July 22, 2008

Dreaming about blogging.

Though blogging consumes many of my waking hours, I don't normally dream about blogging. But last night, in a dream I got extremely excited about blogging an idea I had about the election.

I never found a way to sit in front of a computer and type out the words. Maybe it's impossible to type in a dream:
The thing that snapped me into realizing I was dreaming was, uh-- was my digital clock. I couldn't really read it. It was like the circuitry was all screwed up or something.

Yeah, that's real common. And small printed material is pretty tough too. Very unstable....

Anyway, I read this essay by Philip K. Dick.

What, you read it in your dream?

No, no. I read it before the dream.
Dialogue from the film "Waking Life."



Not that I believe everything I hear in the movies — even in cartoon movies — but I think you can't read in dreams and, so, you can't write. So you can't blog. But you can get very excited about an idea you want to blog.

What was the idea? I thought I could make a vigorous, influential argument that the Republican Party could avoid nominating John McCain — that there is still time to step off what it knows is the path to almost certain defeat in November.

18 comments:

I'm Full of Soup said...

Why do you believe it knows it faces certain defeat?

I have been surprised in the last two weeks to hear several die-hard liberal Dems say they will vote for McCain because Obama lacks experience and is a serial flip-flopper.

This is only anecdotal evidence I know but still surprising.

If McCain picks Guliani, he has a chance to sweep PA, OH, FL and maybe even NJ!

Ann Althouse said...

AJ: It was a dream.

Anonymous said...

No dream. McCain is the Bob Dole of the age.

Obama is awash in money, staff, institutional and elite support, leads in the polls, and looks to increase his lead as time goes on.

McCain is a joke. He is a place holder until the Republicans can rebuild the party after the disasters of actually having had power and screwing it up.

The part about saving the Republicans from themselves--now THAT's the dream.

Roost on the Moon said...

Well, maybe you'll indulge a little dream analysis, then?

Why would you want to save the republicans from certain defeat?

It's essentially the same question I've always had: in your view, what are they right about?

A more restrained, federalist court, I imagine, and "Homeland Security". But is there anything else?

Domestic oil drilling?
Permanent Bush tax cuts?
Defense of Marriage?
Mass deportation of "illegals"? Continuance of the drug war? Expanded executive power? "Enhanced interrogation"?
"Abstinence-only"?

What do you suppose your subconscious is afraid it will miss?

Bissage said...

(1) I once had a dream where I was packing modeling clay into the upper left rear corner of an endtable drawer.

I woke up really pissed-off to realize that was impossible.

Aaaaah . . . who am I trying to kid?

I'm still pissed-off.

(2) I had a dream last night, too. I dreamt Hillary! was inevitable.

(3) We're being played.

(4) G'night!

Ron said...

What do you suppose your subconscious is afraid it will miss? ummm...the lack of smug self-importance?

McCain is the draw play the Republicans choose to run on 3rd down and 27...

Roost on the Moon said...

As long as it's not 4th and 26...

Ron said...

I have such vivid, complicated dreams I write out of them...not in the dreams per se, but the dreams get me to write without that filtering...

kjbe said...

Ouch, Roost, ouch.

Kirby Olson said...

There are tremendous numbers of Democrats who won't vote for Obama but won't talk about it because they don't want to be screamed at for not voting PC (parti communiste). They would have voted for Bill's wife, though. This can't get on to any radar, I think, because no one wants to say it aloud.

However, I'm voting for McCain, and just for the record, I've never voted for a winning candidate.

I'm Full of Soup said...

Ann :

Well post your dreams on your dream blog will you!

Dust Bunny Queen said...

I wonder why that is: that we can't read in dreams. No matter how hard you focus on the words and letters it just seems impossible. Other things I can't do in dream land is remember the guitar chords for music that I've played for years or fly like a bird. I can fly, it's just really hard to do.

Like aj, I don't know that the Republican party faces certain defeat with McCain. Who else do you think could be substituted at this late date? The only way I can see we are going to avoid John McCain is if he were to get really ill. I just hope that either he or Obama pick someone really really qualified for VP, since it seems likely that that person will carry the ticket and may need to be ready to step up to the Presidential plate.

Linda Seebach said...

I can read in dreams (and when I do, as part of the dream's plot, it's in three-column justified type, in a font from some magazine I used to read long ago). It's uncommon, I think, but I have met several other people who have had the same experience occasionally.

blake said...

Everyone's being kind of literal here. Does Ann really think that it's certain defeat--or did she just dream that she thought that?

Certainly feelings of impending doom are common dream fodder. Even feelings of knowledge of someone or something else's impending doom.

That doesn't mean that she's dragged that significance into her waking life and then substituted it for her analytical abilities.

Or am I way off here?

KJohnson said...

I can read in dreams and I can occasionally fly. What I can never seem to do is drive properly. I'm always trying to drive from some odd perspective (from above the car, or to the side).

JimM47 said...

i too have heard that one cannot read in dreams and yet have done so. i fly frequently, and at least half the times i do, i recognize explicitly that flying has hitherto been possible only in my dreams, yet fail to understand that this means i must be dreaming. my father reports the same issue with driving in dreams.

Mitchell said...

I frequently read in dreams and can often remember some of it upon waking.

blake said...

Mitchell is Randolph Carter.