dream 011 - what are dreams
I don’t think I’ve ever formally introduced myself, or what this is. I’ve been using this as a distraction from nightmares, but in this edition, I’ve decided to have a reset.
Side note: There’s about to be some spoilers, if you’ve never watched The Sopranos or Never Ending Story go do that now then come back and read the rest of this. You’ll thank me.
what are dreams?
Welcome to a blog about dreams. I’m calling it a blog for lack of better terms. Written by me, Alisha Brocklebank, I talk to people that I think are helping us process our present and interpret our future; about if they dream, and what about.
By this point, you may or may not have been following along as I’ve began to speak to those who represent something resembling the now, whatever that is. From Kavari’s Plague Music, to Being Held with Luke Pickering, I’ve been interested in how dreams play a part in what people create. With the hypernormalisation of what we know to be real, it’s difficult to put together a clear picture of reality only with the fragments we’ve been given. Dreams, on the other hand, are abundant.
In ‘Made in America’, the last episode of The Sopranos, many fans have theorised whether it was all in Tony’s dreams. When or if he dies remains a mystery, yet the episode’s title, initialised as ‘MIA’ might be a hint. Whilst some believe he’s trapped in purgatory, a repetition of punishment for the wrong he’s committed, others look to Freud’s iceberg to decipher the reality of events. But, what I like to believe, as someone who fell head over heart for Tony early in the series, is that his being ‘Made in America’ is really an anagram for ‘I Am A Nice Dream’. But, who am I to define someone by their passing subconscious.
Since I was a kid, I’ve always had vivid dreams. The older I get, and understand trauma, the more they’ve given me a lucid clarity about things I didn’t have the ability to grasp in my waking life. But, this isn’t a therapy session. Here you’ll find conversations with people I admire above all else. They’re changing the way we see things, and what to believe in.
A film I think about a lot is ‘Never Ending Story’. Released in 1984, we follow child Bastian through the book and land of Fantasia, the fate of which he quite literally holds in his hands. To cut a Never Ending long story short, until he is able to give the Empress a new name, the indescribable force of the ‘Nothing’ sweeps through Fantasia destroying everything beautiful. No easy feat, when you realise the name he needs to say aloud is his mother’s, who recently died. At one point, hero Atreyu comes head to head with ‘Nothing’ representative and demon dog Gmork, who (with some classic 80s dramatic effects) reveals the evil plan. The Nothing’s aim is to destroy the hopes and dreams of mankind, “because people who have no hopes are easy to control, and whoever has the control…has the power.”
So, as we live in what seems to be a never ending ‘Nothing’, we need hope more than ever. Dreams is where you’ll find interviews, the occasional essay, limited edition print as well as links to events which hopefully provide some kind of comfort, and maybe inspiration for your own dreams.
