According to Hillman, revelry (music, carnival, circus, clown) represents "riotous rebellion (revel/rebel), discord" (175). He also contends that these types of dreams are more common than you may think. Even if there is no carnival or circus scene in the dream, if your dream is literally or figuratively "upside-down," then an element of carnival is present.A couple of interesting ideas.
1. Carnival comes from the words meaning "putting away the meat, or flesh." In addition to the flesh reference, carnival and sparagmos are further related. Hillman says that when "Dionysos entered Thebes, there was also this kind of terror and excitment. Identities became uncertain. Young women left their family attachments and personal relationships to take to the streets and the hills"
(177).
(177).2. "Where else but the circus will we ever see the underworld in daylight?" (178).
3. Aren't your dreams like circuses or carnivals? A bunch of freaky people come in the middle of the night and set up camp in the middle of town. 4. Clowns - Hillman has an interesting take on clowns. He says that the "comic spirit masquerades in all things we do and say; we are each a joke and do not need to put on a white face"(180). by this, he means that we don't have to become clowns, we just need to learn what the clown has to teach us - like "making an art of our senseless repetitions, putting on the face of death that llows the dream world in and watching it turn ordinary objects into amazing images" (180).
5. Listen carefully to ALL music in your dreams - not just literal music in the dreams, but the music of the dream itself - its phrasing, rhythm, themes, etc.
1 comment:
Mel,
You might of heard of this book: Rabelais and His World by Mikhail Bakhtin.
I'll just past a few interesting quotes, as I've not read the entire book yet.
"In fact, carnival does not know footlights, in the sense that it does not acknowledge any distinction between actors and spectators. Footlights would destroy a carnival, as the absence of footlights would destroy a theatrical performance" (7).
"During carnival time life is subject only to its laws, that is, the laws of its own freedom" (7).
"In the grotesque world the id is uncrowned and transformed into a "funny Monster." When entering this new dimension, even if it is Romantic, we always experience a peculiar gay freedom of thought and expression" (49)
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