'Twas the night before Tomorrow

When I related the following dream to a friend, his comment was, "Now, that’s the kind of thing only a Christendom student’s unconscious mind could come up with." And he’s probably right. It has a uniquely Christendom flavor that you just can’t get anywhere else.

It was discovered (in my dream) that Dr. Poterack has a dream, and that dream was to reform the flim industry. According to Dr. P, the way music and sound were done in the movies was immoral, because the music was inserted after the fact, and the sounds effects weren’t always ‘true’. "For example, the footsteps in a movie might actually have been made by a foley artist’s hands patting a plastic mat!" he preached, from the gazebo in downtown Front Royal. "These departures from the reality of life are contrary to the Message of Truth, and hence must be struck down!"

So, to start this reform movement, he bought the theater in Front Royal and took out all the sound equipment, except that which produced the spoken dialog for the flim. In my dream world, that was an altogether different device, and the concept of dubbing voices did not seem to be contrary to Truth. In place of all that equipment, Dr. Poterack placed a synthesizer, a violin, and a table full of noisemaking objects, all at the back of the theater where the projection booth should be. He hired a group of Christendom students to man this equipment, and proceeded to proclaim Front Royal a better place.

Somehow, I was in charge of this project, along with Sam Phillips. It had something to do with being a choir member. I was aghast at what he was trying to do, and in vain I pointed out to anyone who would listen that this sort of venture was deranged, at least in the way we were going about it. "Think of how many hours it will take," I told Sam, "or explain to me how we will know which sounds to make, if we haven’t seen the film in advance to know what is coming next." Sam looks at me long and solemnly, somewhat like a beagle, and says quite slowly with a finger aside his nose, "Jediiiiii re-flex-es!"

So I start crusading around campus, trying to rally people to my cause, meanwhile ducking behind corners to escape Dr. Poterack’s notice, because if he catched me I’ll be subject to the inquisition. Everyone seemed to be rather disturbingly against me, though. All of the school was going, "Well, what’s the problem? I mean, anything good takes a little work to get, doesn’t it?"

I woke up very tired, and a little sick to my stomach. What bothered me most, though, was how I could almost believe that this kind of thing might actually happen at Christendom. Shudder.