In-Between Bits
Where minds shut off and flourish
Hey! Do you remember every step of your morning routine?
That path to coffee and breakfast, or skipping it all and getting straight to the point. The moments melt away into the blur of the everyday. I would imagine for many it’s second-nature if not auto-pilot.
Entire chunks of time lost with no memories, all in the name of saving the slightest hints of sanity.
Now, what interests me in this moving target of a coherent thought, is the connection between it all. Our life, gaps in history and all, is inherently interconnected. At the very least with itself, but I would argue also with those around us.
A messy knot of time and life that goes beyond the forgotten steps of our morning routine.
Vivid Lucidity
I watched the movie Waking Life when I was young enough to believe anything adults showed me. For those unfamiliar with the title, it’s a trippy, psychedelic, strangely animated, early 2000’s movie about dreams.
I don’t know why, but my family has always enjoyed meta-discussions around psychology, often using our subconscious as a vector to explain our uncontrollable desires and emotions.
Perhaps not exactly that, but close enough—and explaining the minutia of semantics is more than slightly off-topic and out of scope for today’s musing.
So, there are several “facts” stated in Waking Life that are meant to be an objective analysis of our nightly hallucinations. They are presented as surreal tips that allegedly help people figure out if they are or are not dreaming. The goal being to find a way to trigger a lucid dream and then be the master of our mind’s universe.
God-complex aside, it’s an interesting idea.
I don’t know if this exact example was cited in Waking Life, but I was well primed to hear a similar explanation when Inception was released. A more planned-out script, Christopher Nolan uses the same concept when diving into dreams and dreams within dreams.
The characters cite a few methods, but the one I want to focus on is the lack of liminality. Using the limited view we have of events to realize the view itself is inconsistent. A plot-device that can be fun if you think about how the director and editor ultimately control how we know where we are—but I digress.
In inception, realizing that there is no connection between the current moment and anything before is one of the ways people can trigger a lucid dream.
The lack of liminal space makes the moment seem unnatural—impossible.
Reality is defined by the in-between-bits, the parts of life we try our best to force into an auto-pilot routine. Those boring moments we try to forget as we do them is exactly what we need to figure out what is and what is not real.
I enjoy that contradiction.
Walled Garden
I find examining inconsistencies and gaps in logic to be interesting in general. The way we try to hide the faults in our own thinking often leads to the most exciting stories. Either how we overcome our own shortcomings or a look into how far delusions are willing to lie.
A misguided reading would see that as a desire to feel superior or better than. At some point in the past, I would have even felt compelled to defend such an accusation, but I now know to simply see it as miscommunication and misunderstanding.
In fact, what I’m looking for is context to a person’s subjective truth.
The hardest thing for a human mind to do is breaking down the barrier between stable beliefs and cognitive dissonance.
It’s not fun and rarely worth the effort if you’re already comfortable. In a cliché, why would anyone willingly want to learn about the Matrix or leave Plato’s cave?
I honestly believe most people have no benefit in such a foolish pursuit.
The abstract issue comes from thinking there is no value for anyone—for humanity. That I don’t believe, but we enter into the convoluted and controversial topic of the roles people can and cannot fulfill.
That’s a rabbit hole better served by Alice and her friends.
Where this all comes back to me and my writing is Revification. In the story, Shahin is haunted by an extra-universal entity that is attempting to assimilate his soul. For a human, I write that experience in the form of living nightmares.
So, where does the protagonist find refuge?
In the liminal spaces between the important bits of information the villainous Kabosha is trying his hardest to pry from the hero’s mind.
Shared Dream
I’m not good at selling my books and I’m even worse at reminding others to help me.
However, if you’ve read this far and enjoy my writing, please let me know!
Please tell others about me!
Share this post, leave a review, or just send me an email.
I try not to be overly delusional and on a very fundamental level expect some stories to not be for some people. It would be silly to try and capture an audience of “everyone on the planet” so there’s no need to hold back if something I wrote is just not for you.
All that to say, you need to check out Revification if these thoughts on dreams and liminal spaces caught your interest.
You’ll probably enjoy at least some of the book.
Until next time.
Cheers,
JMB