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QotD: The Lion Grumbles and Mumbles

Arahant
@Arahant
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"The lion is the king of beasts. It often grumbles and mumbles to itself, proving it to be quite intelligent." -- Quotation from a book I was reading in a dream.

I am told that most of my dreams are unusual. Now, not all of them are. I woke from a dream the other day that was the typical anxiety dream. Nothing was going right in that dream. I woke up and told my wife to keep her dreams on her side of the bed, since that is much more typical of her dreams. Most of my dreams seem to be full cinematic productions. It is like I am either watching a full movie, right down to the credits and soundtrack, or I am directing a movie. Shortly after James Gandolfini died, I dreamed I was directing him as the romantic lead in a rom-com. I have no idea if he ever starred in a rom-com in life, but he was doing great at it in my dream. (And why shouldn't a tough-looking, balding, middle-aged man be the male lead in a rom-com?) Something much more recently was on Saturday. I had a dream that I had been watching a movie, and at the end of the movie, they had a song about going to Mars. The dream/movie was not about that, but the ending song was. I woke up and sang the part of the song I remembered to my wife.

This morning I awoke with another dream in my head. It was certainly one very much in keeping with my dreams, although it was not cinematic. Instead, I had been reading a children's picture book of animals. The dream was extremely vivid. For instance, on the page for the cat, there was also the body of a dead and desiccated mouse next to the cat. Very vivid. Then there was the page for the lion, the text of which I have quoted above. I thought it very funny that the implication was that because the lion grumbles and mumbles to itself, it must therefore be quite intelligent. The book I was reading in my dream must have been written by a curmudgeon.

What sort of dreams do you have? Are any of them quotable?

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Discussion (53)

  • Arahant@Arahant

    Here is another quotation from one of my dreams:

    He came back then to his knighthood as he put aside the priestly robes and bought himself a pouder gray and a raven black steed. But he bought no white, for every man knows that he who is born in the white shall die in the white.

    I have no idea what it means, but it was very striking.

  • Sisyphus@Sisyphus
    ReplyingtoJoelB

    JoelB (View Comment):

    I read recently that one cannot read in a dream because that part of your brain is asleep. Apparently, that’s not necessarily so for everyone.

    The mistake is assuming that reading in a dream is the same as reading awake, that the mind imagines words arrayed as letters on a page and then scoops them up. Dreams are full of shortcuts, the words "on the page" are composed as one says them and ascribed to the page and on you go. I have read simple signs in a dream where the words were there, but never more than a handful. And then I notice that I am buck naked and there's a sniper on the roof and I am running like an old man. That last piece used to be less true of my general abilities.

    Also, I have never run across that "gentle savage" Hulk in my dreams. He is always vivid green and killing everyone in sight, with nothing for it but to hide until he passes and bury the remains. I can never find Cap's phone number when I need it.

    But the best dreams are when it's quiet in the customs house and I am sharing tea and biscuits with Geoff while he tries out his latest poetry on me. Delightful, but I can never remember a line of it after.

  • Arahant@Arahant
    ReplyingtoSisyphus

    Sisyphus (View Comment):

    And then I notice that I am buck naked and there’s a sniper on the roof and I am running like an old man. That last piece used to be less true of my general abilities.

    Definitely sounds more like my wife's dreams.

    Sisyphus (View Comment):

    Also, I have never run across that “gentle savage” Hulk in my dreams. He is always vivid green and killing everyone in sight, with nothing for it but to hide until he passes and bury the remains. I can never find Cap’s phone number when I need it.

    I can't remember any dreams like that offhand. I don't remember other people's characters showing up in my dreams.

    Sisyphus (View Comment):

    But the best dreams are when it’s quiet in the customs house and I am sharing tea and biscuits with Geoff while he tries out his latest poetry on me. Delightful, but I can never remember a line of it after.

    Don't know if I'm supposed to catch a reference here, but it does sound delightful.

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