Singing Potatoes
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Tuesday, 23 September 2003
The Persistence of Memory

To my dreaming mind, "home" is the house I grew up in. The last time I was in that house was seventeen years ago, but any time a dream occurs in a home setting, the mise en scéne is always that house in Connecticut.

Not once can I recall a dream occurring in any of the apartments I've had since then, or in my present house; it's as though my brain has locked that particular locale as the dream shorthand for "home". I never notice, during the dream, that I'm in a place which ceased to be my home over a decade and a half ago. People and objects from the present may show up, and they don't register as being out of place.1

I wonder why that is.

1 Then again, I don't tend to notice other inconsistencies during my dreams, such as one from last night when Karen brought home a stuffed "Hobbes" doll which soon mutated into an actual living cat. It seemed natural at the time.

Posted by godfrey (link)
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