Afternoon Dreams & Literature

Napping in the afternoon is actually quite stressful for me. I usually wake up during the warmest part of the day, when the sun is high above the sky. On Wednesday, I took such a nap, since fatigue had overwhelmed me. And during that time, I had quite a disturbing dream.

I was in what I assumed to be Korea, since I was on the run from ... something. The authorities, the mafia, or a gay perv, something. I'm running down the stairs in an area that's best described as resembling a certain city in FF12 (which is somewhat odd, since I haven't played that game recently). I find an old man to talk to, figuring that I'll be left alone if it looks like I know someone here. So, I chat and follow the old guy to his home. Apparently he's Korean, but knows a bit of Japanese and Mandarin. He prefers to speak in Mandarin because of painful memories associated with Japan, but I perfer to speak Japanese (but only minimally). We're sitting in the tea room of his home, when I hear someone come in from the outside. Apparently his daughter (or niece, granddaughter, etc) has come home, with a relatively large bag. And then, suddenly there are two voices that come from her direction. One is hers, but the other is "her younger brother". I go over to investigate, but see only her, and a medium-sized duffel bag. Apparently the "brother's" voice was coming from the bag. When I opened it to see, there was a spirit posessing a small figurine. The old man explains that everybody here [in Thailand] has a companion spirit-ancestor to help guide them in life. Being the devout Christian, the figurine/ghost starts reacting strangely. I then invoke the name of Jesus and command the demon to leave this house. My voice gets louder and louder, and the scene gets more and more violent. It was like a battle of territory; who had more influence on the immediate area -- my faith in Christ Jesus, or the devil? I think I successfully exorcised the demon before waking up.

Referrants? Many. From popular entertainment: FF12, Shaman King, Kekkaishi.
From real life: seeing a bag at night and thinking it was a ghost, socio-linguistic deduction (knowing that idol-worship/spirituality is high in Thailand; Japanese and Korean are linguistically similar; Mandarin is a popular choice for Korean nationals to learn as a second language).

The idea of demonic encounters frighten me. I remember hearing from a friend's mom that her faith in God was solidified only after rooming with a demonically posessed roommate. Personally, I'd rather not want to deal with it, and honestly, I don't feel I have that size of faith to exorcise demons. At least, not in the way that we're taught in sunday school. But maybe that's an excuse. Maybe I don't want to deal with demons because I know that it can only strengthen my faith in God. Or maybe, I'd be tempted to turn to the dark side...........

In other news, I bought most of my books early, so hopefully I'll be able to get a head start on some of my readings. Although I'm fairly confident that the two books I'm starting with won't be touched upon until near the end of the term, I'm interested in reading them because 1. they relate to Chinese-Canadians; and 2. both authors/books were recommended to me by my Postcolonial Literatures prof last term. Which is to say, Diamond Grill by Fred Wah, and Disappearing Moon Cafe by Sky Lee. Sky Lee's book has a family tree built in already, so I don't have to bother mapping out the relationships between characters. Yay!

Generally, I find that I need to map out these sorts of relationships. Especially for Cinnamon Gardens by Shyam Selvadurai. That book had 2 families that were related by a common great-grandfather, or something to that effect. It was a good book though. So, you kids out there with too much time, I highly recommend reading Cinnamon Gardens. It's a bit of a long read, but I managed to finish it in a day. Booyah! XD