LANGUAGE
There are also a few waking-world pieces on language--mainly on animal language. Since talking animals have been so long relegated to the province of dreams, I thought, now that more facts are in, it's only fair to show that dreams were years ahead of the scientific mainstream.
RELATED TOPICS: specialized language: dreams of music, math and logic - crystallized language: dreams of spells and curses - poetry - puns - the power of names - animal people - animal rights and uplift to sentience - See also the full INDEX OF SUBJECTS.
What this site is - Add your dreams! - How to read blurbs - Ratings - Copyright - Downloading - The World Dream Bank has 4000 dreams plus 1000 pages on dreamwork, shamanism, surrealism, fantasy, worldbuilding, creativity and genius. Site © Chris Wayan 2001-2022.
AI ZHONG!: by Wayan; 1989/7/21, a short psychic dream A small, clear, simple precognitive dream... and its un-small, un-clear, un-simple cause... |
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ANIMAL SPEECH, ANIMAL ESP: by Wayan; 1997/7/31, from Wayan's journal. When you really observe animals in language programs it's obvious WE'RE the dimwits... |
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ARIEL and THE UNICORN COMMITMENT: by Wayan; 1983/12/26-27, an epic psychic dream & sequel DREAM: to stop an idiotic bout of war-fever, I have to take on the power of the Goddess herself... NEXT DAY: I stumble on a fantasy book, Ariel, full of details straight out of the dream... THAT NIGHT: I sign the Unicorn Commitment, but personalize the magical contract... CAUTION: DISSES REAGAN & SOUTHERN MASCULINITY |
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BEATING UNCLE FESTER, or, ACHIEVING BILUMIA: by Wayan; 2013/3/31, a stupid telepathic dream I screw the lightbulbs in my ears again, and this time, they stay. I sit down at the piano, and as I play... |
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BUNNY INTERVIEW: by Eva Belanger, art by Jesse Reklaw; pre-2000; a guilt-relief dreamlet Reporters interview my pet rabbit without my permission. Have I neglected her? She says "Things have been pretty good." I'm relieved, but ask why she never spoke before... |
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CARACARAS TELL ALL: by Sean McCann, c.2010, a wistful dream SITUATION: I'm in the rainforest, studying the red-throated caracara, a clever, elusive bird... DREAM: Caracaras show up in Vancouver, speaking fluent English. At LAST I can interview... |
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CAT SPEAKS ARMENIAN: by Wayan; 2019/5/17, a dream on the odds of finding love I meet a big cat who seems invisible to most humans. She talks in Armenian speech balloons. Too bad she already has a boyfriend! But her mere existence proves there's hope for me... |
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CAT-SCRATCH SIGNS: by Wayan; 1973/11/9, a dream on language-learning Our Star Trek team explores alien ruins covered in cat scratches. Or are they writing? I uncover Roman letters, Arabic numerals, I Ching trigrams, Chinese characters, Chumash pictographs. Reading them turns us into cats! One cat lays eggs, but two more try to smash them... CAUTION: CAT-EGG VANDALISM |
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CHE FANNO GLI INGLESI?: by William Archer; 1917/7/30, a senseless dream. To help the King of Italy, I become a baker in Baluchistan-- learning Norwegian, levitating, meeting quaggas, riding landslides... |
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CIDER AND WINE: by Wayan; 1974/10/24, surreal undream Aspie reporting Our writing class meets in this Victorian home. I turn off my filters and describe what I really see around me... |
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A CREATURE: by Albert Grass, 1938? Or Zoe Beloff, c.2008? An early Freudian dream-comic--or a hoax! Dream: wild animals race across Paris, but in my hotel lobby, a small creature on my shoulder murmurs "Je t'aime." Awake, I know those racers from the themepark where I work. But the creature takes me way back--to Paris, 1918... CAUTION: ONE-NIGHT STAND |
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DEAF TO MY SIGNS: by Wayan; 1997/6/17, a wise frustration dreamtale. In a darkened room of deaf women watching a slideshow, I find no one can hear me in either English or Sign... |
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DEVANGELS: by Wayan, 2017/4/27, a numinous but ambivalent dream After a hard day in the recording studio, I dream of powerful yet obedient devil-angels; quiet for now, but I fear they'll decide shamans like me are abominations... CAUTION: ANGELS? GOLEMS? DEVILS? |
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DISTRACTUS: by Wayan, 2004/5/5, a comic sexy diagnostic dream... that baffled me. Sex in a meadow? A protest march distracts us. But a friend warns me of a disease, Coitus Distractus... CAUTION: (DISTRACTED) SEX |
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THE DOG PILOT PROGRAM: by Wayan; 1981/4/23, a dream of doing the impossible. I get a job in China teaching bus-driving dogs how to fly. I don't know how. Luckily, the dogs... |
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DREAM FLOWERS: by Kathleen Raine, between 1953 & '65; a dream florifying dreams I dreamt I was given verbena sprigs--from my mother, I'm told. But am I me, Persephone, or all the daughters given love by all the mothers? |
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DREAM HERDING: by Nancy Potter; 1978/11/8 & 11/11, two comic, surreal dreams FERRY: the crossing is rough, but I'm warned I must find my own sea-legs... BUZZ OFF: I step into a family photo, but I'm not welcome in the past... |
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DREAMSIGNS: by Joseph Kemeny, 2011?, painting of lucidity prompts This dreamer is starting to notice certain subtle signs that all is not normal and this may be a dream. Well, not that subtle... |
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EATING SOIL SAMPLES: by Vladimir Nabokov, 1964/10/17, a possible predictive dream. In a museum, I absent-mindedly eat crumbly bricks I think are pastry; they really are rare soil-samples... Three days later, I see a TV show I thought was on children. Wrong; it's on soil samples--that turn into eatables... |
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ELF ETYMOLOGY: by Wayan; 1997/7/14, a linguistic postmodern dream. We escape three trolls, but then our author Tolkien breaks in to explain an Elvish word. Now we're really doomed... |
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ERICEPAEUS: by a multilingual woman, c.1918/12/25; a psychic dream told to Jung Jung's patient dreamed of a strange name, Ericipaeus. She didn't know Jung had been studying a minor god named, he thought, "Ericapaeus". He'd misread the manuscript; the name was actually spelled a third way... |
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ERODE THE MUTING CURSE: by Wayan, 2014/8/23, a dream of... health advice? The Fairy Queen curses me, taking away my language. Recovery often takes years, but I practice hard, and speak full sentences--the next day. The Queen is slipping... |
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E.S.P., NOT LANGUAGE: by Wayan; dreamed 2021/3/29, an Aspie dream about you humans Turns out humans communicate mostly by mental imagery; speech is just a carrier wave. But in most cases, ESP is subliminal. I'm autistic, though; for me, background stuff jumps out. Like all six senses... CAUTION: AUTISM, E.S.P. SPECULATIONS |
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FLYING, FIGHTING, LOVE: by Emanuel Swedenborg, 1744/4/23, a dream of... oh, guess! Swedenborg fights a flying woman over a lake, then is in bed with another. After some language and privacy problems, all goes so well he thinks they've made a child... CAUTION: VIOLENCE, SEX |
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GEOMETRY OF DAWN: by Bruce Kawin, c.1983, a sexy metaphysical dream? My anima sends me on peculiar journeys--smoke rings, islands, conversations with a stone-- but at last it's just us. She has something more she wants to teach me. On that bed... CAUTION: ASTRAL COME-ON |
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GERRYMANDERING DESIRE: by Wayan; 1994/1/20, a modest sexual orientation proposal The two commonest sexual orientations have no names, or even concepts! Yet they're obvious, once... CAUTION: THE TRUTH THAT DARE NOT BE TOLD |
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GOD DRESSED YE, MARE: by Wayan; Christmas carol misheard 1968/12/25, dreamt I sang 1984/9/16, & drew 2008/6/28. At 15 I misheard God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen and liked my version better. "Lit muffin, rude Esmé"... |
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THE GRALA: by Eugene Jolas, c. 1934, a nightmare written as a surreal prose-poem I was having dinner with friends when I saw on the wall a huge skullbone spider. But I lost the word for spider, and my friends seemed not to see it... |
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GRANDMA LILY: by Wayan; 2023/6/18, a dream on... dream interpretation? I wake in a suburb with Dire Wolves next door. I'm told an herb will appease them. But the local herbal expert's a regal talking lily--and can I speak plant-language? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
THE GRIFFINS' LESSON: by Wayan, 2018/6/1, a pair of predictive dreamlets I live through two teens' nightmares, then "wake" with them to find they were drugged by a third party! Why? Then I'm with a cheery wagon-crew of flirting griffins & talking horses, pulling a cart made of grammar or logic. Six days later... detailed images from both dreams appear on TV! CAUTION: CREEPY, THEN SAPPY, THEN FREAKY |
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GUDEA'S TEMPLE: by Gudea of Lagash; c.2125 BCE: one of the first false-waking or nested dreams A winged god whose body's a wave urged me to do... what? I couldn't understand him! I woke... A scribe with a shining stylus listed stars; an architect gave me plans and a brick-mold. I woke again! My dream had clarified itself. So I built the temple shown me, aligned with those stars... |
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HARRY AND KUVYRKIN: by Vladimir Nabokov, 1916, a punning long-term predictive dream. Nabokov's uncle left him a fortune but the Revolution took it. He dreamed his uncle said "I shall return to you as Harry & Kuvyrkin." 40 years later filmmakers Harris & Kubrick paid Nabokov a fortune for the rights to Lolita... |
I DREAM OF DERIVERRANS: by Wayan; 1982/11/16, a Joycean dream of surrender. |
I must rescue Ann Soforth from righteous rapists, then Paul McCartney from a musical curse... CAUTION: ABUSED CHILD, JOYCEAN LANGUAGE |
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... |
INTERPRET THOSE SIGNS: by Wayan, 2024/4/16, a dream on prophetic dreams? |
An archeological dig inscribed in the Roman alphabet, Chinese characters, Ethiopian syllabics and unknown scripts. A carved egg bears news from the future, not the past... CAUTION: CALLS PROPHECY A LEARNABLE SKILL |
IT WASN'T EASY: by Wayan; 1983/2/24, a dream of escaping my family's unrealism |
An Arabian prince kidnaps my girlfriend and me. We eventually escape his flying palace, but she gets trapped in Victorian underwear, while I escape feuding politicians by turning myself into a truck tire. NOT a smart move... CAUTION: BOGUS VICTORIAN SEX-EUPHEMISMS |
THE KING'S LANGUAGE: by Emanuel Swedenborg, 1744/4/24, a dream on the language of dreams |
Swedenborg struggles to grasp the King's broken French. He wakes to realize he's trying to learn a greater King's difficult language. Still relevant today, for he saw the problem's twofold: the difficult language of images, but also issues the waking mind missed--or wants to deny! |
THE LAST WORD: by Larry Vigon; 2001/12/5; a wistful apocalyptic dream |
A huge explosion knocked the earth off its orbit; it struck other planets and wrecked the whole solar system. Where will the souls ready to reincarnate all go? Or do they even need a planet?... |
LET ME REVISE THAT...: by Wayan; 1998/8/28, a dream of clarity. |
I pray to the Love Goddess for help, but then realize there's a problem with my phrasing... CAUTION: UNROMANTIC |
LIES!: by Wayan; 1992/7/10, a dream that thinks it's a two-page novel. |
To investigate a criminal couple, I have to lie. And that's hard, since all my lies turn true... CAUTION: NEW AGE AND FILM NOIR DON'T MIX |
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... |
LUNCH-SNIFFER, or, THE PRIVATE NOSE by Wayan, 2022/11/7; a silly predictive dream |
DREAM: a weird-looking guy says he's a Private Nose, who can read my life history by sniffing my lunch. He gets a lot right--but just as much wrong. NEXT DAY: My sister takes me to lunch & orders tea-leaf salad. Our waiter is... |
MALWARE IN THE BRAIN: by Wayan, 2017/12/27, a possibly predictive dream. |
Dream: tourists in our town use brainware to navigate & translate, but it's infected. Turns you fascist. Whaaaat?... Next day: the FBI knocks! Our web provider fingered us as a nest of internet criminals. Thanks, Comcast! Talk about malware... |
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... |
A MAREOTIC QUARREL: by Wayan, 2018/10/10; a dreamlet about truth & experts |
My friend Lily misuses the word 'Mareotic'; I know, because I once saw it in a Yeats poem, thought the footnote explaining it was fishy, checked it myself, and found the editors hadn't even bothered to... |
MAYAN DOOR: by Wayan; 2008/3/21, a character-evaluation dream. |
The Mayan cave was a door between worlds. But also a model of the character you need to walk through that door... |
MESOPOTAMIAN RINGS: by Herman Hilprecht, Jan.-Mar. 1883; two problem-solving dreams |
I dreamt of a better translation of Nebuchadnezzar's name, since universally accepted... I dreamt a priest of old Nippur told me two agate pieces, long separated, formed a pair... |
MIRIEL INTERRUPTUS: by Miriel and Wayan; 1978/9/5 and 1978/9/6; two embarrassing parallel dreams |
Wayan dreams he and his sister grope toward sex in the kitchen, when two of her friends burst in... Miriel dreams she's having sex with a boy from her choir, when two of her friends burst in... CAUTION: FRUSTRATION, INCEST, CAUGHT IN SEX |
MISTRESS TOOTHSMOOTH: by Yves Delage, 1915/1/20, an early anima dream |
I'm in the cellar, petting a tiger-cat. She speaks inside my head: "I'm tired of living on bread. I need meat." I make excuses--it's pricy--then see big hanging quarters of meat. I hide them! She says "Call me Mistress Touttmouss"--well, something like that--I know it's English, but can't make it out til I wake, when I see... |
MUTISM'S PENUMBRA: by Wayan, 2019/9/9, an otherworldly dream of a curiously familiar malaise |
In a world of wizards, many have gone silent. They seem to forget speech exists. A toxin, a disease? But what explains people's calm as more go mute? No, it's an insidious spell--with a penumbra making us take its spread for granted... CAUTION: IMPLICATIONS FOR OUR WORLD |
NATIVE LANGUAGE: by Wayan; 1996/11/17, a dream about senses and speech. |
I'm at the beach, seeing it through English linguistic filters. Or do I? Is there a language under language? |
NEUTRALITY'S ROOMMATE: by Emily Joy; 2007/4/19, a spooky dream. |
At our commune's new house, pandemonium breaks out when our matriarch meets a spook. Can we live together in peace? |
NEW LEVEL!: by "Julian"; 2006/5/22, 3 gamelike dreams in one night, two of them epic |
My mom and I road-duel an alien beetle, then investigate a deepspace Marie Celeste; then I spy for the Angevin Empire to protect the Crown Jewels... |
NO “I": by Wayan; 2003/10/22, a dream of identity loss. |
I’m in San Francisco trying to throw Sauron’s Ring into the Cracks of San Andreas. But a sexy sorcerer steals my sense of I! How can you act without a self? |
OJIBWAY DREAM NET: by Regina de Cormier-Shekerjian, c.1984, a dream-poem of a visiting animus |
I hung the dream-net over my bed. It worked. A blue-winged man with a leg of silver came to me, drummed, danced, offered to teach me secrets. Awake, I found a blue feather caught in that net... |
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... |
THE OTHER LAND: by Walter de la Mare, c.1881-4; an episodic or "installment" dream series |
Age 7 to 11, I often dreamt I inhabited a consistent geography of mountains & deserts. I was an adult of dark complexion in non-European clothes; I spoke a tongue (and read a script) that I didn't recognize when awake... CAUTION: ADULT DRUG EXPERIMENT; PAST LIFE MEMORY? |
THE PLAY: by Georges Perec; February 1972, a dream with the attention span of a gnat. Dream #108 |
I'm in a play. Fear, then joyful sex, then ranching, then silly hats, as a man drones on about class struggle. Weird chairs, pingpong, coffee, impossible double utterances. At last I tell friends my dream--backwards. Then I write the dream down on slices of cheese... CAUTION: SEX ONSTAGE |
POTLATCH SMOKE: by Wayan; 1988/5/10, a shamanic dream-inside-dream 4 levels deep! |
Refugees flood the spirit worlds! War looms. Wolf, Silky, Dr Who, even the Bug-Goddess of Love are alarmed. I'm just a blonde ditz, but I help inspect realities till we trace the source: a Tlingit potlatch! Why? |
RAPA ITI: by Marc Liblin, 1954-1960s, recurring childhood dreams teaching him an unknown language |
Only at age 33 did Marc Liblin at last meet someone who spoke his dream language. He married her, and moved to Rapa Iti, the only place in the world it's spoken... |
RHINZL'S SHADOW: by Wayan; dreamed 1984/8/28; two unlikely predictive dreams. |
DREAMS: 1: I can't afford language classes. 2: A beautyqueen rigs a stargate; I kill monsters & sell their bones... NEXT DAY: I'm asked "Why don't you get a language degree?" I can't afford it! I go home & watch Dr Who... A stunning girl fixes a spacetime portal. Smugglers kill alien monsters & sell their ashes as a drug... CAUTION: VIOLENCE AND CREEPY DISPOSAL OF BODIES |
ROBOT AND UNICORN: by Wayan, 2022/11/23, a dream of building a rebellion |
After too much TV, I dream I'm plotting against a regime of suave, treacherous magical beings. But a unicorn sorceress suggests I enlist the robots. She's right--they find plutocratic thaumocracy ugly... CAUTION: ANTI-CAPITALIST |
SEARCHING FOR THE DEAD: by Acucena Q., 2007/3/4, a puzzling quest dream. |
I search rivers and lakes around the world for someone dead. But the living I meet act as strange as ghosts... |
SELVDROLLA: by Havelock Ellis; before 1922, an ignored prescriptive dream |
A doctor tells Ellis to try "selvdrolla", but he's so focused on the strange name he forgets the prescription... |
THE SERMON OF CARMEN DOG: by Wayan; 1990/9/10, the ultimate public-speaking nightmare. |
Animal poets at an open mic. My turn! And I find... I'm one. A creature without grammar... |
SHOUT IN A CROWD, or, How to Survey Galactic Civilization: by Wayan; dreamed 2014/4/15, |
a dream exposing what my brain's up to when I forget my dreams! I wander the galaxy in my dreams, finding and testing crowds to see if anyone reacts to the sound of shouted English or Chinese. One in a thousand does! This implies... CAUTION: SCIENCE AND SHAMANISM DON'T MIX (or do they?) |
SHRIEK ADOPTION: by Wayan; dreamed 2015/8/23, a dream-poem exposing self-sabotage |
A man adopts two orphaned, talented musical griffins. But their previous guardians were so traditionalist & stifling that the cubs want to BURN all their instruments... |
SPEAKING FERN: by Wayan; 1991/3/25, a dream-prank. |
A dead fern in my backyard starts sending me messages in some strange language... |
THE SUICIDE TRACK: by Wayan; 2023/2/25, a disturbing non-nightmare |
My clinic's euthanasia program is so warm and cuddly I barely notice I'm drifting toward death til I reach the final form... and it's in Russian. They think I'm a refugee! Don't know me at all... CAUTION: FLAMES ANTI-ABORTION AND HEALTHCARE IDEOLOGIES |
SWIMMING IN VAN GOGH'S OCEAN: by Amandaclay; c.2011/12/9, a dream of love & beauty |
On a cruise to Catalina Island, I find friends, a boyfriend and a magical sea of color... |
SYLVIA, OR, PUN-DREAMS: by Hervey de Saint-Denys, early 1860s? 4 dreams of French puns |
A comet grows hair, a girl named Rosalie becomes a bed of roses, writing in a beautiful hand appears on a beautiful hand, and Sylvia becomes a talking forest bird... |
TARDIS GAZEBO: by Wayan; 1993/2/17, a 3-page digital dream-comic |
Solve a pictographic riddle and you can fly, shapeshift, work magic! But someone doesn't want us solving dream-riddles... |
THERAPIST GARBLES "I" & "YOU": by Wayan, 1987/12/28, a dream warning of bad therapy |
In therapy, I'm wrestling with sex. But workmen invade--hammer & hang pictures. MY pictures! And my therapist keeps confusing me and her, and our sexual orientations! She means well, but... CAUTION: NUDE PORTRAIT |
THEY FEED THEY LION: by Philip Levine; summer 1968; a poem from two dreams |
A workmate said "They feed they lion"; two dreams later, the poem emerged as you see it... CAUTION: POLITICAL RAGE, SURREALISM |
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... |
THROUGH THE WIRES: by Wayan; 2007/9/16, two surreal contrasting dreams |
I meet some alien wolves, and see the social scene as they do--pack, status issues. But then... I cross a pasture & slip thru a barbwire fence, as I explain cows, wires & organic life to an energy-being... |
THUMBSUCKER!: by a patient of William Hammond, c.1868, an epic comic taste dream |
I paint my thumb with bitter aloes to break my habit of sucking it at night. I dream of wormwood, ox gall, mineral salts. I consult Dr. Save Me and even the Pope, but... |
TIL: by Patricia Garfield, c.1986, a mystical work-advice dream |
I'm a spirit flying over the dead, blessing them. They're in mass graves, sorted & grouped only by their life-stages--kids, adults, elders. Wait... is this how to structure my book? |
TINA FEY TRIES TO FLY: by Wayan; 2017/4/24, a mystical feminist farce of a dream |
In a world where speech is in Mayan glyphs, comedian Tina Fey (dressed for prom night) climbs a Tibetan peak to learn levitation. But the flying monks are scared of women... CAUTION: COOTIES; ROWDY JESUS; MAY FLUNK THE BECHDEL TEST |
TIPCAT: by Anonymous #57; c.1920; a funny little dream-poem |
Four lines of comic nonsense composed in a dream... |
THE TOOTH: by SAO (Shawn Allen O'Neal), 2003?, an epic, oracular, baffling dream |
Psychics give me an incomprehensible reading. A book from the tree-library gives only Victorian dating advice. At last a madman gives me a treasure-box holding a tooth that unfolds into slices carved in unreadable symbols... |
TROUT BECK by Nancy Price; summer 1933, an aerial comic dream-epic |
I'm carried off by a crane to meet birdfish, singing sheep, fell-spirits, mad shopkeepers and devil-bulls... |
TURNER'S RECURRING DREAMS: by Jack Turner, 1991-2, a set of genderbent grief dreams |
After my mother died, I dreamed I was a girl living after the Apocalypse. I rode my elk past cars full of corpses, saw friends die, and never could find a single fertile mate... |
TV DEVIL FLU: by Wayan; 1994/10/24, a comic nightmare hiding useful advice. |
A "friend" gives me her TV. No wonder! Turns out it's haunted by a small-minded devil who cheats on all his deals... |
TWENTY-SIX LETTERS, or, A Complete Summary of Poesy; by Cory & Wayan, early Aug. 1992; a haiku slam | You get 26 dice with letters on every face. Roll them all. Your haiku must use every letter. Go! |
TWO BISHOP APPLICANTS: by Wayan; 1984/11/21, a surreal but mercilessly logical dream. |
My mind and my soul both apply for a job in Stanford Cathedral. Their rivalry grows to a shamanic duel... |
TWO PLANES: by Ed Emshwiller, c. 1977, a lucid dream modeling the mind |
I saw a vast transparent plane inscribed with pictograms and symbols. Through it, at an unknown distance, lay a second plane of less clear shapes and colors, but with great mass, depth, and unknown currents... |
TYPEWRITER: by Kevin King, before 1983, an ink-noir nightmare |
I dreamed my mouth was full of typewriter keys and a typewriter ribbon issued from the back of my head. Joan was hanging out the window by the ribbon. I reached for her, but my hands kept hitting the space bar, and down... |
UNICORN PROFESSOR: by Wayan, 2024/4/7, a Star Trek dream |
DAY: the crew of the Enterprise sings about love & career(ism). DREAM: I'm taking a test at Starfleet Academy. But my teacher's a gorgeous unicorn, & my answers are filled in! I try to change one but my eraser breaks... CAUTION: MOCKS LA BERGE'S LUCID DREAMWORK? NUDE PROFESSOR, TOO |
VANDERMEER'S STAIR: by Jeff Vandermeer, 2013 or before,, a nightmarish creative prompt |
I was on a spiral stair. The walls had scrawled messages, not sprayed, carved or painted but living tissue--and getting fresher as I descended. Whatever was growing them was still below me, and still writing... |
VARTENA: by Wayan; 1986/9/9, a psychic nightmare. |
I'm the referee, or 'Vartena', of a violent high-school game of waterpolo. A friend nearly drowns! Next day... |
WAYMO BALLOONISTS: by Wayan; 2021/7/16, a surreal predictive dream |
Huge balloons labeled "Waymo" in bad Chinese are taking over San Francisco. But the sexy balloonists seem to be more into masturbation than conquest... CAUTION: EXHIBITIONISM OR OBJECTIFICATION? |
THE WIZARD'S HORSE: by Wayan; 2018/9/3, a magical dream about... toxic waste? |
I'm a wizard's horse, trying to warn him about a toxic spell on a roadside corpse... Wake into a second dream, but try to return to being a dream-mare and warn my rider... And then wake to realize my Nightmare was warning about a home-renovation project! |
A WORD DREAM: by Maude Meagher; before 1936, a wild word-association dream. |
I often dream of words forming on a page as their images dance around me. Here's an example... |
A WORLD TOO WEIRD FOR WORDS: by Wayan, 2011/1/21, a utopian dream--or is it? |
I'm in a college class studying a bizarre alternate Earth where anarchist co-ops never evolved and (of all things) money rules all... CAUTION: SCORNS CAPITALISM |
YES, EMMA, ONE POUND ONIONS: by a Canadian girl; pre-1961, a distracting dream prediction |
I was in a small room with a single bare lightbulb and an old man at a desk writing. The phone rang. He answered--said, 'Yes, Emma, one pound onions, a dozen oranges." Two days later... |
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