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Published On: Dec 09, 2003 10:43 AM
Total entries in this category:
Published On: Dec 09, 2003 10:43 AM
Continuing the Theme of Dreams
I had a strange series of dreams last night that kept
coming back to a (slightly comical) theme. There was this plant that had the
unique quality that its leaves were able to detatch and wander around (on two
little feet) looking for food and nutrients that the plant wasn't able to get on
its own.
I had a strange series of dreams last night that kept
coming back to a (slightly comical) theme. There was this plant that had the
unique quality that its leaves were able to detatch and wander around (on two
little feet) looking for food and nutrients that the plant wasn't able to get on
its own. There was just something so cute and comical about these little walking
leaves. (I think they even had little high-pitched chattery voices to complete
the effect.) Many of the dream "threads" involved trying to track down and
collect one of these plants.
While I'm writing about dreams I figured I would insert a dream that I'd had maybe half a year ago. (March 20th to be exact.) I remember waking from it so frightened that I was afraid to go back to sleep lest I return to the same place. After about 5 minutes of know I was unwilling to sleep I got up, went into the living room and typed the dream down into my laptop. In the morning I'd completely forgot about the entire thing (funny thing, memory) and it wasn't until I was going through my "writings" folder on my hard disk that I'd uncovered a file called "Nighhtmare.rtf".
My apologies if the thing isn't totally clear. It's hard to make sense of a dream in a narrative context, and I also don't have the time right now to go through the process of editing it.
Nightmare
A starship is flying toward some known apocalypse on or near some unknown planet. As it hovers along we see the ground is covered by nothing but dry landscapes with the ruins of farm buildings and old rural structures. Everything is covered by the straw-colored grasses like a field during the winter that yet has no snow. The landscape has the look and effect of a Edward Gorey pencil sketch that has been shaped out of straw.
We (the crew of the starship) become increasingly interested in this landscape and go down to investigate. Like a fractal, the closer we come to examine the more detail is revealed to us: within these structures--old decaying wood buildings all of them--there are figures of people, but not people: they are figures of straw shaped like the rough pencil sketches of people. A head is represented by a few oval loops of straw, tied together at a point. An arm is like a few rough pencil strokes.
All the figures are assembled portraying permutations of the same scene: there are doctors and there are patients and they all seem panicked. In some cases the oval faces have oval mouths aping the expressions of eternal silent screams. (Like the famous Picasso nightmare painting.) Everywhere you look it is the same, like a pencil drawing that a obsessive child has drawn again and again and again. Different doctors, different patients, some on beds, some in examining rooms (the equipment also made in rough brush-stoke straw configurations), some in their homes.
The captain and a small crew of the starship are in some old wooden building, looking at one of these nightmare scenes. There is an old wash-basin in the building with some water in it. The captain is angry at the puzzle before him and in a fit of frustration splashes some water on one of the scenes. Suddenly among the colorless landscape of grays and straw-tones, there is some color, exactly like someone applied some watercolors to the pencil-sketch. You can even see the texture of the watercolor paper!
The captain splashes some more water on the scene and the formerly abstract and roughly-defined scene takes more shape. The "pencil lines" are more carefully drawn and the colors are more carefully applied. In essence a small snippet of the scene starts to take shape before our eyes. Specifically we are "uncovering" one single doctor and one single patient. The captain keep splashing water on the scene, excited that he is about to uncover this mystery.
Suddenly I realize his folly, perhaps too late! If he "uncovers" this scene so much that the doctor and patient become real, then whatever medical nightmare (more specifically, whatever fictional "affliction or disease" that has caused this never-ending mayhem of screaming, tortured people will affect us and the entire ships crew will die a mysterious and horrible death. I scream and beg the captain to stop and I watch in horror as he uncovers this deadly riddle, condemning all of us (and maybe ultimately all of humanity) to the same horrible death.
While I'm writing about dreams I figured I would insert a dream that I'd had maybe half a year ago. (March 20th to be exact.) I remember waking from it so frightened that I was afraid to go back to sleep lest I return to the same place. After about 5 minutes of know I was unwilling to sleep I got up, went into the living room and typed the dream down into my laptop. In the morning I'd completely forgot about the entire thing (funny thing, memory) and it wasn't until I was going through my "writings" folder on my hard disk that I'd uncovered a file called "Nighhtmare.rtf".
My apologies if the thing isn't totally clear. It's hard to make sense of a dream in a narrative context, and I also don't have the time right now to go through the process of editing it.
Nightmare
A starship is flying toward some known apocalypse on or near some unknown planet. As it hovers along we see the ground is covered by nothing but dry landscapes with the ruins of farm buildings and old rural structures. Everything is covered by the straw-colored grasses like a field during the winter that yet has no snow. The landscape has the look and effect of a Edward Gorey pencil sketch that has been shaped out of straw.
We (the crew of the starship) become increasingly interested in this landscape and go down to investigate. Like a fractal, the closer we come to examine the more detail is revealed to us: within these structures--old decaying wood buildings all of them--there are figures of people, but not people: they are figures of straw shaped like the rough pencil sketches of people. A head is represented by a few oval loops of straw, tied together at a point. An arm is like a few rough pencil strokes.
All the figures are assembled portraying permutations of the same scene: there are doctors and there are patients and they all seem panicked. In some cases the oval faces have oval mouths aping the expressions of eternal silent screams. (Like the famous Picasso nightmare painting.) Everywhere you look it is the same, like a pencil drawing that a obsessive child has drawn again and again and again. Different doctors, different patients, some on beds, some in examining rooms (the equipment also made in rough brush-stoke straw configurations), some in their homes.
The captain and a small crew of the starship are in some old wooden building, looking at one of these nightmare scenes. There is an old wash-basin in the building with some water in it. The captain is angry at the puzzle before him and in a fit of frustration splashes some water on one of the scenes. Suddenly among the colorless landscape of grays and straw-tones, there is some color, exactly like someone applied some watercolors to the pencil-sketch. You can even see the texture of the watercolor paper!
The captain splashes some more water on the scene and the formerly abstract and roughly-defined scene takes more shape. The "pencil lines" are more carefully drawn and the colors are more carefully applied. In essence a small snippet of the scene starts to take shape before our eyes. Specifically we are "uncovering" one single doctor and one single patient. The captain keep splashing water on the scene, excited that he is about to uncover this mystery.
Suddenly I realize his folly, perhaps too late! If he "uncovers" this scene so much that the doctor and patient become real, then whatever medical nightmare (more specifically, whatever fictional "affliction or disease" that has caused this never-ending mayhem of screaming, tortured people will affect us and the entire ships crew will die a mysterious and horrible death. I scream and beg the captain to stop and I watch in horror as he uncovers this deadly riddle, condemning all of us (and maybe ultimately all of humanity) to the same horrible death.
Posted: Fri - November 14, 2003 at 11:51 AM