I promise that I will not be posting my dreams here on a regular basis.
I was either watching a program on television or someone was talking to me in person. It's hard to say, as it sometimes is in a dream. But this person was informing me that earlier civilizations didn't value the ear that much. Consequently, painters rarely bothered painting ears on their subjects. Yes, sound and music were important, but the ears themselves were not. That's why you rarely see Christ's ears in paintings. The eyes are important, as were His wounds, but His ears? Not so much.
The dream included images of old paintings that proved this thesis, though whether the paintings exist in the real world I can not say. When I remembered this dream late this morning, I accepted its conclusion as true even if I don't know if I agreed with its reasoning, such as it was. You don't generally see the ears in old painting, particularly religious ones. Do you?
If I wasn't so busy at work today I probably would have probably done some research to see if this was true. This may be like the time I was in an altered state, and realized that one of the things that was special about the word "wasps" is that it was the only word in the English language that made you makes the cymbal sound when you said it. Wah-SSSPSS! I was so taken with this realization that I recorded myself saying it over and over. Wah-SSSPSS! It wasn't until two days later, long after the altered state had passed, that I thought of words like "asps" "grasps" "clasps" and "lisps."
5 comments:
Man, I thought I lived too much inside my own head, but you really have me beat! Besides, many medieval paintings don't show ears because A)most people wore longer hair, hats, veils etc. and
B)True portraiture as we know it didn't exist in the Middle Ages. They were trying to convey someone's relative social or religious importance, not their looks. Most greco-roman sculpture shows ears that are very well rendered. Speaking of which, I know that when I started to draw again I had a hard time with doing good ears. It took me a while to realize that when I started drawing in the '70s, I never had to draw more than the very bottom of an earlobe because everyone's hair covered their ears.
Mercy! What are you eating, drinking or smoking before you go to bed? It really was an interesting dream, I must say. And the word "lisps" popped into my mind when I read your comment about "wasps." Love you,
Mom
Your mom beat me to it, but I thought you only could alter your state when awake; obviously, you have rendered my thesis obsolete.
Your dreams are so intellectual. The only dream that I remember last night was that I was on the subway that turned into a roller-coaster. It was cool until I realized that I was going the wrong way.
This altered state in which you recorded "Wah-SSSPSSS!" over an over again. . .Were you in Amsterdam at the time?
Julie -
I did think of long hair and veils as a reason you don't see ears in paintings, and the B) part of your comment makes me say "of course."
Mom -
I did have Indian food for dinner the other night. Perhaps that had something to do with it.
Anon - my "altered" state was while awake, but I suppose lucid dream and hypnogogic states could qualify as altered states while asleep.
Erin - You are now a New Yorker: you're having dreams about the subway going the wrong way.
The "wah-SSPS" state occured in California.
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