I Had this Dream Last Night
I’ll do my best to describe it. It’s not very long.
I’m sitting on a couch watching television and in between programs (I know nothing of either one); there is an animated Canadian short. For those of you unfamiliar with what this entails, I offer the following:
The Cat Came Back
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oS0-wQ1I88k
Every Dog’s Guide to the Playground
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hb6HegxsM2k
Log Driver’s Waltz
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfhAbHmmzo0
For some of us who grew up here in Canada, it was a common occurrence that these short films would be nuzzled in between lousy afternoon children’s programming on our native station, CBC. For many of us, these little programs are chiseled into our brains, for we have seen them hundreds of times. By identifying these particular examples I am not endorsing them, but merely attempting to clarify the style in which this cartoon in my dream takes place. A lot of Canadian animators employ methods that are similar to these examples: strange-looking and oddly shaped people, with lines that seem to vibrate with a particular sloppiness. Many times while the situations in these films become rather manic, the tone remains curiously melancholic.
The content of the cartoon in my dream is as follows:
We focus exclusively on a woman, slightly past middle age who is frantically attempting to get ready for an evening out. As she tries on difference outfits and prepares her make up, her husband shouts at her from downstairs as he watches television. They both speak with kind of a New York accent.
“Honey? How are things going up there?”
“Harold! Mind your own stinkin’ business!”
After some more further preparation:
“Hey honey… Is there anything I can do to help you get ready?”
“Jesus Christ, Harold! Why can’t you just let me dress in peace for once?”
After finally having everything perfect, the woman heads for the door. As she leaves:
“Have a good night out, baby.”
“Oh Harold… How many times do I have to tell you to SHUT THE FUCK UP?!”
She slams the door behind her and we pan over to an easy chair where we presume Harold to be sitting. In his place however, sits a large, meekly stuffed toy pig and a black telephone receiver hung upside-down and propped as to have the sound from the hearing end magnified by a nearby blue megaphone-like device. The “camera” pulls in to the receiver through the tiny holes in the speaker and travels very quickly down the telephone line to the other end, where Harold sits on a couch in shorts and a Hawaiian shirt. He hangs up his end of the phone.
“And the bitch doesn’t even know I’m gone.”
The “camera” pulls out to reveal that he is sitting there with a buddy of his, both men relaxing with respective drinks. Harold’s friend offers:
“Meh. Whatever.”
Harold (shaking his head at the fact that is buddy is noticeably unimpressed):
“I don’t even know why I bother.”
Harold’s part of the couch then quickly rotates 360 degrees backwards, making Harold disappear to an unknown place. This part of the cartoon I realize makes zero sense, but in the dream I interpreted it to mean that he had designed another similar device in order to (just like his wife) communicate with his friend from a distance without actually having to be there. (I know that doesn’t make sense either, but you know how dreams are. Not making sense is their M.O.)
It’s not funny.
And that’s part of the reason that the dream resonates with me, and why I decided to comment on it today. The cartoon did not play out with a punch line that coincides with my sense of humor. And as I was watching it (or dreaming it), I honestly did NOT know what to expect that punch line to be. My subconscious created something that I was somehow surprised by. It’s not the first time a dream has done that to me (or anyone else, I’m sure) and every time it happens, I tend to lend it a more thorough analysis than it immediately seems to warrant. How can my own mind surprise itself? Why did I dream this and what does it mean?
At first I considered Harold’s bitterness and the lengths that he went to avoid the people that he cared about. Bitter cynicism is something that I can identify with completely. I soon realized however, that it wasn’t the effort to get away from these people that was extraordinary. If he wanted to just leave, he could have just done so and not thought twice about it. It was rather the great lengths it took for him to attempt to connect with them. It was everyone else’s indifference to Harold and their negativity that drove him away, yet it is his want to attempt to forge any kind of connection (however meaningless and in some cases cruel) with these very people, that influences him to go to these unusual lengths.
What does this mean in a personal sense?
I’m not entirely sure, but I do share a “distancing” quality with Harold. I have shown a tendency to unjustly hermit myself from the people that I care about during times of emotional flux.
Lately, for the first time in a while, I find myself to be mostly happy. I’ve been focused on creative things consistently and a random situation has led to frequent events of satisfying niceness. It is during this time, I find that I am more sensitive to unconditional negativity. Rather than it fitting into my daily attitude, it seems to be foreign; counter-productive and unnecessary. Perhaps that is another aspect of myself that helped create the dream.
As for Harold going to great lengths to attempt plastic communication, it is something that I can only liken to myself post-dream. For in its wake, I have written a rather wordy and pointless BLOG post – a form of communication that practically finds its charm in its (unless you are the one writing it) lack of value and consequence.
I’m sitting on a couch watching television and in between programs (I know nothing of either one); there is an animated Canadian short. For those of you unfamiliar with what this entails, I offer the following:
The Cat Came Back
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oS0-wQ1I88k
Every Dog’s Guide to the Playground
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hb6HegxsM2k
Log Driver’s Waltz
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfhAbHmmzo0
For some of us who grew up here in Canada, it was a common occurrence that these short films would be nuzzled in between lousy afternoon children’s programming on our native station, CBC. For many of us, these little programs are chiseled into our brains, for we have seen them hundreds of times. By identifying these particular examples I am not endorsing them, but merely attempting to clarify the style in which this cartoon in my dream takes place. A lot of Canadian animators employ methods that are similar to these examples: strange-looking and oddly shaped people, with lines that seem to vibrate with a particular sloppiness. Many times while the situations in these films become rather manic, the tone remains curiously melancholic.
The content of the cartoon in my dream is as follows:
We focus exclusively on a woman, slightly past middle age who is frantically attempting to get ready for an evening out. As she tries on difference outfits and prepares her make up, her husband shouts at her from downstairs as he watches television. They both speak with kind of a New York accent.
“Honey? How are things going up there?”
“Harold! Mind your own stinkin’ business!”
After some more further preparation:
“Hey honey… Is there anything I can do to help you get ready?”
“Jesus Christ, Harold! Why can’t you just let me dress in peace for once?”
After finally having everything perfect, the woman heads for the door. As she leaves:
“Have a good night out, baby.”
“Oh Harold… How many times do I have to tell you to SHUT THE FUCK UP?!”
She slams the door behind her and we pan over to an easy chair where we presume Harold to be sitting. In his place however, sits a large, meekly stuffed toy pig and a black telephone receiver hung upside-down and propped as to have the sound from the hearing end magnified by a nearby blue megaphone-like device. The “camera” pulls in to the receiver through the tiny holes in the speaker and travels very quickly down the telephone line to the other end, where Harold sits on a couch in shorts and a Hawaiian shirt. He hangs up his end of the phone.
“And the bitch doesn’t even know I’m gone.”
The “camera” pulls out to reveal that he is sitting there with a buddy of his, both men relaxing with respective drinks. Harold’s friend offers:
“Meh. Whatever.”
Harold (shaking his head at the fact that is buddy is noticeably unimpressed):
“I don’t even know why I bother.”
Harold’s part of the couch then quickly rotates 360 degrees backwards, making Harold disappear to an unknown place. This part of the cartoon I realize makes zero sense, but in the dream I interpreted it to mean that he had designed another similar device in order to (just like his wife) communicate with his friend from a distance without actually having to be there. (I know that doesn’t make sense either, but you know how dreams are. Not making sense is their M.O.)
It’s not funny.
And that’s part of the reason that the dream resonates with me, and why I decided to comment on it today. The cartoon did not play out with a punch line that coincides with my sense of humor. And as I was watching it (or dreaming it), I honestly did NOT know what to expect that punch line to be. My subconscious created something that I was somehow surprised by. It’s not the first time a dream has done that to me (or anyone else, I’m sure) and every time it happens, I tend to lend it a more thorough analysis than it immediately seems to warrant. How can my own mind surprise itself? Why did I dream this and what does it mean?
At first I considered Harold’s bitterness and the lengths that he went to avoid the people that he cared about. Bitter cynicism is something that I can identify with completely. I soon realized however, that it wasn’t the effort to get away from these people that was extraordinary. If he wanted to just leave, he could have just done so and not thought twice about it. It was rather the great lengths it took for him to attempt to connect with them. It was everyone else’s indifference to Harold and their negativity that drove him away, yet it is his want to attempt to forge any kind of connection (however meaningless and in some cases cruel) with these very people, that influences him to go to these unusual lengths.
What does this mean in a personal sense?
I’m not entirely sure, but I do share a “distancing” quality with Harold. I have shown a tendency to unjustly hermit myself from the people that I care about during times of emotional flux.
Lately, for the first time in a while, I find myself to be mostly happy. I’ve been focused on creative things consistently and a random situation has led to frequent events of satisfying niceness. It is during this time, I find that I am more sensitive to unconditional negativity. Rather than it fitting into my daily attitude, it seems to be foreign; counter-productive and unnecessary. Perhaps that is another aspect of myself that helped create the dream.
As for Harold going to great lengths to attempt plastic communication, it is something that I can only liken to myself post-dream. For in its wake, I have written a rather wordy and pointless BLOG post – a form of communication that practically finds its charm in its (unless you are the one writing it) lack of value and consequence.
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