Here's the Chuck Klosterman Question of the Week:
At long last, someone invents "the dream VCR." This machine allows you to tape an entire evening's worth of your own dreams, which you can then watch at your leisure. However, the inventor of the dream VCR will only allow you to use this device of you agree to a strange caveat: When you watch your dreams, you must do so with your family and your closest friends in the same room. They get to watch your dreams along with you. And if you don't agree to this, you can't use the dream VCR.
Would you use the VCR?
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5 comments:
Fuck. That.
This is the easiest one so far. I have had some wacky dreams that I have no idea where they come from. More importantly, they often involve people in my daily life for no apparent reason. I'll be damned if I'll let you all see the weird roles you play in my subconcious. No thanks, Magic VCR, no thanks.
absolutely not. While watching my dreams might be amusing, scary, exciting, or I might be running from someone (as so many are), I just don't know where they come from. Sensory input gets cut off, lots of random firing, maybe you're sorting through memories of the day, maybe shit is just short-circuiting... I do not want to have to accept ownership for what goes on in my head. That's my cerebrum's problem.
Well Joel, I'm sure you take the precautions necessary to avoid wet dreams on a fairly regular basis. If you know what I mean.
As for me, If I could start lucid dreaming as a result of this, I might do it. Knowing what you dream about is supposedly the first step in that process. I think I'd do it. I can't imagine that seeing my dreams would change the way most of my friends think about me (you guys would probably guess that I have strange dreams and nightmares involving Anthony stealing women from me with his glorious curls). The one weird thing is that I often have dreams in which I'm on an MTV reality and/or dating show and I invariably lose. Granted, this is probably a reflection of real life, but still.
Speaking of dating, Will, I'm cooking chicken breast, pesto tortelloni, and bruschetta for a lady tonight. If it affects her anywhere near the way it affected Joel, she'll be furiously je--er... eating out of my hands... by dessert. Wish me luck.
Finally, I just found a couple of my Dad's old/vintage Stanford t-shirts. I will be bringing them back to school.
I want a shirt!
Anyhow, late in high school I started doing some lucid dreaming. Mostly because I wanted to change the course of some of my dreams, or exit out of them if I didn't like them. Like in the middle of a dream I'd think to myself "wait a second, I can just wake up if I don't like this stuff and feel like it, and get a whole new dream". It's a weird feeling thinking (in a dream mind you) "one, two three, open", and then to suddenly be lying in your bed with your eyes open. I never knew I was doing any sort of "lucid dreaming", and I used it in a very rudimentary form, mostly so I could get a new dream. I didn't really engage and try to keep acting out in my dreams and stuff, but it definitely was a weird feeling. I wonder if it effects the quality of your sleep. Would be neat to try doing that again. The more regularly I did it the better I found that my ability was. Anytime I didn't like the way I was dreaming if i consistenly changed the course of it it got really easy.
1) I'd say no. My dreams wouldn't be that interesting to offset to potential awkwardness.
2) Good luck Steve, on your...er... culinary endeavor. I hope you get better results than I did. Rave reviews are nice, but my ego can't inflate and more.
3) I tend to lucid dream fairly frequently, for some reason. I used to have a lot of nightmares when I was younger (and night terrors, in the early years, which are nightmares where you're screaming your head off but can't be woken up). While I learned to recognize that the attacking hordes of zombies, giant spiders, etc meant I was dreaming, forcing myself wake was often only a brief reprieve. Unlike Anthony, as soon as I went back to sleep the forces of evil would return.
The solution presented itself in the form of lucid dreaming. Rather than waking up once I recognized that I was having a nightmare, I learned to distort my dreams to level the playing field. I've given myself super/magical powers, or thought weapons or martial arts skills into existence. I've only been limited by what I can convincingly imagine experiencing. Flying is cool, but conceptually difficult; massive, Hulk-style jumps are much easier.
The only downside of fighting back is that it means my lucid dreams tend to be less restful than normal sleep.
This is also why I'd pass on the VCR. My most interesting dreams look like bad action movies. I'd rather go to Blockbuster.
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