(no subject)

[skygiants]

In a dream I had last night, I was trying to explain Dick Francis novels to someone.

Note: I have never read a Dick Francis novel.

"OK," I said, "look, it's not a series, the protagonists are all different -- they're all mystery novels about horses but the horses play a different role in each book, like, the horses are always plot-relevant but they're not the same ... horses ..."

"That doesn't make any sense," he said, "how can you write twenty different mystery novels that aren't a series and are all about horses?"

So I tried to pull up rachelmanija's Dick Francis tag to demonstrate, but something was wrong with the internet and it kept redirecting us places I didn't want to go, and the end result was that he never did believe me about Dick Francis and it was deeply frustrating.

This is the only dream of mine I've remembered in months.  Apparently my subconscious is very keen to explain that it doesn't believe Dick Francis novels exist. 

Comments

[misbegotten]

For some reason, this cracked me up. Maybe because I am a Dick Francis fan, and your dream attempt to explain the books is spot on. Heh.

[skygiants]

People have tried to explain Dick Francis novels to me many times! All I know for sure is "SO MANY HORSES. Allllll the horses."

[rachelmanija]

Horses, competence porn, hurt-comfort.

[ceitfianna]

Yes, that's him all the way. As another fan of his work this is a perfect summation of all of them.

[skygiants]

Well, according to my subconscious, you would know!

[sovay]

Apparently my subconscious is very keen to explain that it doesn't believe Dick Francis novels exist.

It is true that it's not the most likely hook for a mystery series.

[skygiants]

Dream!Becca was very clear on the point that it is not a series! Just a series of unrelated novels that, by wild coincidence, all happen to feature horses.

[ceitfianna]

That's actually a fairy accurate description of his novels which I always enjoy, but not the most complex of stories.

[skygiants]

NEVER THE SAME MYSTERY-SOLVING HORSES TWICE

[likeadeuce]

As a young reader, my favorite book was 'anything with a horse on the cover,' which explains why Dick Francis was one of my first forays into 'popular fiction aimed at adults.' It literally didn't occur to me that there was anything weird about the setup until reading this post!

[skygiants]

I don't think it's actually all that weird, in the grand scheme of things, but you have to admit it's a LOT of mysteries about horses.

[likeadeuce]

Occasionally I would pick up one where the horses were REALLY peripheral and 15 year old me would be like 'what is this bullshit? I was promised horses.'

[brownbetty]

Like the one where it's *paintings* of horses, which seems weaksauce to me.

[likeadeuce]

Garbage :(

[st_aurafina]

You're surprisingly spot-on with your description!

[skygiants]

I've apparently osmosed a lot about Dick Francis!

[katta]

I've only read four Dick Francis novels, and they were a series, so I'm probably not qualified to say, but it never felt weird to me that they were about horses? Everything has to be set somewhere, a race course seemed as good as anything. And the setting and characters of an Agatha Christie novel are much the same regardless of the protagonist...

[skygiants]

I'm mostly just impressed at how many different ways to work in horses the man seems to have. Set at a race course! Set in a stable! Set during a HORSE HEIST! Set on a HORSE-INHABITED DESERT ISLAND!!

[katta]

LOL! Maybe I should read some other Dick Francis novels. I just haven't felt like it. I read the Sid Halley books because Roseveare sent them to me, and I got attached to the characters, not the writing style.

[rmc28]

Wait, which one is the desert island?

[snippy]

LOL Try explaining Dorothy Dunnett's Dolly series (which is a series), in which the first person narrator is not the recurring protagonist, but is a different first person in each book!

[skygiants]

But at least there is a recurring protagonist! I would understand the Dick Francis novels better if there was, for ex., a recurring horse.

(I read all of those that my library had when I was young and going through my Dunnett phase, but 'all of them the library had' was only, like, two.)