I know it’s pretty rough but I’m interested if this image has any significance to any of the readers.
This will sound a little weird. I had a nightmare last night and when I woke I was left with this symbol as a kind of after-image in my right eye. This image was not in the dream but only after it when I woke up. Like I wrote- weird.
Anyway, it got me thinking about the role of dreams/nightmares in the creative process. I believe that Mary Shelly wrote Frankenstein after dreaming about it. Can you think of any others?
Would anyone like to discuss this?
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Twilight ! Stephenie Meyer wrote Twilight after dreaming the meadow scene which ended up being chapter 13 of the book. She had the dream and when she woke up she was so engrossed that she wanted to know how the story ended. Nobody but her of course could help, so she decided to write it. First she wrote from the meadow scene to the end and then wrote the beginning of the novel to the meadow scene to make it a whole.
At the moment I can’t think of any other examples, but if I do, I’ll post again.
About the image. It doesn’t hold any significance for me. To me it functions as a Rorschach blotch.
In the 19th century the chemist August Kekule claimed that his dream about a snake biting its tail, and another time six monkeys linking hands and tails, led to his conceptualization of the benzene molecule, which consists of six carbon atoms linked in a circle.
The earliest mention of the dream(s) was in the 1890’s, although the dreams were supposed to have taken place in the ’50s and ’60s. Some historians have challenged Kekule’s claim, saying the circular concept of the benzene molecule had been proposed earlier than when Kekule self-reportedly had his dreams. Kekule’s report is put in the category of a good after-dinner story.
As well, Wikipedia tells us:
” … various versions of the dream have found their way into scholarly analyses. In one version, cited by Carl Jung in ”The Psychology of Transference,” Kekule discovered the benzene ring after dreaming of ”the Royal Marriage,” the image of a dancing king and queen used by medieval alchemists as a symbol of conjunction. In another version, Kekule dreamed of a self-devouring snake alchemists of the 3d century A.D. devised to symbolize the underlying unity of nature…”
But:
“In a recent article in the British scientific journal Ambix, Dr. Wotiz and Dr. Susanna F. Rudofsky concluded: ”Psychologists have cited the Kekule dream account in support of their preconceived theories, rather than deducing any important novel theories from it.”
Here’s the link:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE4DF113BF935A2575BC0A96E948260&sec
Looks like a spider or an octopus.
Makes me think of: Cthulhu, Shelob, Aragog, Kraken, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Hallowe’en spider decorations (which you make by folding a piece of construction paper in two and tracing the outline of your hand, cutting it out and then unfolding the paper).
But if it was only in one eye, I’d be thinking more optic nerve than cortical activity.
Wow. Interesting thought. I always have very bizarre and random dreams. Could it be an untapped source of creative genius deep within me?
also looks like a spider to me…or a skull & cross bones
All right, let’s do a little analysis here. The first thing I thought of when I looked at your drawing is that it reminded me of this.
If you know your Star Trek, she’s called a Horta and she’s from the Classic Trek episode Devil in the Dark. We learn that she’s not really a monster, she’s just a mother protecting her children.
Travis, have you called your mother lately?
Seriously, dreams and creativity are a fascinating subject. As a Dylan fan, I’ve seen many examples in Dylan’s music where he muses on that subject as well. In fact, he wrote a song that was only available in bootleg (it would have been on the Oh Mercy album but was cut) and developed quite a following until it was finally released on the first of Columbia’s official collection of Bootlegs (the seventh album just came out).
Here are the lyrics:
I was thinking of a series of dreams
Where nothing comes up to the top
Everything stays down where it’s wounded
And comes to a permanent stop
Wasn’t thinking of anything specific
Like in a dream, when someone wakes up and screams
Nothing too very scientific
Just thinking of a series of dreams
Thinking of a series of dreams
Where the time and the tempo fly
And there’s no exit in any direction
‘Cept the one that you can’t see with your eyes
Wasn’t making any great connection
Wasn’t falling for any intricate scheme
Nothing that would pass inspection
Just thinking of a series of dreams
Dreams where the umbrella is folded
Into the path you are hurled
And the cards are no good that you’re holding
Unless they’re from another world
In one, numbers were burning
In another, I witnessed a crime
In one, I was running, and in another
All I seemed to be doing was climb
Wasn’t looking for any special assistance
Not going to any great extremes
I’d already gone the distance
Just thinking of a series of dreams
-B. Dylan
-Mary
PS Not sure if the links will come out – but the Horta photo is here: http://img.trekmovie.com/images/horta.jpg
Officially, Korg20000BC does all my dream interpretation/analysis.
I dream ‘em, he interprets them. I’ve emailed off the latest to him this morning.
I dream vividly every night, usually more than once.
Occasionally (only occasionally) do I dream something that gives some insight into what is going on in my life, and they sometimes give me creative help. Matthew has been a big help here.
So Travis, Korg is your
mangorilla for this job.… That being said I’ll give an amateur attempt…
I’m going with a skull and crossbones. With all the work you’ve been doing you’re tired of being held down to deadlines and other people’s expectations. Your nightmare came from all the tension and pressure (plus the curry you ate).
The skull and crossbones arrived on your eye like the Bat-signal, calling you away from all this to become a pirate: a man who makes his own rules and sets his own direction on the sea of life and doesn’t give a crap what other people think. And you’ll need somewhere to bury all your loot from the sales of your book.
… And after reading who actually posted this article I retract everything I said. Please feel free to delete my posts. And sorry Travis for assuming you dream such stupid dreams!
I didn’t think we were going to get into interpretation, but since Black Angus has led the way (albeit with the wrong subject in mind), I’ll follow.
Korg, when you woke up, was the sun in your eyes? Was there someone or something between you and the sun? Was there some kind of light source which you were looking at?
If it was an after-image, it was probably caused by a strong source of light temporarily “bleaching out” the cells in your retina. The fact that the after-image took that shape suggests that’s the way the light source was hitting your retina.
Or perhaps you were about to have a migraine and were experiencing the prodromal effects, what they call the visual effects of a migraine. If it was confined to one eye, I think it might be a retinal migraine.
Was it flashing or scintillating? Did you get a headache a little bit after?
Just guessing.
Could be possibly a crab.
Maybe you’d been watching Octopussy?
Who can forget Coleridge’s opium induced dream?
“In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.”
The Red Barn!
http://www.stedmundsbury.gov.uk/sebc/visit/theindustry.cfm
Maria’s stepmother at last asked her husband to search the Red Barn. She said that she had often dreamed about Maria. Twice, (once before and once after Christmas) she had dreamed that Maria was murdered and buried in the Red Barn.
I use to live next door to one of the convicted guys family.