Last night I had a remarkably real-seeming dream about the late Queen, who I believe was a regular in many people's dream repertoire. Death, it seems, has done nothing to change this.
So there I was, clutching a copy of a book everyone was talking about (already you can tell it's a dream) – it was called something like Is That with Milk or Cream? and was a very cosy affair, though it seemed to involve a marital break-up. The volume was so thin it was stapled, and there were charming line drawings by way of illustration. I was heading for a particular cafe to sit and read it, when who should appear from a side road, walking purposefully in a rather fetching blue coat, but the Queen, vintage mid 1980s or thereabouts. She was on her own, attracting friendly attention but nothing more, and was exchanging remarks with those who greeted her. All very relaxed. When I was finally seated in the cafe, in she came, still on her own, no retinue. She seemed to be a regular. As she made her way to her table, she noticed what I was reading and asked me what I made of it. I spluttered something and she let me know, coolly and politely, by word and gesture, that she didn't think much of it – the word 'thin' definitely came up. I wish I could remember the conversation that passed between us, though I fancy there wasn't much of it. No doubt I felt as Johnson did in his audience with George III: 'It was not my place to bandy civilities with my sovereign.' I did warm to her, though.
Saturday, 26 August 2023
My Conversation with the Queen
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Do people here, who read a lot, dream about authors? Only rarely have I done so, but there was one worth writing down.
ReplyDeletenote jotted 18 April 1982 that records one that suggested this thread. Perhaps others have dreamed of authors whom they have read.
----Just awoke (alarm clock) from a dream about Lord Dunsany. He was a lovable old man. Had a deep voice. He was very old but apparently was a friend of the family... maybe he -was- family? [We lived in Oregon and have no connections with Ireland, by the way.] ...I was just beginning to tell him that his writing had given me a lot of pleasure for years ... when he pulled out a sort of wallet and took out some sort of note and showed it to me and reminded me that I owed him 7.03 -- for a bus ticket (?) to "Pasadena" I had as a kid bought, I think. So Dad (I think) and I chuckled and I took out some money, first paying him 4 cents ("interest") then going into the paper money -- I had pounds, dollars, and roubles all mixed together. Then I woke up.----
I wouldn't be able now to say whether I'd been reading anything by Dunsany lately, but I'd read Mark Amory's biography of Dunsany about a month previously.
note jotted 18 April 1982 that records one that suggested this thread. Perhaps others have dreamed of authors whom they have read.
----Just awoke (alarm clock) from a dream about Lord Dunsany. He was a lovable old man. Had a deep voice. He was very old but apparently was a friend of the family... maybe he was family? [We lived in Oregon and have no connections with Ireland, by the way.] ...I was just beginning to tell him that his writing had given me a lot of pleasure for years ... when he pulled out a sort of wallet and took out some sort of and showed it to me and reminded me that I owed him 7.03 -- for a bus ticket (?) to "Pasadena" I had as a kid bought, I think. So Dad (I think) and I chuckled and I took out some money, first paying him 4 cents ("interest") then going into the paper money -- I had pounds, dollars, and roubles all mixed together. Then I woke up.----
I wouldn't be able now to say whether I'd been reading anything by Dunsany lately, but I'd read Mark Amory's biography of Dunsany about a month previously.
I wrote this note on 18 April 1982:
Just awoke (alarm clock) from a dream about Lord Dunsany. He was a lovable old man. Had a deep voice. He was very old but apparently was a friend of the family... maybe he was family? [We lived in Oregon and have no connections with Ireland, by the way.] ...I was just beginning to tell him that his writing had given me a lot of pleasure for years ... when he pulled out a sort of wallet and took out some sort of and showed it to me and reminded me that I owed him 7.03 -- for a bus ticket (?) to "Pasadena" I had as a kid bought, I think. So Dad (I think) and I chuckled and I took out some money, first paying him 4 cents ("interest") then going into the paper money -- I had pounds, dollars, and roubles all mixed together. Then I woke up.
Wow, that's impressive. I've never read Dunsany – perhaps I should. The only author dreams I remember, just about, are Robert Frost (as an old man – v unpleasant) and Nabokov (also not very pleasant, as far as I recall)...
ReplyDeleteDunsany hasn't held up well, for me, though his fantasy novel The Charwoman's Shadow was pleasant on a recent rereading. But one's favorites at age 14 don't always stay with one.
ReplyDeleteVery true. Didn't Dunsany write a novel in the voice of a dog? (Or am I going mad?)
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