Analog

The Dreamer and his Wife are inside of a car. The Dreamer is driving and his Wife is the passenger. They are in a big city. The Dreamer pulls into the elevator of a parking garage; they arrive at the lower deck, in the basement of the garage. There are a couple of old black men on foot. The Wife insists that this is not a safe place to park. The Dreamer yells at the Wife to shut up.

Then the Dreamer is at a gas station. He pulls up to the pump and gets out of the vehicle. There is an unknown woman who is a gas station attendant: she has piercings all over her face. She confronts the Dreamer in some way, but the Dreamer handles the confrontation with calm. Then the Dreamer starts to operate the pump, but he can’t find the gas tank for the car. Then he is operating the pump, but the gas is spilling on the surface of the vehicle.

Then the Dreamer is inside of the parking garage. He is walking in a dark stairwell when he is confronted by the actress Sigorney Weaver. The Dreamer finds a piece of metal on the floor: it looks like a lever used for rolling down an old car window. The Dreamer shoves the analog lever in Sigorney Weaver’s ear and kills her.

Then the Dreamer is on the run for murder. He stops at a pizza restaurant. He sees that his employee, Bradley, is happy working there.

Then the Dreamer is inside of a luxury apartment with Tommy from high school. They are packing up some clothes. Then Tommy is gone. The Dreamer’s car is gone too. Then the Dreamer goes outside on foot. Outside is a beautiful, clear, lake. The Dreamer cups his hands and drinks from the lake. Then the Dreamer heads back inside, and sees a man watching television in the adjacent apartment. Then the Dreamer is in the apartment with his dogs. The Dreamer leaves the dogs behind: their leashes hang on the door. Then the Dreamer is outside and his car is there, but the car is password protected. The Dreamer tries to crack the password: finally he tries the password “password” and the car unlocks. He goes back inside to get his dogs.

Context:

Associations: city, stress; parking garage, hard to navigate; pierced face, rebellion; gas, fuel; spilled gas, waste; Sigorney Weaver, alien; lever, analog; Bradley, cyber; Tommy, cyber; lake, nature; television, waste; dogs, instincts; password, digital. Tommy was a “hacker” friend of mine from high school, when I was involved in “cracking” passwords.

Motifs: cars, parking garages, and gas stations are common themes for the Dreamer

Feelings: anger at my Wife, ambivalence toward shadow persons, violence and hatred toward Sigorney Weaver, happy for Bradley, fear of Tommy, fear of being lost, joy at cracking the password

Interpretation: This is a dream about some waste and violence inside the Dreamer in connection with an aggressive, high school era, persona built around digital technologies. The Dreamer looks to the digital world for fuel, but it is not filling up his tank anymore. It is rather resulting in waste, spilling on the ground. His anima (Wife) warns him that this is not the right direction for him, but he reacts with anger. The feminine confronts him in the form of Sigorney Weaver—”Alien”— and he kills her with an analog tool. His employee (Bradley) who works in cybersecurity at his company is happy doing something very opposite of cybersecurity, making pizzas. The Dreamer leaves his instincts (dogs) behind for this addiction. The Dreamer doesn’t want to hear it, but the Dreammaker is strongly suggesting that the old “Tommy” persona and all that comes with it is in fact harmful to the Dreamer, and neglectful of the instinctual life.