What I Believe

I believe in the power of the imagination to remake the world, to release the truth within us, to hold back the night, to transcend death, to charm motorways, to ingratiate ourselves with birds, to enlist the confidences of madmen.

I believe in my own obsessions, in the beauty of the car crash, in the peace of the submerged forest, in the excitements of the deserted holiday beach, in the elegance of automobile graveyards, in the mystery of multi-story car parks, in the poetry of abandoned hotels.

I believe in the forgotten runways of Wake Island, pointing towards the Pacifics of our imaginations.

I believe in the mysterious beauty of Margaret Thatcher, in the arch of her nostrils and the sheen on her lower lip; in the melancholy of wounded Argentine conscripts; in the haunted smiles of filling station personnel; in my dream of Margaret Thatcher caressed by that young Argentine soldier in a forgotten motel watched by a tubercular filling station attendant.

I believe in the beauty of all women, in the treachery of their imaginations, so close to my heart; in the junction of their disenchanted bodies with the enchanted chromium rails of supermarket counters; in their warm tolerance of my own perversions.

I believe in the death of tomorrow, in the exhaustion of time, in our search for a new time within the smiles of auto-route waitresses and the tired eyes of air-traffic controllers at out-of-season airports.

I believe in the genital organs of great men and women, in the body postures of Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and Princess Di, in the sweet odours emanating from their lips as they regard the cameras of the entire world.

I believe in madness, in the truth of the inexplicable, in the common sense of stones, in the lunacy of flowers, in the disease stored up for the human race by the Apollo astronauts.

I believe in nothing.

I believe in Max Ernst, Delvaux, Dali, Titian, Goya, Leonardo, Vermeer, Chirico, Magritte, Redon, Durer, Tanguy, the Facteur Cheval, the Watts Towers, Bocklin, Francis Bacon, and all the invisible artists within the psychiatric institutions of the planet.

I believe in Tokyo, Benidorm, La Grande Motte, Wake Island, Eniwetok, Dealey Plaza.

I believe in alcoholism, venereal disease, fever and exhaustion.

I believe in pain.

I believe in despair.

I believe in all children.

I believe in maps, diagrams, codes, chess-games, puzzles, airline time-tables, airport indicator signs.

I believe all excuses.

I believe all reasons.

I believe all hallucinations.

I believe all anger.

I believe all mythologies, memories, lies, fantasies, evasions.

I believe in the mystery and melancholy of a hand, in the kindness of trees, in the wisdom of light.

-J. G. Ballard, 1930--2009

Literature: A Buyer's Guide to Maps of Antarctica

Clarkesworld Magazine presents, for your reading pleasure, a lovely short story by Catherynne M. Valente: A Buyer's Guide to Maps of Antarctica.

The title is entirely accurate as to the form of the piece, through which device gradually unfolds a history of great delicacy and beauty, which evokes an almost Dunsanian elegiac whimsy. I do not wish to spoil the story by offering specifics, but there are images which will stay with me.



This Plague of Dreaming is not affiliated with either Catherynne Valente or Clarkesworld Magazine, and offers this link simply as a free show of admiration for a wonderful story.

when n. was in the army

Of late, our friend and colleague Fabrizio Torri has been sharing in his blog the recollections of the soldier N., and his unusual experiences in the military. To the sort of reader who finds something of interest in this our own humble blog, I can suggest that you may take similar reward from a perusal of N.'s strange history.

If you are moved to follow my recommendation, please begin here, at the bottom of the page, and follow the chronological trail of posts upwards to the present day (and, perhaps, beyond). It is a strange narrative, yet perhaps not so very unfamiliar. Did fear or prudence not seal our lips, how many of us could unlock hidden chapters in our own biographies?

when n. was in the army
he discovered that he could materialize small animals,

To Repel Ghosts - Partisan Songs
[free download, 256kpbs mp3]

A barely audible song
Is heard from the fog,
It is the quiet song
Of the forest partisans.

- - - - -
01. Quiet Forest
02. In the Trees
03. Front Zone Reverie
04. Nightingales
05. Quiet Forest ii
- - - - -

[In response to questions raised in pre-release comments: These songs are the record of our speculative forays into the dreamspace which has grown up in the cracks between the social myth of the Heroic partisans and the ugly reality of the war; in mapping that territory, it was not our intention to pursue any specific political agenda or champion any particular group or concern. The history of the Soviet partisans in the Great Patriotic War, like most war stories, is complex and often contradictory. We believe that it is vitally important, at these intersections of heroism and atrocity, to retain that complexity and resist the reductive impulse which impoverishes our myths and denies the varied humanity of the men and women on all sides of the conflict. These songs seek neither to glorify nor to condemn, and while they do not have anything so crude as a "message," we hope that they do contain some echo of truth. -TRG]

- - - - -

As you can see, the hiatus didn't last long. Only a couple days after I posted about it, a lot of things suddenly started working again. There are still intermittent problems, but we decided to take our chances.

=PD

New Release: Nagual Art - Adoria

Nagual Art - Adoria
[free download, 192kpbs mp3]

This is the Soundtrack of Adoria - the Lucid Winter Wonderland.

Winter reigns over the Northern Hemisphere, and Nagual Art celebrates in cold ambient beauty. Sound travels far in the frigid air, bringing wisps of voices and the woodsmoke scent of deep dreaming.

1. Fragments
2. Enter Adoria (I & II)
3. Leviath
4. Lisea
5. Mondwinter
6. Traumkristalle
7. Der freundliche Kleine
8. Schneezauber
9. Fatima
10. Theory of the Deep

Adoria - produced by Volador in 2006/07

Artwork by Dravidian A. Ageran (www.dasnachtmahrprojekt.de)

Guest: Hermann Voges, countertenor on "Schneezauber"

(Visit Nagual Art's MySpace page for an exclusive bonus track, Another Day in Adoria.)

- - - - -

To Repel Ghosts' previously-announced album has been delayed, owing to mastering problems. The album is being re-mixed, and will be released as soon as possible.

All Caught Up, and Other Tales

The long, dull transfer process is complete! Everything before this post has been copied over from the old plaguedream livejournal; this post and everything after is new and exciting!

Briefly, for those of you just joining us: This Plague of Dreaming is a nonprofit netlabel, and also forms the musical arm of the PlagueDream Institute. While much of our research is classified, that which has been cleared for public consumption can be downloaded free through our website or directly from the Internet Archive.

As those readers in New England can attest, we've lately had an early breath of Autumn. The nights have been cool, and the light has taken on that peculiar silver gleam. It won't last, our prognosticators assure us, but it has inspired a spike of (un)seasonal activity around the compound.

This past week was also the mugwort harvest at the Institute. We picked before flower, since it's not a propagation year, so the oil is stronger in the leaves (is it ever!). The first celebratory round of early brew is still reverberating, and many of us are still waking up each morning haggard and spent, days afterward. The fumes from the drying rack are causing the usual problems, but a favorable wind has so far kept most of it away from the village.

In label news, we will soon be hosting a new album from our German allies [Esc.] Laboratory, so watch for that in the next few days!

=PD