What do dogs dream of? Yes, they do have dreams; you can tell by their sometime twitches and moans while they’re sleeping, their sometimes strange response to us in their first moments after waking. By their long association with people, perhaps at times they dream they are – people, themselves. And are you, readers, perhaps dogs asleep even now, dreaming that... [Click ‘Random Post’ above – be astonished] … [Read more...]
“Heavenly Dreams” / Memorable Fancies #1670
10 November, 2016 by Leave a Comment
[“To dream that you are resurrected from the dead” – from What Your Dreams Mean] Suddenly I’m here again. What happened? I look around. People in white robes are standing around me, staring down at me. One raises a scalpel... [Click ‘Random Post’ above – be astonished] … [Read more...]
“Soothe-Sleep” / Memorable Fancies #216
7 September, 2016 by Leave a Comment
[Neuroscientists find a way to record dreams as the dreamer experienced them.] “Bad dreams? Soothe-Sleep Inc. can end them once and for all. Think of the pleasure of knowing you won’t wake up shivering in terror, or keeping your bedmate awake with groans and thrashing. “Soothe-Sleep is a simple device you wear on your head. It detects abnormally strong negative brain waves and generates positive waves until your brain returns to normal. “What is the price of this wonderful new … [Read more...]
“Metadreaming” / Memorable Fancies #1169
30 July, 2016 by Leave a Comment
[“Someone says ‘I believe I am now dreaming’” – Wittgenstein] I dreamed I was dreaming, and then I woke – or was I still dreaming even then? And even now, while I’m telling you this,... [Click ‘Random Post’ above – be astonished] … [Read more...]
“Beware Your Dreams” / Memorable Fancies #1571
30 June, 2016 by Leave a Comment
The book “What Your Dreams Mean” lists hundreds of possible dreams. Every one, however, seems an omen of disaster. Quickly you flip through the book looking to see if your own dreams are listed, and what bad things could therefore happen to you. This particular book is often gifted to friends recently promoted, on days of congratulation and envy. [Click ‘Random Post’ above – be astonished] … [Read more...]
“The Law of Dreams” / Memorable Fancies #1354
22 October, 2015 by Leave a Comment
The Dutiful Republic is ruled by a severe dictatorship. Although the people are fed, clothed, and housed, they are required to obey the many rules, some of them secret, that the government has established for them. Lacking freedom to do anything in the material world, they dream. But there are rules for dreaming, too. <END> Buy it at amazon.com/author/terencekuch: The Seventh Effect. In this novel from Mélange Books LLC, a NSA-like organization knows – perhaps too much about … [Read more...]
“The Price” / Memorable Fancies #838
10 October, 2014 by Leave a Comment
[“The people who organize your dreams” – Dave Eggers] You pay a monthly subscription, and Dream-On, Inc., will beam a signal into your home every night that will prompt you to have dreams about power, or heroism, or sex, or riches, or – whatever you want. You’ll love this service so much you’ll never leave. If you try, your Dream-On feed will include falling from airplanes, rejection by your mother, being smothered by a sentient pillow, and other motivators. So you … [Read more...]
“The Dream-Prizes” / Memorable Fancies #746
18 June, 2014 by Leave a Comment
There were weekly competitions for the most interesting dreams, or the most daring. Prizes were awarded. Several weeks in a row, Sylvia Norton won. There were jealous rumors that Sylvia was making these dreams up, hadn’t really had them, that her dreams were all fiction and sounded suspiciously like the latest popular novels. Officials were appointed to look into the matter. They dreamed that she’d made them up, and disqualified her. <END> THE THURSDAY PITCH If you … [Read more...]
“Dream-Pills” / Memorable Fancies #702
5 May, 2014 by Leave a Comment
A firm hawks pills promising that you will dream about nothing but sex, and offering to license the really good dreams that result, for syndication. There are extra-cost add-ons, add-ins, and infinite variations, each individually priced. Multi-somes are a favorite. Anonymity is promised and immediately violated. Some of your neighbors write you off as some kind of pervert. Others come to visit. <END> THE MONDAY PITCH If you liked this post, please tell your friends and share a … [Read more...]
“Five Briefs XXIII – Dreaming” / Memorable Fancies #568
3 January, 2014 by Leave a Comment
In our dreams our minds have gone to other places, some real, others fantastic. But now we can take our bodies with us. This enriches our experience, as you can imagine, but also leads to certain risks … # Large crowds co-dream at music festivals – famous stars seed these dreams, let the dreamers have their way with them. # Spam dreams – how the wretched of Nigeria and Burkina Faso can make you rich. # Candidates for employment (first at the CIA, then at ad agencies) are … [Read more...]
“Co-Dreaming” / Memorable Fancies #564
30 December, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Last night we co-dreamed. It was wonderful, being there with you, doing the same fantastic, fragmented, excited things. But then this morning you denied that you had been there with me, that what we did ever happened. With a shiver, perhaps remembering your own dream, you called mine “disgusting.” <END> If you liked this post, please tell your friends and share a comment here or in StumbleUpon, Reddit, Facebook, or other social websites. Subscriptions to this blog … [Read more...]
“Come True” / Memorable Fancies #563
29 December, 2013 by Leave a Comment
I dreamed about it, that future I feared. When I woke, my sheets were sweat-soaked and I was shaking with fright. But it was worth the agony, because dreams never come true. – Right? Right? <END> If you liked this post, please tell your friends and share a comment here or in StumbleUpon, Reddit, Facebook, or other social websites. Subscriptions to this blog are available at www.amazon.com/author/terencekuch or at www.bit.ly/Fancies. – or you can just Follow this … [Read more...]
“Five Briefs – XII: Dreaming” / A Memorable Fancy #426
10 August, 2013 by Leave a Comment
At first, Netflix rented out dreams contributed by the public. But as these proved unexciting, the company began paying ghost-writers to “dream up a plot.” # Some sexdreams had become legendary, had been sold ten, twenty times, reviewed in Rolling Stone, passed from person to person like precious gems, hoarded, resold, treasured, hocked. As the old song asked, “‘I wonder who’s kissing her now?’” # Eventually, our dreams were routinely harvested and sold to commercial firms for … [Read more...]
“Dream-Sin” / A Memorable Fancy #413
28 July, 2013 by Leave a Comment
[-- Michel Foucault, Mental Health and Psychology, p.xxxv quoting a confessional manual: “Examine even unto your dreams, to know if, once awakened, you did not give them your consent.”] “Forgive me, Father, I have sinned in my dreams, done wicked things in my dreams, with my body and with other people’s bodies too. “Did I consent to these dreams? Now how could I…? “Well, perhaps, yes, Father, I suppose my unconscious must have wanted to dream about – these … [Read more...]
“Five Briefs – VII” / A Memorable Fancy #391
6 July, 2013 by Leave a Comment
[Neuroscientists find a way to record dreams as the dreamer experienced them.] In the debate, the candidate was challenged to release her dreams to the press. Blushing and stammering, she refused. Her polls immediately went up five points. # Commissioner Hills laughed, said “sure you can broadcast my dreams,” not remembering the one where … # “My opponent dreamed of robbing a bank; can you imagine? Surely you don’t want that man as our Mayor!” # What if your dream is … [Read more...]
“Dream-Wars” / A Memorable Fancy #329
2 May, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Never dream of a place where the tribesmen are hostile to us. They hate us dreamers, because their spears go right through us without harm, and their roadside bombs never explode when we waft by. Nonetheless, the look on their faces is enough to alarm us, and their secret smiles hint that they might have almost found a way to wake us while we are still in their territory, on their roads, within sight of their villages. They may be ready for us tonight. They don’t seem to realize that we’re … [Read more...]
“An Economy of Dreams – VII” / A Memorable Fancy #312
15 April, 2013 by Leave a Comment
[Neuroscientists find a way to record dreams as the dreamer experienced them.] Dream-snooping is considered bad form unless done by university psychology departments (as part of a government-funded scientific experiment, of course), or by the FBI. The only technical issue standing in the way of all your dreams being posted on Dreambook or Blather, or used as evidence against you, is that the dream-snoop has to be within 24 inches of your head while you’re asleep, or the dream will be too … [Read more...]
“An Economy of Dreams – VI” / A Memorable Fancy #305
8 April, 2013 by Leave a Comment
[Neuroscientists find a way to record dreams as the dreamer experienced them.] “Most people, when awakened, haven’t remembered all their dreams; that gives us an advantage. “‘We have a recording,’ we tell them. ‘We remember your dreams, even when you don’t. Just last week you dreamed you were disloyal. No, we won’t tell you how you were disloyal; that’s classified. But I’ll just say that it was an original kind of disloyalty, very threatening, using a deadly new kind of … [Read more...]
“Bandwidth” / A Memorable Fancy #259
23 February, 2013 by Leave a Comment
“It’s a waste!” the consultant said, “All those brain cycles that could be doing useful work, improving our productivity statistics, participating in cloudsourced computing, and so on. When people are asleep they’re not using their minds, when their government could be using them. What a waste of a national resource.” “And they’d never know they were – improving our productivity statistics and so on? They wouldn’t miss these ‘brain cycles’?” “Not at all. If they wake up or start dreaming, … [Read more...]
“An Economy of Dreams – V” / A Memorable Fancy #247
10 February, 2013 by Leave a Comment
[Neuroscientists find a way to record dreams as the dreamer experienced them.] Secretly, dreams are polled to see what themes are trending. Results are sold to businesses, fashion designers, Hollywood producers, politicians, and headlined on Windows 8 “start” tiles. All this is more or less benign. But a mysterious group is discovered buying copies of everyone’s dreams. No one knows what their intentions are or who is funding them, but rumors of “aliens” are muttered. Does that mean … [Read more...]
“An Economy of Dreams – IV” / A Memorable Fancy #219
6 February, 2013 by Leave a Comment
[Neuroscientists find a way to record dreams as the dreamer experienced them.] Dreams of those accused of crimes are monitored to discover if a confession could be inferred. (“Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, this man’s dreams included details only the perpetrator could know.”) Juries were seldom persuaded, since the police and prosecutors would also know these things. Since dreaming of a specific crime did not succeed in convicting people of that crime, dreaming of any crime was itself … [Read more...]
“An Economy of Dreams – III” / A Memorable Fancy #217
2 February, 2013 by Leave a Comment
[Neuroscientists find a way to record dreams as the dreamer experienced them.] Dream-recording can be forced by order of FISA in the case of accused terrorists, including those who merely served as their pastry-chefs or vanity publishers. Perhaps, was the hope, these people would dream about their co-conspirators, or where the dirty bombs were, or which American city would be next. But the accused dreamed only about Guantanamo, their cage, the boots of their guards. … [Read more...]
“An Economy of Dreams – II” / A Memorable Fancy #216
31 January, 2013 by Leave a Comment
[Neuroscientists find a way to record dreams as the dreamer experienced them.] “Bad dreams? SootheSleep Inc. can end them once and for all. Think of the pleasure of knowing you won’t wake up shivering in terror, or keeping your bedmate awake with your groans and thrashing. “SootheSleep is a simple device you wear on your head. It detects abnormally strong negative brain waves and generates positive waves until your brain returns to normal. “What is the price of this wonderful new … [Read more...]
“An Economy of Dreams – I” / A Memorable Fancy #215
30 January, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Neuroscientists at Harvard find a way to record dreams as the dreamer experienced them, not merely as blips on a screen. Papers are published, students experimented on. A quasi-religious cult develops, with apostles and adherents, then goes mainstream. An app is developed to let people download their dreams and share them on the Web, or show them at parties to applause and guffaws. Politicians are Alarmed. “Sin” is whispered by those who like to sin, and by those who do not. There are … [Read more...]
“Dreams of Love” / A Memorable Fancy #175
29 November, 2012 by Leave a Comment
What has she dreamed about you? Yes, that’s right, where you have no control, where you might have done – horrible things your conscious life forbids. Would she tell you what you did in her dreams? Not the horrible things; maybe not even the good things. Or she’s saving the horrible things for just the right time to relate, perhaps at a party with you cringing beside her and turning red. But what if she never dreamed of you at all? In all those years? Wouldn’t a few horrible things … [Read more...]
“The Actor Dreams – III” / A Memorable Fancy #074
13 August, 2012 by Leave a Comment
The actor dreams about the desperate gestures of the stage manager, the facial twitches of the other actors as they hint to him what his next lines are, the lines he has forgotten, the lines he never knew ... … [Read more...]
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