Lydgate

Last night I dreamed I was in an old farmhouse with Wentworth Miller, the actor from Prison Break. (I've been watching too much TV, I know, I know.) WM and I were planning something complex (like a prison break? not sure).

This is a still from Salvador Dalì and Luis Buñuel’s 1929 film Un Chien Andalou. I was hoping to show it on the first day of class, but it was clear on Wednesday that there wasn’t enough time. But I’ll show it next time. It will be apropos, because Dalì and Buñuel were heavily influenced by Freud’s theory of dreams when they made the film.

And this one's from Hitchcock's 1941 Spellbound, for which Dalì designed the infamous dream sequence. Notice the continued fixation with eyes, 12 years later.

I’m also posting this to show you that you can post images on the blog. Choose Create New Entry. Then, just go to “Upload File” in the Main Menu. Choose "Browse." Next, click the "Embedded Image" button. Then, choose "Show me the HTML" (rather than "Create New Entry"). Cut the html code that appears and paste it into the place in your post where you want the image to appear. The image will appear once you save the post as "Published."

We've been talking about the complex--and sometimes far-fetched--web of associations involved in Freud's intrepretation of any given dream. With that in mind, I thought I'd share this visual representation one of my former students--Brett Nitchke--created to map the web of his own associations with regard to a single dream. Click on the image to see a full-sized version.

If you want to read the essay Brett wrote about this dream, you can go to his blog:

http://communitas.princeton.edu/blogs/wri107-8/bnitchke/archive/2005/01/what_were_all_searching_for_an.html#more

You'll notice that he ends up writing a defense of Freud's method. If you're curious to see Brett's blog and those of all my students that semester, click on "Main" at the top. You'll find a blog roll on the bottom left of the window on the main page. (By the way, Brett's given his permission to let you read his blog and see his diagram. He said he'd be honored, actually.)

It's time to introduce you to The International Association for the Study of Dreams (a fantastic resources for anybody interested in dreams). Ernest Hartmann, whom we'll read for next week, was formerly President of the Association. J. Allan Hobson, whom we'll read for the following week, is a member, as are most living dream researchers.

Take a look around:

http://www.asdreams.org/

I'm in my new offices of the Writing Across the Curriculum program, with our program assistant Mindy. But the offices are in a big, dark old mansion and are shared with the management offices. (It's about to get better.)