And I wonder why I never wake up feeling rested.

[truepenny]

So I had this dream last night, in which someone had created a meme that worked like a computer virus on the human brain. Every person it infected, it began to reshape to fit the template of a particular identity--a sort of cyberpunk John Wilkes Booth--including aiming them at a particular assassination target and subtly revising their beliefs about and knowledge of history to make them believe that the target deserved to be killed.

This same dream also had me standing in the aisle of a grocery store for at least ten minutes trying to decide between Oreos and chocolate chip cookies.

My subconscious either has too much to think about or not enough.

Comments

[underpope.livejournal.com]

Hrmmm... Seems to me I've read a story recently with that idea. Vaguely reminiscent of "Antibodies" by Charles Stross, but not really. Hmm. Must pound brain now.

[libskrat]

Goonan, Crescent City Rhapsody?

[underpope.livejournal.com]

Haven't actually read that one, though I've had it recommended to me many times.

Sorry to be a prick about this

[dmsherwood53.livejournal.com]

But its a short by DAVE LANGFORD

Re: Sorry to be a prick about this

[underpope.livejournal.com]

The copy I have here in my hand -- collected in the 18th annual Year's Best Science Fiction, published in 2001, p. 27 (and originally published in Interzone in 2000) is by Charles Stross. We may be thinking of two different short stories of the same title.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Rewriting "Straw" in your sleep?

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

"Straw" actually started out as a dream. Really, all I did was edit it down into something that gave the appearance of having a coherent narrative behind it.

And, yeah, this was similar, but it was turning its victims all into the SAME person.

[menin-aeide.livejournal.com]

Been reading Snow Crash, have you? (though the meme in that is Sumerian, and not particularly assassinistic).

[fiveandfour.livejournal.com]

This morning in the shower I was thinking about some of my recent dreams and what they're supposed to mean and a thought suddenly came to me about your Oreo/chocolate chip dilemma: this is your subconscious trying to help you make a choice with something going on in your life. One option seems sweeter, but has some darkness in it - and that darkness is quite obvious once you know about it. The other option seems darker and more bitter, but has a lot of lightness within it. It sounds like you woke up, though, before your subconscious pointed the way to what would be the better choice.

Any chance whatsoever that I'm even close to the truth with the idea that you're staring a problem in the face right now?

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

That's a lovely interpretation. Unfortunately, although I've thought and thought, I cannot apply it to my waking life.

Of course, it would not surprise me to find out that my subconscious knows something I don't. It usually does.