#236

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A creepy, strange, violent dream is what this looks like, when dreaming Henry “swung” in the open square in Edinburgh in front of a crowd. It was all well done, under a pretty sky with little white clouds. “Swung”? Henry appears to be the guest of honor at a public hanging. Since B. was never publicly hanged, as far as I can tell from reading his biography, this seems most likely a report from a dream. There is an admission of guilt, there’s the swinging through the open air of an Edinburgh morning, and there’s all the business of the lard knife and the shoemaker’s knife at her throat. “It’s true he did it, because more to bear / of her open eyes and mute mouth at midnight.” Well, yeah, those big infuriating eyes and all the rest of her were too much for any man to endure, so put an end to it already. You’ll swing for it later, but that can’t be helped. It’s still all her fault, is the implication.

This one invites an interpretive field day. Plenty in there about victim blaming, which we still get to see lots of. If you dress so provocatively, honey, what did you expect? There’s also plenty of guilt and reference to B.’s treatment of women. That led him into vistas of emotional difficulty, and if it seems he never really got violent with anyone, he transgressed numerous societal boundaries and was caused to experience guilt and to suffer for it. Which translates through dream transformation into a nightmarish public swinging. It was her fault though.

Yeah. Here’s what comes of that. Some thirteen year old girl is sent home from school because her bra straps are showing, and how are the boys in class supposed to concentrate on their learning with that kind of thing brazenly displayed in their environment? A college rape victim is forced to publicly list all her partners, implying that sluts have no right to complain about being raped.

We don’t control our dreams, and if you have a dream, and you’re writing Dream Songs for a living, go ahead and lay it out there. Exposure and humiliation are part of the process if they arise. That just enhances the art. But I do wonder if waking introspection, maybe some meditation, and maybe some reflection on how sexualizing women who just want to be comfortable and cool on a hot day might not just skew ones deep attitude away from whatever it is that triggers those well-deserved swinging noose nightmares. Some nightmares are earned. It’s hard not to think that the moral environment of the day and the proclivities of this particular dreamer make this a well-earned hanging. Nightmares aren’t always deserved, obviously, but dreams can be teachers too. Women love being sexualized—by their chosen lovers. Maybe when on the search for a chosen lover, or maybe even for the thrill of attention in certain circumstances. Still doesn’t give anyone the right to attack or shame or blame. Maybe learning the difference between “chosen lover” and “creepy jerk” when you’re awake might help keep the dream-noose stowed in the sheriff’s closet. Guilt punishes the guilty when the guilty sleep.