Koma som konst
Creative writingComaMetaphors of comaDreamsUnconciousnessTraumaInner dreamscapesNightmaresESPUnderwaterJourneys in Dream and ImaginationArtur LundkvistA Kind of AlaskaHarold PinterBody and soulDualismThe Descendents
In my work as speech and language pathologist I often meet people emerging from coma andtheir experiences intrigue me. Coma is an eluding human condition that offers a challenge formodern science and our view on body and mind. In my Master project in Creative Writing Iwanted to try to enter this zone that is so hard for a clinician to reach: the personal experienceof being in a coma. By writing HUSK MIDAS I have tried to create a realistic fiction based onresearch on coma state and real-life stories of people waking up from coma.In my exploration of the coma state I found that lucid dreaming is common apart fromdreaming, many patients experience sensory inputs like sound and touch which aremisinterpreted and woven into dreams and creating a feeling of confusion and fear.Coma is a frequent theme in literature and film but is often depicted unrealistically andmisleadingly. A few works like Artur Lundkvist?s Journeys in Dream and Imagination andthe film The Descendents by Alexander Payne show a more reality based fiction. While themedical care has the responsibility to provide accurate information and make important healthcare decisions regardless of possible public misconceptions, fiction helps us to dramatize thecoma experience and bring to life this marginalized and otherwise non-communicable state ofthe human condition.