Friday, April 8, 2016

Foucault's Chain

A text only post, and about history, afield from fauna and flora, sort of...and grim, so dear readers, a caution to read on...

I'll put the search strings in bold, these are the beginning of a quote, and the link(s), the ulr(s), which are highlighted too, will be the quote(s) end(s)...


Intro note: My dreams from last night...I had thought to leave off posting my dreams, but wanted to do one post about an old ancient Greek dream author, and that will be here, but too, one of the dreams from last night, Foucault's Chain, seems to have gone beyond the limits of my own self...this to say, it had suggested content that I had never myself seen...things from outside my experience...very cool dream, and scary...

First the old Greek...

Old Greek Dream Author

According to Artemidorus, the material for his work was gathered during lengthy travels through Greece, Italy and Asia, from diviners of high and low station. Another major source were the writings of Artemidorus' predecessors, sixteen of whom he cites by name. It is clear he built on a rich written tradition, now otherwise lost. Artemidorus' method is, at root, analogical. He writes that dream interpretation is "nothing other than the juxtaposition of similarities" (2.25). But like other types of Greek divination, including astrology, celestial divination and pallomancy, Greek dream divination (Oneiromancy) became exceedingly complex, a given dream subject to a number of interpretations depending on secondary considerations, such as the age, sex, and status of the dreamer.

Artemidorus

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
 
...in reading Artemidorus' work, I find it of the usual sort, a dream, and an interpretation...which is disappointing...I have this notion that dreams have nothing to do with being interpreted...they are from realms that are, in their way, real, and active just like the day to day when awake...one wouldn't think to interpret the day to day, and I don't think dreams can be either...but, but, one of my own dreams last night may prove me wrong...at the close of the dream, I thought to look up Foucault's Chain, as that phrase had appeared in the dream...I know of Foucault's Pendulum...the exhibit of the chain in the dream I thought was reminding  me of how Foucault's Pendulums are exhibited in museums...but from the dream, I googled Foucault's Chain...and there is such a thing...sorta...there are two Foucault's...one was physicist, the other a philosopher...the later had a notion of a surveillance chain with regard to economic government...kinda scary...and the dream seems to point to it...like an 'interpretation'...so maybe dreams can be interpreted...I don't know!...
 
Foucault's Chain
 
 
His theories addressed the relationship between power and knowledge, and how they are used as a form of social control through societal institutions.
 

Michel Foucault

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
I experienced a Panopticon when I worked at the Post Office....suspended all around the ceiling was an enclosed walkway with one way window/mirrors...we never knew when we were being watched tossing mail in the pigeon holes...

Last night dream snatches...Foucault's Chain is fourth down...
 
 0-ring dream...t1 is trying to fix leaking sink hose faucet...I offer help and 0-ring...fighting begins and I, miffed, withdraw offer and 0-ring (was working on leaky kitchen faucet)...tell t1 "good luck with that"...he's a klutz...repeating

? and four girls and me...we are trying to get back to train/ bus/trolley  depot...? kisses one and they go a away...she apologized for not being good kisser...one after another, other girls kiss me and leave too, each apologizing too, which is what I want to say too...last leaves her dog with me...dog runs off across hill side...and runs back to me for hug and stays...

Like in wow, farming two things, foods, need refrigeration...we need to attend a meeting...army requirement orientation for everyone, civilians too...we take seats...and can put questions on chalk board...bold, I draw illustrated question like comic strip with colored chalk...some others do same...we chat waiting for speaker who arrives...he has buck crooked teeth, but upright military and nice...tells us usual orientation talk changed to special movie about ww3 with china which we should all like...we chat amongst our selves more...chalk questions ignored, board taken away...one notes my blue with orange soles soccer shoes (which I really have) and mocks them, others say not so, say they're cool...

Foucault's chain.  A Star Trek episode!...ship and crew above a galaxy and descend to a planet, a university grounds with huge trees/oaks? and a monumental exhibit building...a huge chain rises from the ground to the building top...it demonstrates some physics principle and something is awry...over millennia some kind of tension has built up in the chain and it is about to break...there's fear panic...I'm on lawn taking care of dog and we distance ourselves from building and chain which is elaborate ancient "steam punk" looking...it breaks/falls and releases white Germanic looking stone giant from building...giant crashes out of building and rampages through others...laughing with people "the economy is thriving but doomed"...it is smashing one building...another giant joins it from the destroyed chain building...and another and another...all clones of first giant... I watch on the lawn with the dog ...(without hesitation awake I think to google foucalts chain...I'm not quite awake and think there is such a chain!...(looked! and there appears to be such a thing regarding surveillance in economics/government!))

Trying to make lemonade...helping with lemonade making computer...drips first into like test tube...helping girl...need clear glass pitcher...things wrong with ones I find and t1 being pest...my effort isn't "republican'...(t1, t2, the twins I call them, are recurring antagonists...really annoying and persistent nuisances over years and years!)

Walking about a mountain complex in forest...beside a building, I drop dog whistle/small silver cylinder...hard to find in rough soil and plants...should be easy but like disappeared...reach down with my hand and move dirt but begin to uncover hibernating critter...snake?...scared, I back away...lizard like head emerges...and dirt falls away from body which is flat emaciated from lack of food...I back away further as body begins to fill out and grow wild long red fur...I run to other buildings...at full strength it will come after me all angry!...it is a mammal of some kind like a muscular fox...

Hovering over huge aircraft carrier...flight decks on each side of control tower island...

Sent from my iPhone

end

It's important to note, I think, that the "I" in these dream snatches is like the "I" in watching movies and tv shows, reading books, watching athletic contests...it's not 'me' but rather my identification with some character...the hero mostly, I'd say!...at the very end of my dreams, I seem to pull out of this identification...the other characters in the dreams even seem to note this...very odd!...and I return to myself upon awakening...dreams are very much like the worlds of fiction and entertainment, which are shared dreams we really enjoy, and need, to keep together...alone, we are simply not that entertaining!...in the Homeric hymns, it says the best of things is after a feast with gathered family and friends, hearing stories of past glories by the glow of the central fire...

Oh, and the other characters in my dreams seem to mimic people I really know, but they are not...I have to keep telling myself that...I am not me in my dreams, and the other characters are not people I know...authors will take things from real life and fictionalize them, which is what seems to happen in dreams...it's a stage with actors and masks and such...

:)

DavidDavid



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