What dreams may come

"Our revels are now ended. These our actors (As I fortold you) were all spirits, and are melted into air, into thin air, And like the baseless fabric of this vision / And like this insubstantial pageant faded, Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff As dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep. " -The Tempest VI.i.148 -158

Dreams, once inhabited, can lead down the siren-caressing corridors of self-deception. This is a vision impaired but unaware of its own ellusion from the facts. Shakespeare, W.H. Auden and T.S. Elioit, were artistically aware of this psychological process; they emphatically “fleshed out” this fallacy in their literary works. The Tempest, The Sea and the Mirror, and The Wasteland, all attempt to define the difference between illusion and reality. Shakespeare’s The Tempest explores this perceptual problem in the context of the theatre and a mystical island. The diametric “real” opposites are the audience and the city of Milan.

MY DREAM: Ariel was not present, but there was an ethereal quality to my last dream where I was in Las Vegas with my family, we robbed a bank, we were trying to escape in the getaway car...and then I was killed by a girl with a gun. This is Ocean's 11 gone wrong.

Musings on Nod

The poem below should remind us of several things.

Firstly, there is a danger of accepting fantasy as reality. W.H. Auden, in his poem "The Sea and the Mirror" examines the role of Ariel and Prospero in Shakespeare's "The Tempest." Auden's major premise in this poem is that Art/Magic are used to draw us away from our true selves(realistic--not fantastic). Caliban shows the more "human" side among the different characters on the island. According to Auden, though, we are tempted to be drawn into believing that we can waltz along to the urgings of magic (perhaps the ultimate example of "id"). Auden's "Mirror" allows the audience to see themselves in full view: the Emporer without clothes, and if it were applied to this poem, perhaps just the sleepy lids of a child. Auden's poem is only applied, facetiously to Winkin, Blinkin and Nod--- the danger of being lost in the dream world, though, is possible....If as Auden says, "Art opens the fishiest eye," it is fishy because it can be all-consuming. The puer aeternus, may become the dream world which allows the ends to justify the means. Lest we forget: Totalitarianism is always instigated by a dream.

Secondly, (contrary to my first ludicrous exposition), the thing we should remember is related to the recent rave review by Arianna on Pan's Labyrinth. According to A's Blog we know spirals are chaotic yet ordered, associated with mirrors, reflection and an opening of consciousness. The world of winkin, Blinkin and Nod, is set in the unconscious dream world. The three wanted to fish for herring (stars). But the three sailors were actually only one "wee one." Their world is a labyrinth back out of the unconscious world....

I loved Pan's Labyrinth --not merely for the heap of flesh waiting to gorge a child, or the Toad who puked out its own guts--or the heinous eye stabbing. In this film it seemed that everything that was most real (the child-mandrake who was killed in the fire, and the ruthless Corperal) seemed to fade away into this world of magic. The world of the faun and the God of the underworld were a delightful foil to the cold rationalism, dogmatism and violence of the upperworld. It was as if the Faun was saying, over and over again, "But that is not what is REALLY going on..." Fascist, factioned Italia was consumed in a battle which had very little eternal significance--although, its consuming claim to what was real almost stole away the Princess from her father the king. And through her own human flaw, the hunger for the grape, she allowed her desire to shadow and forget the mythic significance of her return, downward.

Pan's Labyrinth reveals the world of guns to be a dream, a pithy falsehood; Blinkin and Nod are revealed as the dreamy sea and flying shoe become nothing but a trundle bed--the unconscious world is a puer's fantasy. Each is a spiral and a mirror, playing and revealing the other world--an opening of consciousness--and a journey upward or downwards to what is real.
Which falsehood would you choose?

A Nascent Poem

Winkin', Blinkin', and Nod, one night sailed off in a wooden shoe;
Sailed off on a river of crystal light into a sea of dew.
"Where are you going and what do you wish?" the old moon asked the> three.
"We've come to fish for the herring fish that live in this beautiful> sea.> Nets of silver and gold have we," said Winkin', Blinkin', and Nod.
The old moon laughed and sang a song as they rocked in the wooden> shoe.> And the wind that sped them all night long ruffled the waves of dew.
Now the little stars are the herring fish that live in that beautiful> sea;
"Cast your nets wherever you wish never afraid are we!" So cried the stars to the fishermen three - Winkin', and Blinkin', and Nod.>
So all night long their nets they threw to the stars in the twinkling> foam.> 'Til down from the skies came the wooden shoe bringing the fisherman> home.
'Twas all so pretty a sail it seemed as if it could not be. > Winkin', Blinkin', and Nod> > Winkin', Blinkin', and Nod, one night sailed off in a wooden shoe;> Sailed off on a river of crystal light into a sea of dew.> "Where are you going and what do you wish?" the old moon asked the> three.> "We've come to fish for the herring fish that live in this beautiful> sea.> Nets of silver and gold have we," said Winkin', Blinkin', and Nod. > The old moon laughed and sang a song as they rocked in the wooden> shoe.> And the wind that sped them all night long ruffled the waves of dew.> Now the little stars are the herring fish that live in that beautiful> sea;> "Cast your nets wherever you wish never afraid are we!"> So cried the stars to the fishermen three - Winkin', and Blinkin', and> Nod.> So all night long their nets they threw to the stars in the twinkling> foam.> 'Til down from the skies came the wooden shoe bringing the fisherman> home.> 'Twas all so pretty a sail it seemed as if it could not be.> Some folks say 'twas a dream they dreamed of sailing that misty sea.> But I shall name you the fisherman three - Winkin', Blinkin', and Nod.> Now Winkin' and Blinkin' are two little eyes and Nod is a little head.> And the wooden shoe that sailed the skies is a wee one's trundle bed.>
So close your eyes while mother sings of the wonderful sights that be.> And you shall see those beautiful things as you sail on the misty sea,> Where the old shoe rocked the fishermen three - Winkin', Blinkin', and> Nod. some folks say 'twas a dream they dreamed of sailing that misty sea.> But I shall name you the fisherman three - Winkin', Blinkin', and Nod.> Now Winkin' and Blinkin' are two little eyes and Nod is a little head.> And the wooden shoe that sailed the skies is a wee one's trundle bed.> So close your eyes while mother sings of the wonderful sights that be.> And you shall see those beautiful things as you sail on the misty sea,> Where the old shoe rocked the fishermen three - Winkin', Blinkin', and> Nod.