Comments on: But In Order To Dream, You Gotta Still Be Asleep

By: Martin M

Martin M — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 16:57:42 +0000

You’re absolutely right, of course – we can’t know for certain. And even if Valentinus was the source, it’s intriguing to see how Dylan’s mind filtered and rebuilt those images: yet another case of love and theft, I think!

His reading may be a little less esoteric, too. I first came across that passage in Harold Bloom’s best-seller, “Omens of the Millennium: the Gnosis of Angels, Dreams, & Resurrection” – exactly the kind of title you might think would catch Dylan’s eye. But unless he discusses it in another volume of “Chronicles,” I don’t think we’ll ever find out any more.

By: eruke

eruke — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 19:49:22 +0000

I very much appreciate your taking the time to provide the text and a link here. We can’t know for certain in what context Dylan read or encountered any material, but I like the idea of linking Series of Dreams and When You Gonna Wake Up through this material you provide. Thanks.

By: "the head"

"the head" — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 23:53:22 +0000

“them old dreams are only in yer head”

By: Martin M

Martin M — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 14:49:58 +0000

Fascinating song – all the more so, since Dylan obviously drews his inspiration from the gnostic “Gospel of Truth” by Valentinus:

The unenlightneed ” found themselves a prey to troubled dreams. Either there is a place to which they flee, or they lack strength as they come, having pursued unspecified things. Either they are involved in inflicting blows, or they themselves receive bruises. Either they are falling from high places, or they fly off through the air, though they have no wings at all. Other times, it is as if certain people were trying to kill them, even though there is no one pursuing them; or, they themselves are killing those beside them, for they are stained by their blood. Until the moment when they who are passing through all these things – I mean they who have experienced all these confusions – awake, they see nothing because the dreams were nothing.”

Full text here:

http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/got.html

By: lavandula

lavandula — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 03:51:26 +0000

Dylan and Hamlet have been on my mind, too. I was struck also by this line from Tom Stoppard’s play on the play, which speaks to your thoughts on Series of Dreams : “Half of what he said meant something else and the other half meant nothing at all.” Which makes us ponder, and delve.

By: eruke

eruke — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 16:32:22 +0000

Deann: Lady Macbeth and Brutus, too, of course! For Shakespeare and Dylan it seems that sleeplessness is a special psychological portal, an interesting contrast to Herr Freud, because there is will and awareness and accountability at play in sleeplessness that are necessarily dormant when we sleep and our minds are ostensibly unleashed to show us their stinking depths. The singer also faces “haunted frightened trees” in his journey, but the reward of the dance beneath the diamond sky is the reward of consciousness and freedom and not the passivity of a dream. I regret that as time marches on, being married to the nice boy seems less of a bad dream.

By: Deann

Deann — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 15:53:14 +0000

Hi Nina,

Love this entry. Because my typical dreamlife involves my mother succeeding in her attempts to marry me to the nice boy from our church, or some similar horrorific situation, you’re not alone in agreeing with Dylan that forgoing dreams for sleeplessness could be the better alternative. So they can psycho-analyze both of us…

In addition to the dreams in Hamlet, I couldn’t help but think of sleep in Shakepeare, too. Lady Macbeth’s sleepwalking and Brutus’s insomnia make me think that, while Shakespeare and Dylan might have similar attitudes toward dreams, they don’t have similar attitudes toward insomnia. “Mr. Tambourine Man” seems also to be a perfect example of that. For the narrator, not being sleepy means getting to go “on a trip/ upon your magic swirling ship.” That sounds more pleasant than the ruinous results of Shakespeare’s tragic heroes’ ambitious plots and more interesting than me being married to the nice boy. I’ll take waking.

Thanks,
Deann