‘Burning seems to be one of your obsessions,’ she said. ‘A burning giraffe, a burnt face (in two stories), and even a parched adjutant.’ I said I didn’t understand what she was driving at, so she sat down to write (and doodle) the following interpretation: In dreams we entertain recurring images, strung together sometimes in surprising ways. Since these stories purport to be surrealistic, it is valid to examine them as strings of dream-images. The conscious mind of Mr Sladek may try to disguise these images by elaborate transformations, but the dream-content shows through. Burning for example occurs throughout the collection: The first story mentions burning giraffes, and the last ends with an explosion. Another (flaming) explosion ends Secret of the Old Custard, while other stories (The Face, The Master Plan and The Locked Room) involve burning or parching. The Great Wall of Mexico is an interesting disguise of the Great Wall of China (china is of course fired clay): The Emperor who built the Great Wall, Shih Huang Ti, ‘likewise ordered all books antedating him to be burned’.
