From The Archives: Impossible Geometry
May 9, 2014
So last night I had a nightmare in which I was running away from people who were out to get me. I rarely have nightmares and it’s not uncommon for me to dream of something frightening but instead of the dream waking me up in fear there is usually a twist –like the dream in which I was cornered by vampires and talked my way out of the situation by convincing them that I could be useful to them if left alive.
I have noticed that there are recurring themes in my dreams, and one of those themes appeared last night –a structure with impossible geometry that is massive and absurdly though wonderfully twisted inside while small and ordinary on the outside. Often these dreams, as is the case in this most recent one, occur at my grandparents’ (father’s side) house. Flying and being alone, often facing some kind of large group of people or creatures, are quite common themes as well.
I wonder why my dreams so often have this strange element to them. I would liken it to an MC Escher work or a series of nested TARDISs inside of a maze. I am usually aware in the dream of how unreal what I’m seeing is, such as being in a house and walking around a corner which immediately opens into a room which is many times larger than the house and would clearly have to occupy spaces in other rooms that I had already seen. Not only this, but they are often absurd, like walking into a huge single-room library where all the books line the walls and there is a large pit in the middle with a swimming pool some 50 feet below. Or a shed in my Dad’s backyard that housed a shopping center in which the hallways doubled as a factory
socooley 