Head Dress Tattoo blog

I just watched I’m Not There, the 2007 film where six different actors play variations or segments of Bob Dylan’s life. It made me more interested in Dylan than his music alone ever did…but then again, I’ve never put much effort into listening to it. Ironically, Cate Blanchett not only had more speaking lines than the other versions, but she also achieved the deepest characterization and looked the most like the real Dylan.

My favorite line came from Ben Wishaw towards the end: “The only truly natural things are dreams, which nature cannot touch with decay.” It reminded me of the book that I’m reading right now: Life Against Death by Norman O. Brown. Brown uses the work of Freud to dissect history and human nature.

In a dream sequence, Arthur Rimbaud (one of the Dylan personas) hangs like a balloon above a fair.

In the section on art, Brown explains that art, dreams and neurosis are all connected to the unconscious. Although, art is the only one which is unrepressed. Dreams and neurosis, on the other hand, are sort of trapped. There doesn’t appear to be a way to stop yourself from dreaming about your long-lost friend, or a place you often visited as a child. And don’t get caught up on the word neurosis - the simplest definition is any major flaw that results from being an adult human. As Brown puts it, “Art seduces us into the struggle against repression. [...] Dreams and neurosis give expression to the repressed unconscious, but they do not liberate it.”

I think it’s safe to assume that Dylan is more of an artist than the majority of professional musicians in the world. And Dylan’s art was liberating to multiple generations, especially way back in the turmoil of the ’60s. Brown: “Art, if its object is to undo repressions, and if civilization is essentially repressive, is in this sense subversive of civilization.” So it is strange then that Dylan would prefer the rigid, unchanging nature of dreams. Perhaps dreams were a safe solace from the chaotic spotlight of fame.