreams of his youth, dreams which have been replaced with a jaded reality. \n*The Silver Key* is written with a beautiful mastery of language, and shows us  what we have lost from growing old whether we want to see it or not."},{"story":"celephais","description":"A man dreams of a majestic city above the sea full of glorious knights, rivers and ships. Desperate to return, he drugs himself to sleep over and over.\n*Celephaïs* presents the tragic, fatal conclusion to a man unable to accept his life over the temptation of a dream."}]}