I had a strange dream tonight. I was in a place I’d been many times before, a place of comfort and respite where I could share common interests, but tonight it was very different.
Ground rules: Fair fight. Don't attack when you have the floor unless your opponent has the same privilege. Rope-a-dope. If you're trying to settle a score, let us in on it. And do your homework, goddamnit!
People read work that seemed to come out of their veins. One woman wrote a nasty piece on “shoving a straw up” something--Hey, I'm a native NYer, tell it like it is. At least come out and say it, “shove that straw up your c-word, you c-word, or up your ass, or whatever.” She alluded to all sorts of nasty things this “person” with the straw was attempting to do while using the “straw”.
She attributed the basest motives to the person with the straw, that she was using it to fend off “hatred of others” and other disquieting thoughts. Who knew a straw could be so powerful? What makes it so frightening? What does it symbolize? She also casually mentioned lobotomies, shock treatments and other frightening activities used against the helpless.
Another woman started her reading by remarking how she was “guarding the hallway because people were having trouble coming back from the bathroom”. She did a piece on Mr. Peanut, saying “Mr. Peanut this, and Mr. Peanut that.”
At one point, she mentioned John Lennon. Okay, you don’t have to hit me over the head with this sh*t. (Actually, you do, because I don’t understand the thinking behind it. Mr. Peanut is not a real person. It is a brand logo. John Lennon was a formative musician and rebel under FBI surveillance who was assassinated.) Perhaps she saw the Parallax View montage I did and was mocking it, making everything equivalent—Mr. Peanut to me, Mr. Peanut to you, John Lennon to all of us. I don’t know how John would have felt, but I was offended.
And by the way, no one has told me they've seen anything related to what I was experiencing. If they have, please clue me in. I may be crazy, but I want to have fun, too!
I wish someone would tell me when I can wake up.
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