The Book Opens with a Dream

SPOILER:  The Dream of the Red Chamber Chapter 1.

Most people fall asleep by trying to blank out their minds, or sing a tune inside their heads.  I have to the think of the weirdest possible thing and follow the logic.  For instance, I might think about the United Nations roll call with all zoo animals, or ostriches might try to sell different kinds of sand on the home shopping network.

For some reason odd situations turn into though provoking dreams.  Last week I dreamt I was a children's raffle and I was sitting next to the President Obama and the Supreme Court.  We were discussing whether the common man had the moral capacity to judge fairness for other people.  I was sitting next to Justice Kennedy, while Sotomayor dyed her hair blonde.

The Dream of the Red Chamber opens with a talking rock.  The story of the stone, which happens to be the alternative title to the book, is about the stone's dream to experience the mortal world.  The story is already written on the stone, so the author forces the reader to frame the story as a recollection of the stone's dream in the mortal world.

When we were kids, our uncorrupted imaginations dreamt of fanciful realities that felt possible to exist.  Dreams feel possible because kids lack the capacity to account for reality.

There were three things I wanted to be when I was a kid:  a power ranger, the president of China, or a food critic.  I learned about the communist party in China.  My parents discouraged me from spending my life critiquing food, there's Yelp for that.  I still want to beat up someone of comparable stature though, that's number 1 on my bucket list.

Sometimes having the temptation of a dream is better than it becoming reality. Sometimes its a reason for living.   Sometimes it can be a foolish fantasy.  Here's a blog post from Mark Mason about someone's rape fantasy almost coming true.

So what does Cao Xueqin think?  Here's his poem that sets the tone for the rock's dream:

滿紙荒唐言

Man1 zhi3 huang1 tang2 yan2

Paper full of gibberish

一把辛酸淚

yi4 ba3 xin1 suan1 lei4

All full of bitter tears

都云作者癡

dou1 yun2 xuo4 zhe3 chi1

All say the writer is crazy

誰解其中味

Shei2 jie3 qi2 zhong1 wei4

Who can understand the meaning of all this?

* I left the pinyin and tone because

the sound of the words are rhythmic.

What are/were your dreams?  Have they changed over time?  Comment to converse!