Science Fiction, Fate, and Depth Psychology Collide in New Book StarDreaming
Maureen B. Roberts’ relationship with Award-winning science fiction author Damien Broderick began with bizarre events that, decades later, resulted in her new book, StarDreaming: Letters from a Mystic to a Science Fiction Author.
Roberts dreamed their entire relationship - including how it was doomed to end - several months before it began. Such was the unsettling boat she found herself in, one fateful day in July 1994. That afternoon, she’d mentioned Broderick’s work in a paper she presented at a Melbourne science fiction conference, unaware that he was sitting in the front row.
Following her presentation, Roberts chatted briefly with Broderick. That night she was stunned by a long, vivid and intensely impactful dream in which the two of them, at first seated outdoors, seemed to be represented, or mirrored by twin stars rapidly orbiting one other overhead, hence the title of her book.
Widely regarded as Australia’s ‘dean of science fiction’, Broderick had at the time amassed an impressive body of work that included his cyberpunk novel The Judas Mandala, which coined the term ‘virtual reality’ in 1982. His award-winning The Dreaming Dragons featured in David Pringle's Science Fiction: The 100 Best Novels [1949-84] and was chosen as the year's best by Kingsley Amis.
Roberts’ powerful dream foreshadowed not only their two year relationship, but also their sometimes playful, at other times emotionally volatile exchange of letters that shed light on how their predestined situation became challenging, enlightening, yet eventually conflicted.
Award-winning author, editor and critic Dr Terry Dowling sums up StarDreaming as an ‘intriguing glimpse into a fully engaged, creative mind - candid, intimate, effortlessly wise and easily persuasive, all this with sparks rising up . . .’
A two-time university literary Prize winner, Roberts, who has practiced for decades as a depth psychotherapist, brought her understanding and experience of Jungian psychiatry, literature and mysticism to her letters to Broderick. They amount to a colourful banquet of personal anecdotes, scholarly and science fiction oriented discussions, psychospiritual reflections, scientific philosophy, and personal friction. In the end, their nonetheless mostly affectionate relationship ended as the dream foretold it would—with Broderick unable to handle the emotional tension and eventually removing himself from it.
Roberts rediscovered the letters while dumping old computer files and was immediately intrigued and captivated, given that she’d forgotten most of their content. While none of Broderick’s letters are included in the book, he did insert edited versions of some of them into his science fiction novel, The White Abacus.
In 1994 Roberts was also busy writing the first draft of her epic science fantasy myth, An Era in Anddemar, which she discusses several times in StarDreaming. Broderick believed in the novel’s vision and made overtures to HarperCollins on her behalf. Fast-forward 32 years and remarkably, both StarDreaming and An Era in Anddemar are being published within a few months of each other.
It took three full drafts and years of painstaking revisions before Roberts arrived at a final version of An Era in Anddemar that she was pleased with. ‘Having the two linked books released so closely together can be viewed as an instance of what Jung called synchronicity,’ she says, ‘a meaningful coincidence in time between two events that signals a deeper significance beyond our conscious intent, or control.’
StarDreaming is by no means light reading. It will likely find its audience among imaginative, intelligent, deeply reflective lovers and students of science fiction, Jungian psychology, relationship dynamics, philosophy (as the ‘love of wisdom’), and transformative spiritual experiences.
The term ‘StarDreaming’ also carries a dual meaning. The book ends with a brief discussion of several other, hugely impactful dreams that Roberts experienced between 1994-97, involving two big ‘stars’ of the 1990s: legendary Formula 1 World Champion Ayrton Senna, and Princess Diana.
StarDreaming has been published by 6th Books, an Imprint of Collective Ink Books, but Roberts published An Era in Anddemar through her own Imprint, Vandrassian Press. ‘I knew a traditional publishing editor would probably slash a lot of the descriptive detail, as well as modify the elevated prose style,’ she says. ‘I needed to stay true to the vision, rather than pander to publishing norms regarding tone, language, and narrative pacing. Anddemar bucks pretty well every current literary trend, simply because the vision demanded it.’