(He Talks in His Sleep)
March 16, 2016 1:38 AM   Subscribe

“Oh, that doesn’t complete my collection at all! No! Oh no! Well let’s see, I have a dodo, and a rock, and a phoenix...oh dear! A pterodactyl, yes, the unicorn, the griffin, dear, oh yes, well a mermaid doesn’t count, she’s out in the pool! No... well, if she ever gets out I’m gonna mate her with the centaur! Yes! What do you think?! Certainly! Well, I don’t know. What do you think? Well, if you don’t mate them you know they’ll die off!”
The Dream World of Dion McGregor posted by KirkpatrickMac (11 comments total) 18 users marked this as a favorite


 
They're also on Spotify.
posted by Harald74 at 3:14 AM on March 16, 2016


Thanks! This is fascinating. And so very smooth. But now I'm kind of hoping that Aphex Twin would turn those beautiful somniloquies into a clanking disjointed electronic nightmare.
posted by sapagan at 5:03 AM on March 16, 2016


The blog Sleep Talkin' Man contains recordings and transcripts of the blogger's husband talking in his sleep -- usually only a sentence or two, though, not extended monologues.

This also reminds me of the case of Richard Haydock, the 'sleeping preacher' who achieved notoriety in 1605 for his ability to preach sermons in his sleep. He attracted the attention of King James I, who investigated the case and eventually exposed Haydock as a fraud. 'Haydock explained that he had a bad stutter and had gotten up late at night to practice preaching to see if he could speak clearly. Someone had heard him and thought he was preaching in his sleep and Haydock let them think so as he got more and more famous.'
posted by verstegan at 5:12 AM on March 16, 2016 [2 favorites]


Sleep posting is a thing, apparently, or at any rate the hippo in that ear has taken another banner with the water is it.
posted by Segundus at 5:51 AM on March 16, 2016 [2 favorites]


Gonna be that person and say it's not a "rock" but a roc.
posted by emjaybee at 6:48 AM on March 16, 2016 [3 favorites]


As a teenager in the 60's, I had this LP and listened to it a lot, entranced and fascinated. I was being groomed for surrealism, I suppose.

Much later, after sleeping with people and hearing them talk in their sleep, the usual enigmatic phrases--when intelligible at all--were certainly not narratives at all. Looking back on that record of my youth, I'd assumed I'd been hoaxed.

Apparently not.
posted by kozad at 8:32 AM on March 16, 2016


In college I had a roommate who would occasionally "wake up", have a short surreal conversation with me or someone else, then go back to sleep and not recall it at all:

1. I get back to the dorm room from an evening class. Roommate has apparently fallen asleep while studying, but sits up when I enter the room.

Me: Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you up.
Him: Who are you talking to?
Me: Well, how many of us are there in this room?
Him: (looks around craftily)...There's almost two of us.
Me: Go back to sleep, dude.
Him: Can I have your Magic Missiles?
Me: (rolling eyes) Yeah, sure, fine.
(He goes back to sleep)

2. Early morning phone call, after both of us were up almost all night breaking down and re-installing several salt-water fish tanks. Phone rings, he leaps up from his bed and answers before I can stir groggily from my disrupted sleep. I lie there, listening.

"Hello? ... He's not here. He's in the Pit ... He's in the Holy Pit ... Hang on. (Turns to me, holds out phone) It's for you."

Maybe we were playing a little too much D&D back then...
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:19 AM on March 16, 2016 [5 favorites]


I have to admit, I'm pretty pleased by "There's almost two of us"
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 10:11 AM on March 16, 2016 [4 favorites]


He sounds like a slightly less radiation-crazed J. Frank Parnell from Repo Man.
posted by scruss at 11:16 AM on March 16, 2016


Won't some big pharma invent a pill so everyone can do this?
Please?
posted by hank at 11:16 AM on March 16, 2016


Be careful what you ask for...
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:25 PM on March 16, 2016


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