To start off, here’s actually a dream I had last night. It involves revisiting the past via a recording, although I guess it’s more visiting than revisiting since it’s not my past.
I was watching an anime movie on DVD and turned on the commentary track. Suddenly I found myself in the studio of the guys who were recording the commentary, as they were doing it. We were in some kind of vehicle – most like a boat, because it had a lower cabin and an upper area, both small – but driving on a highway. We were driving next to a magnificent landscape; the sea and tall craggy cliffs. The weather was gray, the humid wind was blowing in my face.
The guys, I think there were about three of them, spoke English with slight German accents. I’m not sure if they had done the subtitling or the dubbing of the movie. In any case they told me that the days were over when lesser-known animes like this one were being translated. Only the big productions like Miyazaki movies got released to an international audience.
I wondered about the manner of my being there. Was this my strange experience of reliving the commentary track recorded in the past? I spoke with them – remarked that it seemed like they were German (and commented on my own annoying and unintentional habit of mimicking the English accent of those I speak with) – so it seemed they were communicating with me. I also expressed how real everything felt, the wind in my face.
Later in the dream more people were part of the group. I talked with a woman, still trying to figure out whether every utterance was already “recorded” or if I could influence what was being said. I asked her a specific question, an algebra problem; I think it was “what is 40A + 8A?”. She didn’t know, but did repeat part of the question to herself.