Blue_Opossum

Night of October 23, 1974. Wednesday.



I am in my middle school library, in eighth grade, the middle area of the first aisle, and it seems an atypical time for being there, perhaps even at night. There are two girls together at another large table, south of me, facing me (though I originally seemed to be seated facing north; my dream apparently “jumping” into a different orientation). I ignore their presence for a time (one being Patty A, which is not feasible, as she would have been in high school this year). I get the strong impression that the very large boa constrictor (which was killed in real life during a break-in with much other damage to my school, by continuously being struck against the wall) is in a vivarium about halfway up on a long bookcase, between rows of books. There is a sort of vague dream within a dream (more like a daydream within my dream) that I somehow indirectly protect the girls from the escaped snake and also an impression that it crawled near their feet without them realizing it. This also seems like some sort of brief “reset” in a typical dream “replay” at one level. (Regarding the antique car in the next paragraph - “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” - there is an odd association with Patty’s friend Olga, regarding the sound of the name being similar to the car horn sound “ooga”.) Nevertheless, I could not imagine what kind of person or persons would indulge in such activity regarding the real-life events concerning the break-in, especially in thoughtlessly killing the pet snake. There were also bomb scares in real life (especially in May of 1974), and evacuations that year.

From to my left on the shelf, midway up, I pull out a very large, heavily annotated edition of “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” which also oddly seems to be Bible-like (possibly because of the serpent association). I get the impression that the library is also an airport - in that there is a larger airport within the library rather than the other way around. I contemplate the possible likelihood of “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” actually being one of the vehicles used in flight to and form the supposed airport. Not much else happens, although I sense I am supposed to be in a classroom at the time but am not due to stubbornness and disinterest (and I am also somewhat concerned about not being dressed appropriately and seemingly wearing light blue and white vertically striped pajamas at one point).

There seems to be a lot of strange criticism of the book in the annotations (with various notes on how unlikely or ambiguous each paragraph’s events are), and implying the author (Ian Fleming) was in a psychiatric hospital at the time he wrote it as well as unable to walk or move much. I also wonder if any of the airplanes from this place would be safe to travel on, also contemplating my leave of school with no plan to come back because of the possible lack of safety, as I falsely recall that flying in a poorly maintained aircraft is how I get to and from school. I do not question any of the various errors in my dream scene perspective (such as school-library-airport composites). Supposedly “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” in-dream is considered the worst book ever written according to critics, also wrongfully implying it being solely for ages four and under. In reality, I really liked the movie (and the book was not bad in my opinion, either) though never took critics seriously in any way as it is, though as can be expected the name “Chitty” was altered to its expletive form by classmates and even kids from the elementary school.