12.16.2007

hot house train


Having recently seen and relished Werner Herzog’s new film, Beyond the Edge of the Earth, and also rode the Getty tram with Sara in order to catch a lecture about plants in Yuanming Yuan, I dreamt last night that we were exploring an alien landscape by train. Gliding by our window were strange varieties of colorful plants which appeared magnified as giants. It was a bright desert terrain, yet host to luscious and tender “trees” – most of them heavy with flowers, and floating rootless above the sand. This dream may also be influenced by reading a translation of “Flowers in the Mirror” by Li Ruzhen, in which curious islands are visited on a sea voyage. I can’t get enough of stories about island voyages. I wish I could do all my medium-distance travel by canoe or kayak. The sensation of passing land with swift and easy motion is real freedom. To marvel at, but pass by, unattached.

2 comments:

S. Sandrigon said...

I just read in a folklore book, the ghost tale of the vanishing hitchhiker, a specific account recorded in Berkeley in the 1930's, when there used to be street cars all over Berkeley, & indeed, there was one passing up my street Ashby Ave.

Have you seen the Darjeeling Limited, dear? Alien landscapes, indeed, on earth. My dreams are full of eccentric architecture & topography. At one point in DJ, the train gets lost.

Was Werner there?

Anonymous said...

Oooh lets go on a train-travel-trip.