[Vocabulary] dream-pun deities

Status
Not open for further replies.

ckok

Member
Joined
Sep 21, 2011
Member Type
Other
Native Language
Turkish
Home Country
Turkey
Current Location
Turkey
William Blake hews our a pantheon of dream-pun deitiesto rule his holy citadel, his Golgonooza.
taken from Alan Moore's Introduction to A Voyage to Arcturus

I know that Golgonooza is an art of work by William Blake. There should be some deities in this literary work, but I cannot understand the meaning of dream-pun, though I know the meaning of the word "pun". Can you please clarify?
Thanks in advance.
 

GoesStation

No Longer With Us (RIP)
Joined
Dec 22, 2015
Member Type
Interested in Language
Native Language
American English
Home Country
United States
Current Location
United States
It means nothing to me. Perhaps its author had a deadline to meet and couldn't think of a meaningful adjective.
 

bhaisahab

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Apr 12, 2008
Member Type
Retired English Teacher
Native Language
British English
Home Country
England
Current Location
Ireland
Where did you find that text, ckok? Are you sure it's not "dream-spun deities"?
 

ckok

Member
Joined
Sep 21, 2011
Member Type
Other
Native Language
Turkish
Home Country
Turkey
Current Location
Turkey
dream pun deities, yes, sorry for the typo.
The text is taken from Alan Moore's Introduction to the novel A Voyage to Arcturus
 

Roman55

Key Member
Joined
Feb 5, 2014
Member Type
Interested in Language
Native Language
British English
Home Country
Italy
Current Location
France
You've just confirmed that it is 'dream pun deities'.
 

bhaisahab

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Apr 12, 2008
Member Type
Retired English Teacher
Native Language
British English
Home Country
England
Current Location
Ireland
Is it "dream pun" or "dream-spun", ckok?
 

ckok

Member
Joined
Sep 21, 2011
Member Type
Other
Native Language
Turkish
Home Country
Turkey
Current Location
Turkey
Yeah, sorry. Definitely it is dream-pun deities. Not dream-spun deities. The meaning of pun doesn't tell me anything in this combination.

The original text: "Alter the vocabulary, change the alphabet and the reality describedis also changed. New form squirms from the syntax. Magic a diseaseof language. William Blake hews our a pantheon of dream-pun deitiesto rule his holy citadel, his Golgonooza. Tolkien, C S Lewis, thereamongst the dreaming spires in Oxford with their over-mappedand over-textured mythopoeic inklings of an underlying landscape,a default Arcadia." It is a very challenging text, indeed.
 

bhaisahab

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Apr 12, 2008
Member Type
Retired English Teacher
Native Language
British English
Home Country
England
Current Location
Ireland
Please give a link to the source of the text.
 

Roman55

Key Member
Joined
Feb 5, 2014
Member Type
Interested in Language
Native Language
British English
Home Country
Italy
Current Location
France

Tdol

No Longer With Us (RIP)
Staff member
Joined
Nov 13, 2002
Native Language
British English
Home Country
UK
Current Location
Japan
I can't help wondering whether it's actually a printing error as dream-spun would fit with the work of someone like Blake. Is it a scan of the text? I ask because there are a couple of other mistakes in it.
 

ckok

Member
Joined
Sep 21, 2011
Member Type
Other
Native Language
Turkish
Home Country
Turkey
Current Location
Turkey
I searched a lot but the text is not to be found on the Internet. I have the scan of the text (scanned from an edition of A Voyage to Arcturus, the introduction part). Unfortunately some characters were changed while copying and pasting here. The text goes like this (I checked it twice, there are no errors now):

"Alter the
vocabulary, change the alphabet and the reality describedis also changed. New form squirms from the syntax. Magic a diseaseof language. William Blake hews out a pantheon of dream-pun deitiesto rule his holy citadel, his Golgonooza. Tolkien, C S Lewis, thereamongst the dreaming spires in Oxford with their over-mappedand over-textured mythopoeic inklings of an underlying landscape,a default Arcadia. Henry Tieece, Nicholas Moore, intoxicated withApocalypse and monged on Dylan Thomas, seeking immanence fromevery bud, from spit-dilutions left in brown glass bottles..."

 

bhaisahab

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Apr 12, 2008
Member Type
Retired English Teacher
Native Language
British English
Home Country
England
Current Location
Ireland
Well, if that's what it says, I have no idea what it's supposed to mean. I wouldn't be surprised if it's a misprint, though.
 

Tdol

No Longer With Us (RIP)
Staff member
Joined
Nov 13, 2002
Native Language
British English
Home Country
UK
Current Location
Japan
This has a number of issues like spacing, so I would guess that dream-pun is a scanning error and it should be dream-spun- the deities are spun (made) from his dream visions. Scanned texts often have such mistakes- you just have to learn to plough through them when you're reading.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top