Saturday, February 5, 2022

The Notes Monterroso Forgot When He Woke

Dreams don’t have on-site narratives.
Dream narratives are all post-hoc.
Objections to Crick-Mitchison
On this head, at least, are specious.

Moreover, narratives are rare
To nonexistent in species
Outside of humans, depending
On how broadly you define tales.

Many organisms employ
Fine mastery of sequences,
But sequences are not stories
Without some narrative structure,

And familiar story patterns
Are exactly what are bolted
On to the memories of dreams
By the dreamer, after waking.

Dreaming itself appears to be
Taxonomically much broader
Than any sort of narrative.
That we’re dreaming for housecleaning

Doesn’t fail as hypothesis
Because we retrospectively
Organize dreams into stories.
The dinosaur’s all you'll have left.

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