Dennis Hollingsworth

"I have dreams"

A snip of dialog from the 1974 movie Zardoz, created and directed by John Boorman. Consuela is a leading member of an elite class called Eternals. In this future, they have achieved immortality and arrogated this and all scientific advancement in small hamlets protected by force field bubbles. The Tabernacle is what we today would call Artificial Intelligence, the operating system of the society of the Eternals. They communicate with the Tabernacle via their rings, kind of like our interlocution with Siri or Alexa today. Zed is a brutal, part of the outcast population left to fend for themselves in a destroyed earth.(*) At this moment in the action, Zed was kept in a cage like an animal:

Consuella: [speaking into her ring as she observes Zed asleep in his cage] The Brutal is now in fourth hour of unconscious sleep. It's astonishing that Homo Sapiens spends so much time in this vulnerable condition at the mercy of its enemies. Is there any data on the sleeping-patterns of primitive people?
The Tabernacle: Is that a priority request?
Consuella: Yes. I am now going to test its waking response to dangerous stimuli.
[She reaches inside the cage toward Zed. With unexpected speed, he seizes her wrist even as he wakes. He holds her for a moment, glaring at her before releasing her. Slowly, she recovers composure and speaks to him]
Consuella: Does it please you to sleep?
Zed: Yes.
Consuella: Why?
Zed: I have dreams.
The Tabernacle: Sleep was necessary for Man when his waking and unconscious lives were separated. As Eternals achieved total consciousness, sleep became obsolete, and Second-Level meditation took its place. Sleep was closely connected with death.

Sometimes, I awake in the morning in the thrall of a vivid dream. I immediately flip open my iPad and record it as best I can as it dissipates into oblivion. Here are a few of them:

(* Spoiler Alert under the fold)

The Spoiler:

Unknown to Consuela, another Eternal, Arthur Frane, had executed an assigned chore out of sight of the Vortex (the Eternal's community) with an artist's imagination. Frane had bred several generations of a priestly class whose responsibility was to cull the herd of the Brutals. Zed was dismissed as no more than a beast by the Eternals when instead he was another step ahead of them in evolutionary terms.

Posted by Dennis at December 5, 2020 8:01 PM