Friday, January 25, 2008

Back in the USSR


I finished reading a book on political philosophy yesterday (a book I will review when I have more time), so it would make sense that I would have political imagery in a dream. So I'm in a generic American department store with a friend of mine, though I'm not sure who it is. We're walking down the fragrance aisle on our way to the back of the store. I glance at the display to my right and see a womens' product called "Stalin." It's a gold-colored liquid in a glass bottle, looking just like all of the other womens' perfumes. "What does that smell like, rotting bodies?" I ask my friend. "No," he responds, "more like cold, hard steel." We get to the back of the store and see a display of art books on the floor, one of which is a book of Stalin-era propaganda cartoons. This particular artist did a series in which Stalin looked something like the cheshire cat from Alice in Wonderland, frequently hanging in the sky with rainbows and and sunshine in the background. The book is only $5, and it comes with a wall-sized animation cell of the Cheshire Stalin. The dreams ends with me filling out a form with Cyrillic lettering to obtain my wall poster. Is Stalin the new Che Guevara, some kind of hipster commie? Or is my subconscious telling me something very warped?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Goodness, what a wide range of reading. Maybe I should branch out a little more.
Best wishes