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I'm the hat on the bed, I'm the coffee instead
1. My poem "Strike a Light" has been accepted by Through the Gate. It is based on a comment ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ashlyme made about Peter Strickland's radio adaptation of The Stone Tape (2015), observing that its plot could easily accommodate the foley artist protagonist of his earlier film Berberian Sound Studio (2012), so I wrote that. It is dedicated to Toby Jones, who played Gilderoy. I hope he's not weirded out if he ever runs across it.
2. While my insomnia has not improved (I went to bed early last night, which earned me absolutely bupkes in terms of a better sleep schedule), my capacity for long-form dreams seems to be coming back online, frustratingly accompanied by my inability to remember them completely. The first was a weird horror set at a British aerodrome during World War I, located somewhere much more mountainous and remote than I believe any airbases really were in that war; there were cold forests everywhere outside the perimeter of the airfield, autumn leaves blowing onto the runway. Flyers sent out on ordinary missions weren't coming back. Some of the ones who did were reporting things that didn't sound at all like German dogfighters—silent spaces in the sky where the lift dropped out from under their wings, cloudless slices of air where flyers close enough for a visible thumbs-up only a moment ago just vanished. Nobody can get an answer from headquarters and everybody's afraid of sounding crazy if they talk about it. The hotshot of the squadron is handling it worst, where everyone would expect him to grin through a spook story with the same careless glamour as a barrel roll through bullets. I found him at the far edge of the airfield, a big man in his shoulder-belted RFC khaki, hunched over crying into his hands. "They're taking too many," he kept saying. "I didn't give them so many." I asked what he was talking about; he was silent for a long time while I shivered and the air smelled dryly of snow. He said finally, "I gave them Todd." He meant his best friend, his daredevil rival, who had died months ago in what looked at the time like a stupid competitive stunt between keyed-up, overstrained flyers; the others were the price and now the rest of us couldn't stop paying it. His one impulse of envy was eating the rest of the squadron alive. Awake, this looks like some hellish mashup of The Dawn Patrol (1938) and "The Last Flight" (1960), but it had the feel of a novel rather than a contemporary movie while I was dreaming it. The second dream was much less involved; there was a carnival and I was supposed to fight someone, which I did the first time with unlikely success and the second time negotiated with my opponent to take down the third-party organizer. Almost everyone around me was not human, but I don't remember it making a difference. Being surprised while dressing by a rusalka who wants the shower is about as awkward whether the other person needs the water for their continued survival or just wants to wash their hair.
3. In partnership with the Library of America, the Film Forum in New York City is running—Friday through Thursday—a series of mostly noir based on the novels of women crime writers. I feel unfairly tantalized.rushthatspeaks and I were just talking about Laura (1944) and Don't Bother to Knock (1952). I've been curious about Purple Noon (1950) for years because it stars Alain Delon as Highsmith's Ripley and about Ride the Pink Horse (1947) since last week because it was produced by Joan Harrison and netted oft-supporting Thomas Gomez his only Oscar nomination. Some of these movies I'd never even heard of, like Bedelia (1946), but the internet tells me its title character is Gillian Anderson's namesake on Hannibal. I have plans this weekend and upcoming week that don't allow for an extended trip, but damn it, I wish I had that teleporter. As a consolation prize, for everyone I have been recommending it to, it looks like Elisabeth Sanxay Holding's The Blank Wall (1947) has been very nicely reprinted.
Today I start making a lot of fruitcake.
ashlyme made about Peter Strickland's radio adaptation of The Stone Tape (2015), observing that its plot could easily accommodate the foley artist protagonist of his earlier film Berberian Sound Studio (2012), so I wrote that. It is dedicated to Toby Jones, who played Gilderoy. I hope he's not weirded out if he ever runs across it.2. While my insomnia has not improved (I went to bed early last night, which earned me absolutely bupkes in terms of a better sleep schedule), my capacity for long-form dreams seems to be coming back online, frustratingly accompanied by my inability to remember them completely. The first was a weird horror set at a British aerodrome during World War I, located somewhere much more mountainous and remote than I believe any airbases really were in that war; there were cold forests everywhere outside the perimeter of the airfield, autumn leaves blowing onto the runway. Flyers sent out on ordinary missions weren't coming back. Some of the ones who did were reporting things that didn't sound at all like German dogfighters—silent spaces in the sky where the lift dropped out from under their wings, cloudless slices of air where flyers close enough for a visible thumbs-up only a moment ago just vanished. Nobody can get an answer from headquarters and everybody's afraid of sounding crazy if they talk about it. The hotshot of the squadron is handling it worst, where everyone would expect him to grin through a spook story with the same careless glamour as a barrel roll through bullets. I found him at the far edge of the airfield, a big man in his shoulder-belted RFC khaki, hunched over crying into his hands. "They're taking too many," he kept saying. "I didn't give them so many." I asked what he was talking about; he was silent for a long time while I shivered and the air smelled dryly of snow. He said finally, "I gave them Todd." He meant his best friend, his daredevil rival, who had died months ago in what looked at the time like a stupid competitive stunt between keyed-up, overstrained flyers; the others were the price and now the rest of us couldn't stop paying it. His one impulse of envy was eating the rest of the squadron alive. Awake, this looks like some hellish mashup of The Dawn Patrol (1938) and "The Last Flight" (1960), but it had the feel of a novel rather than a contemporary movie while I was dreaming it. The second dream was much less involved; there was a carnival and I was supposed to fight someone, which I did the first time with unlikely success and the second time negotiated with my opponent to take down the third-party organizer. Almost everyone around me was not human, but I don't remember it making a difference. Being surprised while dressing by a rusalka who wants the shower is about as awkward whether the other person needs the water for their continued survival or just wants to wash their hair.
3. In partnership with the Library of America, the Film Forum in New York City is running—Friday through Thursday—a series of mostly noir based on the novels of women crime writers. I feel unfairly tantalized.
rushthatspeaks and I were just talking about Laura (1944) and Don't Bother to Knock (1952). I've been curious about Purple Noon (1950) for years because it stars Alain Delon as Highsmith's Ripley and about Ride the Pink Horse (1947) since last week because it was produced by Joan Harrison and netted oft-supporting Thomas Gomez his only Oscar nomination. Some of these movies I'd never even heard of, like Bedelia (1946), but the internet tells me its title character is Gillian Anderson's namesake on Hannibal. I have plans this weekend and upcoming week that don't allow for an extended trip, but damn it, I wish I had that teleporter. As a consolation prize, for everyone I have been recommending it to, it looks like Elisabeth Sanxay Holding's The Blank Wall (1947) has been very nicely reprinted.Today I start making a lot of fruitcake.
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That is what my brain does when it's healthy, I think. When I am stressed and low on sleep, either I don't remember my dreams or they aren't anywhere near as interesting. I keep track of them when I can. I started a dream journal in January 2007 on the advice of my then-therapist and the results were interesting enough to be going on with.
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Thank you!
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It is all right! You have an approximate million packages to sort. Come and eat latkes and all will be forgiven (if your schedule allows).
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(Do you--sg. or pl.--want a stollen? I decided I wanted to try out a recipe, and, well...)
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STOLLEN.
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And I just love the idea of the rusalka and the shower!
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See above to
Do you mind if I ask if you record your dreams anywhere I could read them?
And I just love the idea of the rusalka and the shower!
Thank you!
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I don't actually remember dreams that often, it tends to happen in a specific set of circumstances, waking quite well on into the morning and then falling back to sleep again.
Subjectively mine play out more like a movie than a written piece, very cinematic action flick styling in the main (and writing that reminds me that the last time it happened I woke amazed that it had even had theme music - which if you consider I'm not actually that musical...) OTOH all other details on that one have faded. PoV is primarily 1st person, but occasionally not. The last one I clearly remember was obviously drawing on my holiday in Greece, and probably on the MG story I have on the back burner that's set there, which touches on the refugee crisis and Golden Dawn. OTOH it seemed to have partly timeshifted itself back to WWII and the Gestapo were working their way through the crowds towards me and the people I was trying to keep away from them (aircrew evaders?). So if you imagine modern Greek restaurant nightlife with added dash of The Guns of Navarone....
I can't recall if that was the one that had me noting in my DW 'both nights sleep since I got back from Athens have featured dreams with me very prominently using wheelchairs* and leg braces, and then I wake up to a rod of pain where my lumbar spine should be. Yes, spine, I get the message, you didn't like the nasty cobbles. It's all right, they're gone now.'
*I do use a chair but I'm not a para. I think this was the first time since I switched to the chair at the start of the year that I've turned up using one in a dream.
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That sounds pretty cool, actually. Thank you for sharing!
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Thank you! I dream in narratives when I am sleeping healthily; frequently they present as books or media that are pretty much the sort of thing I enjoy when awake. The most recent example would be Dionysos at the crime scene, I think, and before that a TV show I would in fact watch. I dreamed an entire Ghost Story for Christmas-esque episode once.
I love a wartime ghost story pref. with pilots, Robert Westall's are fantastic.
Thanks for the recommendation! Have you read Helen Dunmore's The Greatcoat (2012)? I loved it.
[edit] Westall wrote The Machine Gunners (1975); I don't think I've read that since elementary school, but it made an impression on me then. I associate it with Susan Cooper's Dawn of Fear (1970). I can't remember reading any of his other novels, but Blitzcat (1989) looks like the sort of thing I would. Thank you not just for the recommendation, but for connecting me to an author I'd lost track of!
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I haven't read Dunmore, must try it as I adore ghost stories. I've had E.F. Benson recommended too, who looks promising.
Oh, re: Westall! As far as his novels go, I rec The Devil On The Road with my whole heart: if you like timeslips, witch trials, Matthew Hopkins, naively romantic anti-heroes and Uncle Tom Cobley and all, then it's the very thing. I'd argue it as Westall's very finest.
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I too feel unfairly tantalized by that Film Forum series. But I do have an ebook edition of The Blank Wall which I'm planning to read soon.
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Thank you!
I too feel unfairly tantalized by that Film Forum series.
Everybody I know needs a teleporter . . .
But I do have an ebook edition of The Blank Wall which I'm planning to read soon.
Enjoy! It is a very different story from The Reckless Moment (1949) in key respects, so I recommend them both.
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Re: long-form dreams, I'm pretty sure my latest one (http://alexx-kay.livejournal.com/391027.html) was inspired by you going on about Peter Lorre :-)
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I'm honored to be an inspiration!
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I would read the novel of that dream. Kind of glad you never found out who "they" were, though.
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Thank you! You gave me the idea.
I would read the novel of that dream. Kind of glad you never found out who "they" were, though.
I don't know if I could write it, but I have to agree with you: the only thing you need to know about them is that it would be better if you didn't.