Monday, February 04, 2008

A warning from the academic unconscious?

I don't usually post dreams, but this is an academic one.

I'm rushing to leave for a conference and reach in a manila folder to grab a copy of my paper before I ride out to the airport. Take the laptop this time? Nah, no need for that, I think.

Later, at the conference, I'm sitting in front of the audience and am up next. To my horror, I discover that what I have grabbed is not the paper I wrote but something else: the notes folder, with the first page of the paper, assorted scribblings, and a couple of articles. I leaf through it, but there is no paper there. Do I explain? Try to wing it? Read the first paragraph, then announce that I'm going in a different direction and will talk about something different, as I've seen done before?

The panel chair calls my name . . . and then I woke up.

3 comments:

heu mihi said...

Oh God! That's terrifyingly literal. Just what I've always feared. Yikes!

undine said...

That's about what I said, when I woke up.

Anonymous said...

OMG. I thought I had had every form of anxiety dream, but I have not had that one. It should be a classic.