Last week I made a passing reference to one book I
had read, The Secret History of Dreaming by Robert Moss. What I did not
mention was that it too was part of a reading list.
The dream reading list wasn't that impressive
considering some of the other lists I have had going on. Only the Moss book was
excellent. However, there were some relevant things about it.
There were only two other books:
Dreams: A Way to Listen to
God by Morton T. Kelsey
The New Secret Language of Dreams by David Fontana
This started with a dream I had in 2008. It was
really time for me to start writing screenplays, and I thought I should work on
Hungry, because I had been working on that idea on and off since I was
in junior high. It wasn't flowing though.
(Of course, Hungry started with a dream, and
was updated by a dream, but that's not what this post is about.)
In this dream I was walking down a street in Rome with a guy I knew
from the singles ward. He was in a wheelchair, having been paralyzed in an accident.
We weren't close, so dreaming of him was a little unusual.
We were arguing because there was something that we
needed to get. We believed it was the key to helping him walk again, so it was
important, but he wanted to break in and steal it. I was frustrated that he was
so determined that he wasn't even considering that there might be easier,
better ways. That's why we were arguing.
There was this image of a silver disk with a human
face, and a jade mask of the same face that would fit over it, unlocking what
was behind.
That became a story in my mind very quickly.
Specifically, it became the first screenplay I wrote, and the one on which I
learned formatting. You can view a PDF of it here:
The story fell into place easily, but the image of
the jade and silver faces were so real and so outside of my experience that I
worried that maybe I had seen it in a movie or on television somewhere.
I posted on IMDB.com to see if it sounded familiar
to anyone. It didn't, but one person replied about the dream itself and said
that I needed to find out what I was hiding behind my mask, and what treasures
it would unlock.
I didn't think too much about that at the time. I
was too into the story and the excitement of writing it out and having it flow.
I had written short stories and a novel before, and I had imagined many scenes
that were intended for movies, but this was the first time I was writing in
that format. Having learned it once, then I could go on and write the others,
including Hungry. The dream and the story that came from it were a huge
deal for me in that way.
That doesn't mean that the symbolic value of the
dream wasn't important.
There was a book recommended in that discussion, but
later I couldn't remember which one. That is how there got to be a dream
reading list. I don't think it was the Moss book, but one of the other two. Therefore,
the recommended book was one that resonated less, but it still got me there.
Also, maybe it resonated less because I am missing something.
Right now a lot of what I am looking at is whether
or not I am missing something. At the beginning of the year, when I read the
other two books, I was thinking in those terms, and for specific reasons.
But those reasons can wait until tomorrow.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment