Skip to main content

Number 3/Third

A long entry, set as I remember it in the usual mangled town (as an aside, Jovum is its name it has been decided, I saw it on a sign. It also turns out to be an obvious misspelling of something else) my brain settles in to...and also the paper place. This features an old friend, whom I no longer speak to for simple reasons; he is a cock. I also thought I remembered this as two separate events but apparently not. The specifics of the cut out town reminds me of Salvador Plascencia's People of Paper, so I elected not to use it in any of The Last Night Tree. As way of an update on 'that', it currently stands at 26000 words, and the initial sections set in Jovum and the United Kingdom, of which all are introductions and plot setting, are just about complete. Characters are in place and characterised. A synopsis of the book will come in a few weeks.

This entry was written at 3.46 am


'Wandering around a bizarre cut out town. Some features are familiar to me. Matthew Hyde is about. We are in a Spanish lesson. A badly disguised celebrity sets a test to which I fail. I say I have never learnt Spanish. The class is aghast. I point out that I have no need to be in school as I already have postgrad qualifications, and that I wouldn't listen to the teacher any way as he is a Z list celeb. Looking at my neighbour's answers to the test, I see that they are gobbledegook. Outside in the cardboard town; it changes from a sleepy windswept street to the inside of a darkened school and back again in the blink of an eye. It is Siesta time in the cardboard town. I take Matt Hyde on a tour, as I seem to know the place. At first it is York. We go past the chocolate shop on The Shambles, but then the town becomes an odd metamorphosis of several places; we are on a road like the end of Ashcroft at the mini roundabout, looking down over the old town of Edinburgh but also Oxford, and the seaside. For the rest of the experience, I refer to the place as 'Oxford'. Down by the quayside, I explain about Oxford's prison (which is on the harbour for an unexplained reason). Hyde seems interested. We are allowed to see the inmates exercising, and I touch a mattress in one of the cells to find it is paper thin. Also, the cellmates appear to sleep on the slats of ladders.'

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Eighteen

This was probably the first dream I can remember having since moving back to York. It obviously harks back to specific childhood memories, blended with the usual cast of people from when I was younger (except the comedian). Misc sexual references to trains I would assume is related to Hitchcock, but perhaps Zizek is the best judge of that. Lots of symbols to wrap teeth around. 'Wandering through Putteridge Bury. An indistinct beginning, following that much traveled road to the farmhouse and dried up pond. A man spins a sports car on some gravel alongside a barn conversion I am unfamiliar with (I realised when I work up that I did know the barn...odd that whilst asleep my brain wouldn't recognise it). I walk along the track to where the old white house should be, next to the greenhouse my Dad used to own. Instead, just scrub land and some kids jumping on a knackered trampoline. I meander towards what I assume is Great Hayes; there is a long row of portaloos by the roadside. I fi...
2 comments
Read more

Fifty Six

In the past few weeks I was getting a little worried that my lack of memorable midnight recollections would end this chart of nocturnal wanderings, but in the last week or so, I have remembered around 3 dreams a night; in the process of doing so, I have started using my phone to note things down rather than a pad and pen, and then email myself so I actually remember I have the material. Remembering is half the battle. This dream I thought pertinent as I have just finished marking student essays for Spring Term (and presumably this is what inspired it) 'I am circling some sort of warehouse, possibly owned and run by Argos. Inside, a number of my students have killed a man by beating him to death. They now fall about laughing whilst bouncing off inflatable children’s toys. I try to remain stoic in the face of horror, concerned that I may be next. I talk to them a while, and on finding out that ____ is their ring leader, I try to escape. Every path leads back to the warehouse. Insi...
Post a Comment
Read more

Number 2

This was a classic example of my being in three states; 1) asleep and imagining this scenario 2) half waking and assuming it is happening in real life and 3) writing it down 'I am woken by the sound of something smashing outside the window in the room where I sleep. I don't pull back the curtain, as I know it is some sort of fire bomb, possibly constructed from a tennis ball and matchheads, like that found in a certain cookbook. In the morning, I am outside in the road, collecting bits of paper and detritus the bomb seems to have left in its wake. A Japanese girl is helping me clear the street. We appear to be cohabiting; I am unsure if there is a sexual relationship. She is wearing shorts and a tshirt, in a very 80's style, and explains to an elderly gentleman who happens to be passing what has happened. He mumbles something in Japanese that I cannot understand. I look at the details on his wrinkled face and wonder why I am living somewhere where I understand no-one. We li...
Post a Comment
Read more