WEEK 444: Bug-Bird And Dreams

DREAMING

Many writers are influenced by their dreams and nightmares–or at least that is the claim. I don’t dispute the possibility but if I had to lean on my dreams for material my stuff would be sparse and even stranger. A fine example of such happened just the other night when I experienced a dream I call “Bug-Bird.” My mind was in a white page and just ahead skulked Bug-Bird. Half Moth, half Pigeon and clad in a flasher’s raincoat and wearing a fedora, I could only see Bug-Bird from behind. But I spied antennae through holes in his hat, tail feathers and Pigeon feet. Bug-Bird staggered forward and I was gaining on him (only a guy would dare be Bug-Bird). I recall wanting to tap him on the shoulder and have a look at Bug-Bird but that is when I woke, with the words Bug-Bird, Bug-Bird, Bug-Bird chanting in my mind by what might be called a “sulfurous chorus” of demon voices. Hardly bestseller material there–and perhaps the only way Bug-Bird can get into print is through something like this.

And there was the repeating Vampire Cow From Hell dream I had many many years ago. That involved being in a pasture at twilight and meeting a fanged Cow wearing a Bela Lugosi cape and a medallion that said: “Bossy Ain’t Here.” In all other ways the Cow was normal. I had this dream maybe a dozen times and it never varied. If that was a message from my subconscious I might have done well to change my contact information.

Further back, when my mind was fairly new and unsullied by life, I kept awakening from a much finer place than I knew; I couldn’t recall where I’d been, but a vague depression would come over me upon realizing that I was back in my bed, needing to use the bathroom and that it was a school day, and, of course, raining out. It is one of the most keenly felt losses in my life–and yet I’ve never been able to remember what it was that I had lost.

Yes, dreams are slippery things and sometimes are effective devices, as they were in Stephen King’s The Stand (nearly all his books feature dreams). But for those writers who’d go for the “It Was All A Dream” ending, it might be an idea that there is a special place in writer’s hell for that sort of behavior. Peddling off something as All A Dream; or telling a story entirely though an old letter that fell out of a piece of recently purchased antique furniture; or going for The Titanic auld witness recollection method should be reconsidered. Sometimes that sort of thing works out, but the odds are the stuff of dreams.

Still, it will be interesting if any of you have ever used a dream you had in your work.

DREAMERS

The week featured appearances by four fine writers and the sort of person who’d do well to avoid police lineups. We also had a Sunday Special by the king of those that got in so late, that I’m rushing here now to include mention of Authorship Down by Michael Bloor. It is a clever work and it is fun to count the references.

Have you ever come up with a title first then write a story to fit it? Well that is what happened to me when I stumbled in on Monday with For Whom the Elm Toad.

Newcomer Greg Golley restored site dignity with his first site story, A Latecomer’s Guide to Release. This tale presents an unique way of being that leads to a Nirvana similar to what it must be like for a fallen leaf. Tremendously intricate and thoughtful.

Ha! Thank you Tim Frank for providing this post with a slight symmetry not usually found in my wraps. Tim is beginning to accumulate a large canon with us–one filled with strange doings and visions and his latest Sleepwalking Visions belies Tim’s ability to approach a familiar topic from an utterly unique angle. You would do well to check out his site page.

On Thursday, first time contributor Edward Lee approached a common topic from an imaginative perspective and scored beautifully. Scans is a haunting little piece that will stick around in the heart long after it has been read.

Jennifer Maloney concluded the week in stories with her fantastic Jerry’s Last Problem. This is a dark, satisfying look deep into the heart of darkness. So well measured with an ending that resonates perfectly.

There they are. And if you haven’t looked between Tuesday and now, you will be happier when you can.

UNEASY DREAMS

I now close with a list of frequent dream topics I’ve had. Please feel free to add your own.

1. Work (nothing like punching in when you are asleep)
2. Being on fire and waking to a leg cramp
3. Waking afraid to move
4. Eerie chants that carry from sleep to the light of day–like “Bug-Bird, Bug-Bird, Bug-Bird”
5. Weird antidepressant caused visions (why I quit the stuff)
6. Falling (ah, the classics)
7. Waking from one nightmare into another
8. Familiar faces in strange places. (Once Winona Ryder was the US President; another time Johnny Cash was my elementary school principal)
9. Events so obviously far fetched that you callbullshit on the dream while still in the dream.
10. Open

Leila

(The fine fellow in the header has been hired to work my Saturday posts until he wanders off)