Jim Shaw
Shaw's not exotic in all ways. Few are lucid or shamanic. And his dreams feature mostly male characters--by my count, at least 2:1. Reportedly that's typical for male American dreamers--as it is for American TV, too, and that's no coincidence. A man's world! (In contrast, my own dreams, and most women's dreams, have ratios around 1:1.)
The samples below are from his book Dreams, a collection based on an art show in January 1995 of pencil drawings of dreams from 1987-95. I count 385 dreams--the largest dream journal ever printed I think, until the uncut edition of Kerouac's Book of Dreams came out in 2001. For a prolific, manic dreamer like this, the couple of dozen sample dreams below can't show the whole range.
RELATED TOPICS: Bibliography: Dreamjournals - chthonic dreams (dreams of the underworld) - guides and animas - blindness, denial, and delusion - Jungian dreams - See also the full INDEX OF SUBJECTS.
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BAD DREAM BOOK: by Jim Shaw; late 1994?, a dream calling his dream art lame I show a friend my book of dream-art, but it's half-baked and embarrassing. I'm no good at smuggling guns, porn or cash through customs, either... CAUTION: LOW-RES SMUT IN THAT BOOK |
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BALLET CURTAIN: by Jim Shaw; c.1994, an odd double dream image Dancers in 18th Century gowns emerged from a curtain with paintings of ballerinas in the same gowns... |
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CELLO CASE: by Jim Shaw; between 1987 & Jan. 1995, an odd dream image I was going to music camp, but I didn't know how to play my cello. A teenager and her mother slept like vampires in her giant cello case... |
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DEATH DATE: by Jim Shaw; 1994 (early?), a possibly predictive shamanic dream I become a werewolf and climb into a strange attic. I find a grave marker for an old friend--but her death date is two years in the future... |
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AN ELECTORAL REFORM: by Jim Shaw; c.1994, a dream-idea that came true In between drawing devil-bunnies, I advocate letting doomed fringe candidates donate their votes to more viable colleagues, letting voters express their real choices, not vote for the lesser evil... CAUTION: POLITICS! |
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FUTURE BOOKS: by Jim Shaw; c.1994, a dream lesson on reading In a repressive, thought-controlled future I find some old banned books; I tell my student "Reading these makes life more interesting--and angry..." |
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THE GIANT: by Jim Shaw; c.1994, a dreamlet on rage about... what? At a beach, a man attacks the genitals, buttocks and thighs of a giant who sits half in the surf, ignoring him... CAUTION: NUDITY, MUTILATION ATTEMPTS |
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GOD SELLS CIGARETTES: by Jim Shaw; c.1994, a sad dream vignette I dreamed God was naked, selling cigarettes in a nightclub... CAUTION: MONOTHEISTIC FALL |
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HOCKEY: by Jim Shaw; c.1994, a flirtatious dream-scene I'm a hockey player. A woman strips to a bikini, wondering if she's attractive. My erection says she is... CAUTION: BRRR! |
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IGUANA: by Jim Shaw; between 1987 & Jan. 1995, two surreal dreamlets on water damage In a flooded room, an indignant iguana scolds me, while my wife Marnie checks her computer implant for water damage... |
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THE IRON WINDOW: by Jim Shaw; between 1987 & Jan. 1995, a grotesque dreamlet Bearded professors call through an iron-barred window shaped like a woman's torso, hoping to lure a nude model to fill it so they can grope... CAUTION: CREEPY |
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JESUS HEADS: by Jim Shaw; c.1994, punning dreamlets of giant... mugs In a museum I see huge Jesus heads with inset saints and figures in pain; then, in our old back yard, huge coffee cups half-sunk in the grass... |
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LETTERMAN: by Jim Shaw; c.1994, a surreal dreamlet Sharon Stone kisses David Letterman, and his head starts distorting as she rants about the film industry's baby-actor monopoly... |
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LOOKING FOR LIBRIUM: by Jim Shaw; Jan. 1995?, a mutant Biblical dream After fighting off an electrified Orson Welles, I meet the twelve vulture-pine-politicians climbing Mt Sinai, looking for librium... |
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THE MAN WHO DESERVED TO DIE: by Jim Shaw; c.1994; a dream of moral rescue I don't want to kill my friend, though his clothes say I must. But a sculptor lets us sit on her metal trees and drink tea instead... |
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MY FUTURE ART: by Jim Shaw; between 1987 & Jan. 1995; a self-fulfilling dream prophecy This woman shows me a book of my art. I'm not sure I want to see them--some pieces are from my future... |
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ORANGE: by Jim Shaw; c.1994; a wordplay dream? A coy, giggling giant orange bounces onto a man's bed, trying to seduce him, and... |
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THE RICH WRECK THE WELL: by Jim Shaw; between 1987 & Jan. 1995, a dream of Heaven A movie version of heaven. Souls line up for rejuvenation from a great fountain. But fat old rich guys crash the line, demanding to be first... CAUTION: UGLY NUDITY, UGLY BEHAVIOR, POLITICALLY PREDICTIVE |
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SIX DREAMS: by Jim Shaw; c.1994, a very busy night! 1: A flooded bathroom becomes 2: a glass water-piano; 3: my friend strips in a restaurant, so 4: they serve me gutted dog. 5: Dolls teach prostitution, as 6: a rhino rubs up to an elephant-bear... |
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SKUNK SEEKS THAILAND: by Jim Shaw; c.1994, a dreamlet of shamanic kindness One night I meet a giant talking skunk and its pup, who asks how to walk to Thailand... |
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SPLITTING THE ATOM: by Jim Shaw; c.1994, an antitherapy dream? In a dark classroom, my shrink was demonstrating atom-splitting with a glowing ping pong ball. I was glad I wasn't in that class... |
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THE SUMMONERS: by Jim Shaw; between 1987 & Jan. 1995, a mysterious dream Two nude women (drawn Wally Wood style) dance ritually in a forest, summoning a worm-snake-dragon with a ring of fangs... CAUTION: NUDITY |
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SWALLOWING NUMBERS: by Jim Shaw; between 1987 & Jan. 1995; a surreal eating dreamlet I was late for something, so I opened my pocket watch and swallowed a bunch of numbers... |
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TEN CLARKS AND LOISES: by Jim Shaw; c.1994, an epic dream on... poseurs? Hand-puppets, a devil and a witch, have sex, and implant a lunar ghost embryo into Lois Lane; now Lois & Clarkes, ten clones each, pretend to be puppets... CAUTION: PUPPET SEX; EVERYONE A FAKE |
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THROATS and SLOT MACHINE: by Jim Shaw; between 1987 & Jan. 1995, two odd dreamlets THROATS: Men put babies into giant throats inset in a funhouse wall; SLOT MACHINE: I see a slot machine generating random art-speak phrases... |
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