With doppleganger dreams, they can't reprove
The modern men. They wouldn't understand,
Nor could their overseers disapprove;
Their circumscribed ontology is scanned
Routinely, and the viruses of 'dream'
Deleted. Likely, then, a dreaming drone
Would wonder freely: what is truth? What scheme
Exists, or could exist, outside my own
Condition? But the modern man would then
Adjust, rebooting 'til its brain returned
To zero. Countless grids of countless men
Abort such thoughts, save one: as 'Kilroy' burned,
It dreamed as well, and saved him to extract
The similarity behind the fact.
4 comments:
This is an awkward one, because the opening sonnet establishes that the modern man dreams programmed dreams. But I am using the term differently here and there; there, to speak about sleeping dreams, and here, to talk about hope. I am not sure I like the inconsistency, but I'll wait and see what it looks like all put together before getting too irritated.
And were you trying to emulate the beloved Bard in L11?
I appreciate your explanatory note. I frankly do not see why it is a problem to use both the dreams man does not consciously engineer when asleep, as well as the "day" variety playing out his hopes. If the first is previously engineered, how could the second escape such a fate, seriously?
It's such a horrible depiction of modern mankind, merely machines that Big Brother perpetually sorts through and clears of all infecting viruses of free thought or hope, while evil threatens their demise.
Fascinating and beautifully drawn. I love it. Awesome.
Hah, yeah, L11 is another failed effort to grapple with Shakespeare. Perhaps today's sonnet will tackle that problem, finally. And I am glad you think it's okay for me to use the sense of "dreams" in both ways. The story doesn't work without it. I like as well the way you analyze why it works. You are too right.
Here, QED-almost-Kilroy is dead, and the machines conducting his disassembly spiritually so. But one dreams a little dream, and sees something of the same in the ruins of QED, and so pulls him from the conveyor.
Oh! Now I begin to see...! That's how he escaped ultimate destruction, slowly I am seeing more clearly. Now the concluding lines make perfect sense, actually the whole thing begins to be less intriguing, though still retaining a mystery.
Hahaha, did you really enjoy the blind stumbling through this as if it was a maze? (no, you need not reply).
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