Steve Malley has another great blog post on writing. Well worth checking out. As for me, I'm putting the finishing touches on my dream presentation for tomorrow, but between that and turning in mid-terms this last week I haven't had much time for my own writing.
Here's another of my weird dreams:
I'm planning to kill someone and creep up to their house to look through their windows. My vision wavers and is discolored, like looking through a flame and seeing objects on the other side. I seem to be hallucinating. I find an open window and slip inside.
My point-of-view shifts and I find myself in bed upstairs in my house. A sound has awakened me and I get up and go out to the landing. I see a man at the bottom of the stairs. He's holding a knife. With a shock of terror I realize that the man is me. But this me looks bestial; body hunched, hands curled, drool sliding from his lips.
My viewpoint switches again, and now I'm looking up the stairs. I see myself at the top of the stairs, without a knife, but again everything is distorted and wavering. I growl and rush up the steps toward my other self.
Viewpoint switch. I'm the me at the top of the stairs. I realize I can't escape. I leap down to meet myself. The bestial side of me slashes with the knife but I close with him, grabbing his wrist to stop the blade. We struggle, and I get a foot behind his leg, tripping him. He pulls me down on top of him and we go thrashing down the stairs. I switch personalities and viewpoints back and forth as we roll down and down, our limbs windmilling.
We hit the pine-wood floor at the bottom of the stairs with a whumpf that shakes the house. One me stands up, chest heaving, breathing wildly. The other lies still, legs and arms akimbo, the blade of the knife standing up from his chest. I look around the house. Although I don't see any visual distortions it occurs to me that I'm not sure which of us survived.
Somewhere in the house there is wild laughter.
18 comments:
I wish I had dreams of like this, so interesting. Is it recurring?
Does it always end like this, with laughter and all?
The theme of fighting the beast within is an impressive subject!
If you can steer your dreams, you might try for making the two befriending. Does that seem possible? Does it sound appealing, or do you prefer the fight?
Sorry for asking too much! I'm wishing you luck with the lecture on the Pagan Festival.
I'd say this is about an inner conflict, not a beast. What are you repressing that really wants to be expressed???
cool dream, though. I have point of view switches in dreams all the time, but I find that most people don't recognize that they are doing this when they dream, or they aren't doing it at all. Not sure which is the case, but I'd bet on the latter.
In my last dream I couldn't seem to find the right elevator to get where I was going. I kept winding up everywhere but work.
Creepy. Some would say these are nightmares...I know I would.
Good luck with your dream lecture.
Ah, the Ego grapples with bestial, unchained Id: the heart of every werewolf tale!
Sounds like the process of indivuation goes well!
Whoah, wow. I'll go with the other comments. Doppelganger, Jekyl/Hide. More visceral when its yourself, I can imagine. . . . .
You used to hear that if you died in your dream, you died for real. But if you kill your own self - like not suicide - but like - there's another self, and you go and kill him, what then...
I've had a lot of dreams about taking curves way to fast and either flying off into water or trees
Maybe you should lay off the pepperoni pizza before you go to bed.
I used to have dreams that I was being chased down staircases by soldiers from a foreign army. These were recurring dreams, and the soldiers were always just behind me. I could hear them, but they were out of my line of vision. I always woke up before they caught me.
I thought the same thing wrttnwrd said--this is about an inner conflit.
Sorry to say it like this, but it sounds like a great movie. Something that would keep one riveted to the seat!
Wow, almost a complete episode of a horror anthology show. I hope I don't have dreams now of a menacing Charles Gramlich outside my window. Or a Charles/Stewart duo having me cornered like "Wait Until Dark" or something with Wayne Sallee waiting to drive getaway.
I did think sort of befriending would happen, but the end didn't disappoint!
Good luck at the festival:)
I think you're meeting a Buddha on the road.
Szelsofa, I'm glad I do have them. They are a lot of fun.
Writtenwyrd, this dream happened a number of years ago. One of the events in my life taking place at that time was an inner struggle over my personal religious beliefs. That's a possible conflict but I'm not sure certainly.
Marsha, thanks for stopping by. I have dreams like that, usually when my mind is kind of "all over the place" and I'm not able to focus on one particular task.
Travis, a good nightmare is an excellent muse.
Steve Malley, lol. I'm always aware that the beast is just biding his time.
Erik, from the nature of the dream it seems like I would have just read Jeckyl and Hyde but it was years earlier and I don't remember any themes like that in movies at the time I had the dream. Of course, such things linger long.
Bobby, thanks for dropping by. I have died in dreams and still lived. I've had lots of dreams of riding wheelies on my bikes although I've almost always had bikes that were too front-end heavy to make wheelies practical.
Josie, it was more likely a six pack of beer. I haven't had too many modern type soldiers in my dreams, but quite a few sword swingers.
Church Lady, I was pretty riveted during the dream myself. I haven't written it as a story because it seems kind of too straightforward, and too one dimensional. But it was cool.
Sidney, you should find better friends to hang out with man, me, Wayne and Stewart are definetely not good influences. Oddly, I had a dream two nights ago where you and me and Wayne were having beers in a bar in Chicago.
Danny, maybe that would be a better ending. If I write it as a story I'll have to consider that.
Bernita, that is certainly the most original interpretation I've heard. What an ugly Buddha I made in the dream, though these days I have the belly for it.
That's a cool dream! I've never fought myself in dreams, only in my waking hours. My big recurring dream is trying to find old places I used to live and not being able to. Don't need to page Dr. Freud to figure that one out!
Oddly, I had a dream two nights ago where you and me and Wayne were having beers in a bar in Chicago.
Aw, darnit! And nobody thought to invite me along? I was only an hour away!
Very interesting dream. Wondering if I should send someone to check on Lana... :)
Michelle, I used to have a recurring dream about finding a girlfriend I had at the time and never being able to. Much like real life.
Kate, Lana would have kicked my ass so you needn't worry about her.
Try my dreams on for size, no character, no dialogue, no pictures, nothing but pure black space. Not even a me in there just pure utter darkness and then consciousness that is real, waking up from whatever I had just been through but it sure as hell didn't feel like sleep.
mark
I'm not sure whether I'm glad I don't have these dreams, or jealous because my subconscious is obviously so boring!
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