Monday, January 11, 2010

The Bizarre Scope of Dream Land

In class today many students shared their personal writings about dreams they've had. The hardest thing about recalling dreams is exactly that: remembering them. So I was impressed that most students could recall at least one or two dreams, and I was even more impressed with the bizareness of it all, which, as a former psychology major, I appreciate and find fascinating on many levels.

Here are some of their dream topics:

1. Rapping tomatoes
2. Melting green people
3. Sinking schools
4. People who can only whisper
5. An aviation sickness that causes brains to melt
6. Paul McCartney sitting on a balcony playing "Revolution" backwards
7. Rides at Six Flags made of candy
8. A house with bleachers outside so people can watch you "live"
9. Tractor-riding pirates
10. The BFG who eats people
11. A Hunger Games world
12. Mummies coming through the TV
13. A land of waterslides, ball pits, and swinging rings
14. A ball pit so big that it takes a year to escape
15. Guardian of Frozen Yogurt Secret Formula

Don't get me wrong, these leave me speechless. But they don't compare to this excerpt:

I had a dream I could fly over the Civil War. There was a system. It went something like this: when someone came down from the sky, they passed you a bottle of glue and you put some on your hands. This would make you grow wings. Then you could begin flapping like a bird. Once you were airborne, you grew to the size of Oklahoma. Below, you could watch the red glow of war. Civil War.

This student also had a dream about going to the doctor to get two shots in the eyelid and one in the ear. Ouch!

Dreams. Write them down somewhere. You never know.

9 comments:

  1. I would love a dream like that. And then to remember them.

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  2. whoops. and then to "remember it". I mean it.

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  3. Hi.

    That is quite an awesome dream, he must be quite an awesome kid.

    Who could've dreamed that even if they tried. With the glue and all.

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  4. That is such a cool list. The first thing I thought is what cool story ideas some of those would make. Don't worry, I won't steal 'em from you though :)

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  5. When I was pregnant, my dreams were always so much more vivid. I think it was because I was so focused on life that only important stuff would come through in the dreams. Does that make sense?

    I had a dream the other night that Ryan Seacrest insinuated that I smelled like poop. He was standing next to me and sniffed and then said, "Do you smell that?" And then a couple minutes later, after a tv segment was done, he said, "See you later. I gotta go poop." And I thought, "The whole time he was smelling his own self. Jerk."

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  6. Great post!

    When I was in Creative Writing class in high school, my teacher gave us the same assignment. He also recommended, to the memory challenged folk such as myself, that we keep a pad of paper next to our bed. As an aspiring author, ten years later, that advice has been some of the most helpful.

    My teacher also recommended that we eat something odd before going to bed, like pickles dipped in peanut butter, as to give us more vivid dreams. That falls onto the list of worst advice I've ever been given.

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  7. I've always found dreams fascinating. Again, it's one of those things that we all experience. It's a guarantee in life. Hey, there's a story:

    A person who cannot dream.

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  8. Zach Oschin3/4/10, 7:33 PM

    Haha thanks Mr Wymer mine is the one with water slides and ball pits.It was funny to see mine on here!!

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