Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Feed Your Head


It’s been a while since I've had a good alien dream but I had an interesting one last night. Earth suffered two alien invasions in succession. The first one involved a very human appearing species who could often pass for us unless you really knew what to look for. They were generally taller and thinner than us, and always had black eyes that held an unusual shine. They initially attacked right at Christmas and were able to cause tremendous disruption by attacking shopping centers and traffic hubs. Lana and I were getting gas in our car when one such attack occurred, and we were able to make a break through the resulting traffic snarl and escape into the countryside. I saw the police respond and shoot some of the aliens, but they had some kind of shielding that stopped the bullets. All you’d see was a kind of shimmer when the bullets struck them, like heat waves.

Although the aliens quickly took over most of earth, a large human underground resistance formed. We found that we could kill them even when they were shielded by using edged weapons that could be pushed slowly through their defense fields. We also discovered that they didn't wear their shielding all the time. At one point, I and another group of guerrillas broke into an alien TV station and were able to shoot up many aliens who were unshielded in what they thought was a safe area.

The resistance forced the aliens into a peace treaty and we found that, in fact, we could co-exist. Before long we were living with one another instead of against one another. In fact, when the second invasion came, I was at a football game with an alien friend of mine and was studying the program booklet, which told us which of the players were alien and which human. The tall, thin aliens seemed to be particularly prominent at the wide-receiver position.

As we were at the game, these small, crab-like aliens suddenly came floating down all over the place. One landed at our feet. It tried to snap my human-like alien friend with its claws and he stomped on it. We knew instantly that they were aliens and it was an invasion, but we laughed at how easily it was going to be for us to repel the new invasion. Then the crab creatures deployed their technology. Each was wearing some kind of machine harness around their bodies, and when they pressed a red button a virtual armored suit formed around them, kind of like what they used to call a Waldo. When they opened fire from these suits we realized we weren't going to defeat them so easily.

I woke up after that so I don’t know whether we won or not. I guess we did since I’m still here blogging this morning. What I did realize when I woke up is that the image/idea materials for the dream had been cobbled together out of stuff I've been reading and watching lately. Since school has been out I've been indulging myself with reading and movies. I've been “feeding my head,” and that’s what my brain was using to construct the dream. I’d watched the movie Arrival, about an alien invasion; I’d watched Avatar again last night. I've been reading some Star Trek and watching reruns. I read a book about terrorists trying to use biological warfare on the US. I noted there was going to be a remake of Red Dawn. I watched The Bourne Legacy, which involved a guy shooting up a research laboratory. I read a horror/western about spider-like (or crab-like) demons. Put all that together and you have many of the elements of my dream.

In other words, if you want to have weird dreams like mine, remember what the door mouse said: Feed your head.
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26 comments:

Cloudia said...

To much junk food fiction? Lol! Actually interesting dreams. I see why you can create compelling tales.
Aloha

BernardL said...

The good part is you held onto it for quite a while, at least enough for two invasions and a war. :)

Prashant C. Trikannad said...

A dream well told, Charles. Do I see an sf novel coming? For a change it's nice to see an alien for a friend than a foe.

laughingwolf said...

y're lucky, i rarely recall dreams any more :(

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dormouse

Charles Gramlich said...

Cloudia, I'm also reading a couple of nonfiction science related tomes, but they don't give me cool dreams.

Bernard, I know. At one point I woke up, thought about the dream a bit, then went back to sleep and picked up the dream again.

Prashant, yeah it was kind of interesting. Maybe an SF novel in the future. I haven't written many.

Laughingwolf, I was starting to wonder if I was going to recall any good ones again. Am glad this one came.

Randy Johnson said...

Feed your head indeed. I think I caught hints of DUNE-you read that one?-in one part of your dream.

Deka Black said...

That's the most weird dream you telled us! A good one indeed. Football with Aliens (that sounds like a slice of life book!)

sage said...

I must be feeding my head too much as I have never had an alien dream and I dream all the time and remember most. It sounds like you have the making for a book here!

Vesper said...

Gotta love how the brain works! LOL
It's great that you can recall your dreams - and such interesting ones!

laughingwolf said...

yes, so vividly detailed, too

Charles Gramlich said...

Randy, I have read the first five Dune books. The first is one of my favorites of all time.

Deka, it was kind of cool. I wish I could draw the program book I saw.

Sage, perhaps you read more tasteful literature. :)

Vesper, I was glad to have this one. Been something of a dream drought around here.

Laughngwolf, :)

pattinase (abbott) said...

I doubt I have had an alien dream but I have apocalypse dreams all the time.

Oscar Case said...

Thanks for telling what you read and saw. I'll be certain to avoid them -chuckle, chuckle.

Golden Eagle said...

I like how sequential your dream was. My dreams are usually fragments that don't make sense put together.

nephite blood spartan heart said...

Very interesting. I'd like top see where you could continue on with that.

Last night I had a particularly vivid dream that I was Thorin Oakenshield and was debating with Peter Jackson on what I would really do rather than what happens in the movie, - it went off into cool but non-Tolkien realms.

I would be tempted to write some of it down, but don't ever want to be considered derivative and just copying Tolkien.

Ron Scheer said...

I wouldn't say this normally, but I think you need to go back to work.

Adventuresfantastic said...

I have to wonder if there was any eggnog consumed earlier in the evening. :)

I usually don't remember my dreams with that much details. The few times I have, they've been pretty involved.

jodi said...

Charles, if I were you, I'd never close my eyes. I thought it was Jefferson Airplane that said 'feed your head'!

Riot Kitty said...

I never have cool dreams like that. Mostly, I have nightmares that I sleep with my boss (and enjoy it.)

X. Dell said...

You know, I've always wondered about Randy Moss. He has black eyes too, you know.

Charles Gramlich said...

Patti, I have had those. Always enjoyed em.

Oscar, come on, give it a chance. :)

Golden Eagle, there were some confusing parts but mostly it hung together pretty well.

David J., you could write it down, then twist it and twist it until it's yours.

Ron, heck no. It's just getting good.

Keith, actually, I did have a glass of eggnog with some Jack Daniels in it. But not much.

Jodi, yes, I believe the line is from White Rabbit. It goes "Remember what the dormouse said, feed your head."

Riot Kitty, egads, that would suck. :)

X. Dell, hum, yes he does match the description. And plays football.

Ty said...

Dreams are a funny thing. You can train yourself to remember them. I had a class in college that focused on dreams, and I took part in a study for remembering dreams, mainly with the goal of inducing lucid dreaming (in which one is aware he or she is dreaming, with the possibility of taking control of the dream). I never managed to have a lucid dream experience, not that I could tell or remember, but I did become quite adept at remembering my dreams, and still remember many from that period. It's mostly a matter of maintaining focus upon waking, and it helps to keep a pen and pad next to the bed, though a form of meditation before sleep did seem to help.

Nowadays I rarely remember my dreams, but I don't try to.

As for dreams affecting my fiction, it's happened a few times, but not all that often.

Charles Gramlich said...

Ty, I talk about that quite a bit in my classes. I tend to spontaneously remember dreams but mostly when I'm well rested and not under a lot of stress. I have had lucid dreams quite often. Haven't had one in a while, though

Travis Cody said...

Feed your head indeed. Interesting idea about a human resistance forcing some kind of alien capitulation and ultimately a coexistence.

Unknown said...

Crab people, crab people...look like crab, talk like people.

Charles Gramlich said...

Travis Cody, might be an interesting story.

Lana, indeed!.