There's no use for rock and roll—it died for the digital age

[sovay]

I recognized the problems with the timeline as soon as I woke up, but any dream in which an experimental director adapts a short story of mine into a short surreal film starring Anthony Perkins is a good dream. I wish I remembered enough about the story to write it. I wish I had the time to write.

It was a small Thanksgiving this year: immediate family and no really fancy side dishes except for a new style of pie and the squash it turned out there was nothing to be done with except full military honors, but the turkey was a pearl among birds and my niece brought her new Elsa doll and demonstrated her cat meow for me and fortunately the sudden outbreak of baby spiders in the living room (which we had just vacuumed that morning, of course) held off until after she had left with her family. There are lots of baked apples left over. I foresee a pleasant frequency of Turkey Terrifics in my future.

I did not know that "behind the sofa" was a cultural trope. That is exactly how my fifth grade class watched Don Siegel's Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956). Everybody started off on or in front of the peeling, faux-leather sofa that was part of the classroom furniture, and gradually migrated behind it over the course of the film. I include myself in this group. I always assumed other people spoke from equally literal experience.

I just like this image very much: Cornelius Ary Renan, "Les Voix de la Mer" (1899). Courtesy of handful_ofdust.

Comments

[rushthatspeaks]

I always assumed behind the sofa was literal, too-- certainly whenever I've said it it has been, and I know that's true also of, say, B.. This may well be one of those odd circumstances where everyone says a thing and those who mean it literally believe everyone means it literally and those who mean it figuratively assume everyone means it figuratively, and neither group is aware of the existence of the other.

[thisbluespirit]

I recognized the problems with the timeline as soon as I woke up, but any dream in which an experimental director adapts a short story of mine into a short surreal film starring Anthony Perkins is a good dream.

Aww. (My subconcious tends to recognise the problems inherent in a dream while I'm dreaming it, which ruins everything. I'd like to think I'm not much like Arnold Rimmer, but apparently my subconcious also finds it hard to believe in too much good stuff happening to me and intervenes to stop it. On the plus side, it also intervenes in a lot of nightmares to prevent them going to the worst places, so probably I'm okay.)

I did not know that "behind the sofa" was a cultural trope.

Ha. (Sorry, Brit and DW fan; I don't know if I've ever been unaware of it except as a cliche.) I've never seen it literally done, I have to say, but everyone has their own equivalent. (I used to hide behind a cushion. A much more comfortable way to cower! And I once watched modern Who with a teenager who kept disappearing to watch it from behind the doorway.)

I do hope you get much more time to write soon, though.

[moon_custafer]

Last night’s dream involved visiting a friendly, busy but vague location which was sometimes a movie set; it must also have had an open bar, because towards the end I and some other people thought it would be funny to mix cocktails with whole apples as garnish. Strangely, the bottle of vodka I picked up to mix the drinks was the most vivid part of the dream — it was Grey Goose, which is even a waking-world brand, though not one I’ve ever purchased.

[asakiyume]

I am not sure your dream was not precognition--okay, the Anthony Perkins part may be a little difficult to arrange, and I realize it seems like a central element, but there is still his son, who I'd take over a slap in the face with a wet fish any day.

[gwynnega]

That is an excellent dream.

I don't think I've ever watched a movie from behind a sofa, though the weekend Scanners came out, a couple of friends dragged me to a midnight showing and I was so freaked out by the head-exploding scene, I sat through the rest of the movie with my eyes closed. I could have used a sofa just then.

[brigdh]

Baby spider outbreak! D: I'm glad it waited until the small child had left; I can't imagine that would have gone over well. I'm an adult, and I'm not sure I would have handled it well.