dreamless thus unsane

**Pheets** · April 27th, 2010

"Dreamless since childhood and thus unsane..." this line from Dreamcatcher about Kurtz drove me crazy because I knew it was a reference to another book. I finally figured it out - it's something SK talks about in "Danse Macabre" - the beginning of "The Haunting of Hill House" by Shirley Jackson: " No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane..."

I love all the cultural references heavily sprinkled throughout SK's books; getting one of them makes me feel so smart!

Now do I get a merit badge for this?

**Moderator** · April 28th, 2010

Here you go

Attachment 6414

**GNTLGNT** · April 28th, 2010

Pheets, keep reading and gleaning(if gleaning is legal in your area), coz those references are everywhere-kinda like "Chickenman"(now THERE'S an obscure reference)

**Pheets** · April 28th, 2010

Thanks! Now to find room for it on my sash...

**Pheets** · April 28th, 2010

I do my gleaning in the wee hours under deep cover, so never been caught yet, no matter what the prevailing statutes.

The "sleepless yet unsane" one is not my first, but it did bug me because I couldn't place it right away, hence my delight when I finally solved it. But "Chickenman" - do you mean the chicken farmer from Dreamcatcher? or is it in another book? I've read almost all of them in the last several months; this has been my Stephen King year, it seems. (I read over 200 books a year).