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sub_dividedFrom now on I'll just head these posts PETE AND CARL YET AGAIN so you'll all know to skip them.
me:
carl is a soldier in vietnam, and it's all really horrible and nightmarish
and then he wakes up, and you realize that it was a dream
and then you learn that he has these dreams REGULARY
like, every night
and he never tells anyone about them and he feels completely cut off from everyone
but then one day, in a bar
he meets pete, who casually mentions that he ALSO has war-dreams
vivid ones, "am i a butterfly or am i a man?" etc
and they end up going back to carl's place and carl describes his dreams in detail
until they both pass out
and when they wake up the next morning, pete has also had a vietnam dream
and they compare notes
and it is the SAME DREAM
with me so far?
petronia: ok
me: okay
so, they start hanging out and comparing notes
and the more time they spend together, the more they have the same dreams
until pete suggests that possibly, they were soldiers together in a previous life
pete doesn't only dream about vietnam, though
he was WWI dreams and even some Rome and ancient Egypt dreams
which carl kind of resents, because he can't share those
at this point, pete is thrown out of his appartment
and he goes to live with carl, and he brings his book collection with him
and carl goes through the whole thing (lots of Wilfred Sassoon etc) in one day
or maybe in a few days
not leaving the appartment to eat
and that night, he dies in his vietnam dream
and comes back to life in a WWI dream
which is full of, you know, suffering and privations, but it's a strangely happy dream?
petronia: XD;;
remind me to send you the link to Counter-Attack
but yes, go on
me: full of brotherly love and comrades in arms and the beauty of the sunrise
(Counter-Attack?)
but uh, yeah
pete and carl are really into this dream thing
carl is losing touch with his friends and sort of living in the dream
pete too
and pete has this idea, they'll write down everything in their dreams
and then when there's enough, they'll go through the newspapers
and figure out who they were in their previous life
carl sort is sort of dreading this, but he doesn't know why
maybe because then it won't belong to just THEM anymore
which is irrational, because if it's their previous life, doesn't it belong to them?
anyway, at some point
pete decides that they're going to clean up their dream-diary, and they're going to publish it
and they'll be famous writers
and carl is kind of into the idea
and he starts going over their earlier work and cleaning it up a bit
because he realizes that it's too sloppy, unpublishable
which pete doesn't realize
and he really wants to do this the right way
so he starts reading more personal narratives etc for ideas
sort of looking for examples of good writing
and he finds, on pete's shelf, hidden near the back, a certain book
and if he hadn't been going through their old diary entries
he wouldn't have even realized this but
it's pete's half of the WWI story
before they started writing it together
petronia: this was an existing book, or something Pete had been writing before he met Carl, or?
me: a published book
petronia: ok
me: which pete had certainly read before he met carl
and carl isn't sure what to think about this
he feels awful, but he won't let himself examine why
so he rationalizes
that it's because he didn't want to find out who they were in their previous lives
because he didn't want the dream to end
also because the two soldiers in the book (nonfiction) come to really awful end
but, carl doesn't confront pete about this
he keeps it a secret, and it creates distance between them
which pete senses, so he decides to get back at carl
by inviting an ex-girlfriend to write in their notebook
which is a tactical error on his part
because then they have a big fight
and carl ends up accusing pete of making the whole thing up
which was something he'd been thinking about for a while, apparently
but something he hadn't allowed himself to think about openly
and um, after the fight, carl decides that he needs a break
so he rents another place and goes to live there
but he really, really misses pete
at this point, he sort of doesn't have many friends left?
he'd been living in the dream
and so, in order to stop himself from going to see pete, he drinks until he can't stand up anymore
and then he does the same thing the next day
and the next
and i think i forgot to mention this, but while he and pete were together he only had WWI dreams
happy dreams
so he's sort of terrified that the vietnam dreams will come back
but they don't
they're gone
forever
petronia: o_o
me: yeah
except, he's now completely miserable
he was happier when he was with pete
so at the end of the story, he's standing outside of their old appartment...
that's, um, the end
petronia: ^_^;;
me: it's a pretty awful ending, really lady and the tiger-ish ^^;
it's supposed to be the kind of story where you think for a while that they REALLY WERE soldiers together in a previous life
or you can choose to keep believing that if you want to
Sorry for being such a tease and always promising and never delivering. On the bright side, probably most of you don't care about the Libertines anyway.
me:
carl is a soldier in vietnam, and it's all really horrible and nightmarish
and then he wakes up, and you realize that it was a dream
and then you learn that he has these dreams REGULARY
like, every night
and he never tells anyone about them and he feels completely cut off from everyone
but then one day, in a bar
he meets pete, who casually mentions that he ALSO has war-dreams
vivid ones, "am i a butterfly or am i a man?" etc
and they end up going back to carl's place and carl describes his dreams in detail
until they both pass out
and when they wake up the next morning, pete has also had a vietnam dream
and they compare notes
and it is the SAME DREAM
with me so far?
petronia: ok
me: okay
so, they start hanging out and comparing notes
and the more time they spend together, the more they have the same dreams
until pete suggests that possibly, they were soldiers together in a previous life
pete doesn't only dream about vietnam, though
he was WWI dreams and even some Rome and ancient Egypt dreams
which carl kind of resents, because he can't share those
at this point, pete is thrown out of his appartment
and he goes to live with carl, and he brings his book collection with him
and carl goes through the whole thing (lots of Wilfred Sassoon etc) in one day
or maybe in a few days
not leaving the appartment to eat
and that night, he dies in his vietnam dream
and comes back to life in a WWI dream
which is full of, you know, suffering and privations, but it's a strangely happy dream?
petronia: XD;;
remind me to send you the link to Counter-Attack
but yes, go on
me: full of brotherly love and comrades in arms and the beauty of the sunrise
(Counter-Attack?)
but uh, yeah
pete and carl are really into this dream thing
carl is losing touch with his friends and sort of living in the dream
pete too
and pete has this idea, they'll write down everything in their dreams
and then when there's enough, they'll go through the newspapers
and figure out who they were in their previous life
carl sort is sort of dreading this, but he doesn't know why
maybe because then it won't belong to just THEM anymore
which is irrational, because if it's their previous life, doesn't it belong to them?
anyway, at some point
pete decides that they're going to clean up their dream-diary, and they're going to publish it
and they'll be famous writers
and carl is kind of into the idea
and he starts going over their earlier work and cleaning it up a bit
because he realizes that it's too sloppy, unpublishable
which pete doesn't realize
and he really wants to do this the right way
so he starts reading more personal narratives etc for ideas
sort of looking for examples of good writing
and he finds, on pete's shelf, hidden near the back, a certain book
and if he hadn't been going through their old diary entries
he wouldn't have even realized this but
it's pete's half of the WWI story
before they started writing it together
petronia: this was an existing book, or something Pete had been writing before he met Carl, or?
me: a published book
petronia: ok
me: which pete had certainly read before he met carl
and carl isn't sure what to think about this
he feels awful, but he won't let himself examine why
so he rationalizes
that it's because he didn't want to find out who they were in their previous lives
because he didn't want the dream to end
also because the two soldiers in the book (nonfiction) come to really awful end
but, carl doesn't confront pete about this
he keeps it a secret, and it creates distance between them
which pete senses, so he decides to get back at carl
by inviting an ex-girlfriend to write in their notebook
which is a tactical error on his part
because then they have a big fight
and carl ends up accusing pete of making the whole thing up
which was something he'd been thinking about for a while, apparently
but something he hadn't allowed himself to think about openly
and um, after the fight, carl decides that he needs a break
so he rents another place and goes to live there
but he really, really misses pete
at this point, he sort of doesn't have many friends left?
he'd been living in the dream
and so, in order to stop himself from going to see pete, he drinks until he can't stand up anymore
and then he does the same thing the next day
and the next
and i think i forgot to mention this, but while he and pete were together he only had WWI dreams
happy dreams
so he's sort of terrified that the vietnam dreams will come back
but they don't
they're gone
forever
petronia: o_o
me: yeah
except, he's now completely miserable
he was happier when he was with pete
so at the end of the story, he's standing outside of their old appartment...
that's, um, the end
petronia: ^_^;;
me: it's a pretty awful ending, really lady and the tiger-ish ^^;
it's supposed to be the kind of story where you think for a while that they REALLY WERE soldiers together in a previous life
or you can choose to keep believing that if you want to
Sorry for being such a tease and always promising and never delivering. On the bright side, probably most of you don't care about the Libertines anyway.