Some books are undeservedly forgotten; none are undeservedly remembered.
[W. H. Auden]

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Lions, Dog-Catchers, and Cars, Oh, My!

Yep, you guessed it.
I had another lion dream last night.

This time, it started out in the day, with an vaguely unidentifiable friend and I driving around Portland/LA. Traffic abounded, and we were lost. Eventually, we came to the abrupt end of an overpass at the outskirts of town that looked over a bunch of dilapidated streets and highways that had sunken into a desert. We decided to stay there for the night and do some quality stargazing. A bunch of frantic but slapstick stuff happened then that I barely, fuzzily recall. A lion was involved, and other people.

*flicker*

Somehow, I got back to my hometown. I decided to walk home from the library, but took an unfamiliar route, passing through some sketchy neighborhoods. The late afternoon waned into nighttime. I saw a lion meandering around down a side street and picked up my pace, making it home in time to warn my dad, who was doing yard work, of the lion's presence. Its lazy tracking became chasing, and my dad and I only had time to lock ourselves in his truck outside the house. We stayed there quite a while until the lion had got bored lurking around the truck and surrounding houses and wandered farther down the block. We ran into the house, the lion noticing and chasing us to the door. So we called the police, who didn't know what to do (lions are, after all, quite rare in these parts). Optionless, they called in the dog-catchers, who took forever. In fact, we were stuck inside the house until the next afternoon. The lion paced around the house relentlessly. It didn't speak.

The dog-catchers finally arrived with some sort of tranquilizers. Unfortunately, they were made for dogs, not big cats, so they just subdued the lion without knocking it out. The lion then slurred out something like, "All I wanted was a car ride."


* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

I had another chasing dream, but this one involved three friends from school and I fleeing human chasers (one hooded in black, a la LOTR, one a normal young chap). It started at some sort of gathering which was crashed by these evil chasers who were trying to get rid of all of us (not kill, just vaguely "get rid of"). Some of the people at the gathering were from school, some from camp, some from nowhere identifiable. Anyway, three friends and I escaped by jumping into someone's Mustang and sneaking away while the chasers chased other people. The two aforementioned chasers tracked us, though, and what followed was an elaborate series of clever, desperate, and sometimes ridiculous escapades involving a lot of driving; crowded airports; windy, mountain roads; long, deserted highways; luxurious, pink hotels; and dingy restaurant/gas stations.

My favorite trick we attempted was hiding in waist-deep pool of water surrounded by lawn decorations and brightly colored flora until the chasers passed in their blue/black/purple car (the color changed throughout the dream, like a bruise) passed us on the nearby highway, once again located outside of Portland. I thought it was brilliantly clever and cinematic, but my friends complained about the chilly water and their new shoes. Eventually, we met the two chasers in the airport, where the young chap explained they didn't like being chasers, but the hooded fellow had a bad case of indigestion during which he lost all control of his mind and joined the truly evil chasers. The young chap had been trying to tell us all along.

Interestingly, this dream happened twice in a row, like an immediate recurrence. I don't remember the first time as well, but it didn't turn out so well. Interestingly, we were aware of that within the dream, and the first experience came in handy. "Remember what happened when we tried that last time?" one of us would say ominously. So we chose a different path, and that made all the difference.

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Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Lions & Jaguars Rampant

Last night, I had a vivid dream that possessed three main elements:
1. Chasing
2. Church people
3. Camp

Synopsis: Big cats (primarily lions, with a few tigers and jaguars) chase me and other people (primarily from church) around the camp I attended through junior/high school.

This is notable because for the first time I recall, my dream mostly consisted of things I had recently and consciously been thinking about to some extent. While I don't agree with a lot of dream interpretation, I think dreaming is a powerful realm of the unconscious and is a tool of problem solving. The latent content of this dream seems fairly obvious to me, based on the struggles I've had lately.

Usually, though, my dreams involving wild animals/chasing seem far fetched and unrelated to my conscious life (like the the only other lion-ish dream I recall having), more like adventure-horror films than stuff of significance. The other vivid wild animal/chasing dreams I remember from the last few years:

### Giant komodo dragons chase me from downtown to my neighborhood, where I and a few imaginary neighbors go to elaborate lengths to escape the lizards of unusual size by climbing fences, telephone poles, and rooftops. The komodo dragons could talk.

### Oversized nutria (a species prevalent around my Oregon college) chase me around a semblance of my campus, where I take shelter in the academic center. An imaginary professor, who happens to personally know the English-speaking nutria king, takes me to make negotiations with the talking R.O.U.S. Unfortunately, the nutria king cannot control his subjects, who continue to attack my peers and professors on campus and around town. Most of the dream takes place at night, which is an unfamiliar dreamscape for me.

### A wolfish beast chases my roommate around, trying to seduce her to marry him. Entranced, she agrees to meet him that night, when they will run away. Somehow, a few random personalities from my campus and I find out about the wolf. Then we discover his nefarious intentions to kill her. So we finally find my roommate, lock her in a boys' dorm, then set out to find the wolf, who tries to get into the dorm. Think Beauty and the Beast meets Phantom of the Opera meets Lady in the Water. Yes, the wolf could talk. (This also partially takes place at night; interestingly, I can only remember three dreams, including these two, that involve the dark. I've had all of them in the last six months.)

I also had an interesting dream this last semester that took place in my hometown. It involved leaf-zombies invading. (No, I didn't know what leaf-zombies were before this dream, either. They are vague human-like creatures that lay in wait as piles of leaves in street gutters until they swirl up into their humanoid form.) I was at Sharis, across town from my house, with some friends. When the televisions informed us of the invasion and warned us of innocent-looking leaf piles, we set out in a friend's car to get away, but I insisted on going home to warn my family. Somehow, I managed to get halfway across town without being eaten (er, consumed by a pile of leaves...it's an odd, non-violent way to die, I guess) by the leaf-zombies, although I saw several other people eaten. I met a nice older fellow behind Walgreens, who gave me a magic dollar bill (yes, you read that right) which would protect me from the autumnal creatures before he sacrificed himself to the leaf-zombie lurking behind the drugstore so I could proceed. With the magic dollar bill, I made it home safely and tried to convince my parents we could escape to the country with my pecuniary protection, but they told me to calm down and continued reading the paper. Talk about an anti-climax.

Interestingly, the third dream involving nighttime also involved a few people from college, as well as the building of my old church. And a dark forest, which I've never dreamt about before. And a human antagonist, instead of animal--a thief/possibly murderer type who broke into the church and then chased my friends into the forest, where I followed, looking for some imaginary child. I'm sure there's some sort of meaning there, particularly with the darkness-college connection, but it isn't an obvious one. I can't think of any significant problems that relate specifically to college or the people there; in fact, I love the community there, and it's fairly isolated from the problems of the world, personally and globally. So maybe it represents something, but I do not know what. I'm a journalist, not a psychologist.

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Thursday, May 22, 2008

Two Books, Two Days

In between working and sleeping, the last two days have been consumed by two delightfully satisfying YA novels, Twisted and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. These two bildungsromans, written by Laurie Halse Anderson and Sherman Alexie, respectively, follow two very different young men from uncertainty and anger to a choose-your-own-destiny sort of conclusion. I’d been waiting to read these books for months, and neither disappointed.

Twisted: A Synopsis
On probation for vandalizing his school, 17-year-old Tyler Miller returns to school as the nerd he’s always been—but now with a dangerous reputation, which gains him favor from the alpha female of the school, who happens to be his dad’s boss’s daughter. Struggling against a dysfunctional family, suicidal thoughts, and a police investigation thanks to false accusations from his peers, Tyler begins to learn what it means to be a man.

Coming from Anderson, author of the critically-acclaimed and personally-beloved Speak, I had great expectations for Twisted, her first foray into the male mind. The front lapel* of the book reads, “Everybody told me to be a man. Nobody told me how.” It’s a simple, sort of cryptic, and highly provocative teaser, perfectly appropriate for the story.
Laurie Halse Anderson delves into her protagonist’s mind, painting a spotless and sometimes troubling portrait of adolescence. She delves into high school, which is never uglier and never more meaningful than when she holds the shovel. She delves into the troubles of a suburban American family, offering hope without succumbing to a happy ending. Five stars for Twisted, easily. (If you decide to read this story, remember that Anderson doesn’t tell pretty or comfortable stories; although she does tell important ones.)
I can’t resist repeating one of the promotional quotes on the back of Twisted, from author Chris Lynch: “Laurie Halse Anderson is the undisputed bard of suburban American high school society.…Reality may bite, but perception just might tear you to shreds. The last line of defense for our hero is the same as it’s always been—character.”

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian: A Synopsis
Junior (Arnold Spirit, Jr., formally), born with many medical issues, grows up on the Spokane Indian Reservation as the brunt of many jokes and fistfights, and as the target of many bullies, including adults. Sick of poverty, inadequate education, and hopelessness, he decides to attend nearby all-white, small-town Reardan High School. The rez community sees Junior’s decision as a betrayal of his home and culture.

True to his self-aware form, Alexie manages to write about serious issues—death, alcoholism, racism, growing up—with a lighthearted and ironic, though still reflective, voice. A chronic cartoonist, Junior inserts many drawings into his “diary” (Part-Time Indian does not really follow the traditional journal format, but whatever), a multi-media dimension that is verging on a bit of a trend in YA lit, a revamping of old-school illustrations. Sherman Alexie, being Sherman Alexie, covers a lot of rez angst and culture conflict; and, of course, being Sherman Alexie, he does it honestly, without getting whiny.

Reading Part-Time Indian within 24 hours of Twisted was probably a mistake, since they are both coming-of-age stories aimed at the same audience, thus demanding a comparison. Anderson’s writing is very involved, mentally and emotionally; she sets a high standard of storytelling. As much as I love Alexie’s poetry, his prose—at least in this book—seems just so-so. His protagonist writes straightforwardly, without the layered depth Alexie usually employs. Yes, Junior’s voice is strong and honest and lovable, but there’s a lot of depth Alexie leaves wanting, which is surprising considering how personal this story is: While it’s being marketed as a novel and not autobiography, Junior’s story follows the author's own life (at least the first three paragraphs of it) quite closely. To be fair in comparison, though, Alexie uses humor to a perfection Anderson can’t compete with. And in the end, both are resoundingly satisfying tales of two boys coming-of-age.

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