Fandom Thought of the Day #23--Inception: Dream A Little Dream
I completely forgot to put this up when I got home. So you kind of get two in a day and kind of not, depending on whether your idea of a day is midnight to midnight or sunup to sunup (mine is getting up to going to bed, so it's still today).
I've seen Inception get so much crap for messing up dreams, not being enough like real dreams, etc., etc... And it's all crap. Dreams exist to break rules. If you don't believe that, I am about to blow your mind.
The Rules of Dreams
1. You cannot read in dreams. False. I can read in dreams. It's frequently gibberish, but sometimes there are actual words in there.
1 (variation). If you read in dreams, you forget what you read immediately. Also false. On at least one occasion, I have remembered what I read past the point of waking up.
2. You cannot tell time in dreams. False. Also done it. Repeatedly. It freaked me out when I looked at the clock and it was earlier than it had been before. As far as I can tell, I first checked the time before I woke up.
2 (variation). If you tell the time in dreams, it changes as soon as you blink. I can actually neither confirm nor deny this one. I tell time so rarely in dreams, and so rarely tell time in dreams when I realize I'm dreaming, that I haven't managed to test this.
3. You cannot feel pain in dreams. Oh, yes you can. The only kind of pain I can't feel in dreams is pinching. No joke--pinching is my totem. If I pinch myself and it doesn't hurt enough (it still hurts, just in a very vague and distant sort of way), I'm dreaming. But biting, scratching--any of that hurts.
4. There is no time dilation in dreams. I can't personally confirm or deny this one, but I've heard from people on forums that they've seemed to live out a whole life in their dreams, which would seem to indicate that their dreams take more time than reality.
5. Totems don't work. Okay, this one I have to give you guys. Totems are crap. I tried using one, it never got to the point where I could check for it--and last night, months after I stopped using it as a totem, I was wearing it in my dream. So totems don't work.
So there it is. The five (or seven, depending how you count them) charges against Inception, and my rebuttals.
I've seen Inception get so much crap for messing up dreams, not being enough like real dreams, etc., etc... And it's all crap. Dreams exist to break rules. If you don't believe that, I am about to blow your mind.
The Rules of Dreams
1. You cannot read in dreams. False. I can read in dreams. It's frequently gibberish, but sometimes there are actual words in there.
1 (variation). If you read in dreams, you forget what you read immediately. Also false. On at least one occasion, I have remembered what I read past the point of waking up.
2. You cannot tell time in dreams. False. Also done it. Repeatedly. It freaked me out when I looked at the clock and it was earlier than it had been before. As far as I can tell, I first checked the time before I woke up.
2 (variation). If you tell the time in dreams, it changes as soon as you blink. I can actually neither confirm nor deny this one. I tell time so rarely in dreams, and so rarely tell time in dreams when I realize I'm dreaming, that I haven't managed to test this.
3. You cannot feel pain in dreams. Oh, yes you can. The only kind of pain I can't feel in dreams is pinching. No joke--pinching is my totem. If I pinch myself and it doesn't hurt enough (it still hurts, just in a very vague and distant sort of way), I'm dreaming. But biting, scratching--any of that hurts.
4. There is no time dilation in dreams. I can't personally confirm or deny this one, but I've heard from people on forums that they've seemed to live out a whole life in their dreams, which would seem to indicate that their dreams take more time than reality.
5. Totems don't work. Okay, this one I have to give you guys. Totems are crap. I tried using one, it never got to the point where I could check for it--and last night, months after I stopped using it as a totem, I was wearing it in my dream. So totems don't work.
So there it is. The five (or seven, depending how you count them) charges against Inception, and my rebuttals.