what does" start"mean here?

16:27 Dec 6, 2014 

I read it in the sense e.g. of Robert Harris' Fatherland - What if Heydrich had just ordered his driver to accelerate in Prague?

13:53 Dec 6, 2014 

I think George's word, "premise", is the key here. "Start" doesn't mean start in a narrative sense; it doesn't mean that the question "What if?" is the first thing that happens. For that reason, I don't think "start with" is the right way of putting it. It's more a matter of "start from". It means start in the logical sense of being based on something. In other words, it's referring to dreaming about events or impressions that occur if something counterfactual is, or is not, the case. Like a dream that starts from the idea "What if I could fly?". It doesn't mean that the narrative sequence in the dream starts with learning to fly; it means that being able to fly is a given; the dream starts from (is based on) that premise.

08:59 Dec 6, 2014 

Hi Jack. Let's put it another way: Are we specially prone to a number of wild dreams that start with the premise "What if..."?
Does it make more sense now? I realize the whole thing is rather evident, since I cannot think of any wild dreams that do not start with such a premise, but that's what the text says.
Cheers!

08:48 Dec 6, 2014 

Yes. That makes more sense than my previous suggestion.