Yes! I would even venture to say, sleep paralysis sufferer. One thing that SP folks say is they often have a weird feeling in the evening before they have an experience, and sometimes a premonition or synchronicity. After the doorbell, he falls asleep in the chair. Classic hypnagogic vision power move! And the description of Marley approaching is so resonate with many SP intruder visions -- the shuffling footsteps, the dragging sounds (of chains in this case), the focus on the doorway as liminal zone/boundary. I think Dickens was drawing from personal experience and that’s one reason the story resonates still today
Indeed. Given his insomnia and somnambulistic city wanderings, he probably was in liminal states of consciousness a lot of the time. It's a simple story -- an early silent film pantomimed it in six minutes twenty seconds flat, soup to nuts -- and yet profoundly moving and eternal. I could have gone longer but alas, I must tend to the pudding -- which by the way, in the 1951 film, is filled with gin and served to the children!
A couple other papers of interest:
Charles Dickens' Hypnagogia, Dreams, and Creativity
Thanks for sharing these! We are more likely to watch the muppets version this year but I love the magical slightly ghostly energy of Christmas Eve. It’s taboo to talk about it but that darkness is key.
Wonderful article!
Yes! I would even venture to say, sleep paralysis sufferer. One thing that SP folks say is they often have a weird feeling in the evening before they have an experience, and sometimes a premonition or synchronicity. After the doorbell, he falls asleep in the chair. Classic hypnagogic vision power move! And the description of Marley approaching is so resonate with many SP intruder visions -- the shuffling footsteps, the dragging sounds (of chains in this case), the focus on the doorway as liminal zone/boundary. I think Dickens was drawing from personal experience and that’s one reason the story resonates still today
Indeed. Given his insomnia and somnambulistic city wanderings, he probably was in liminal states of consciousness a lot of the time. It's a simple story -- an early silent film pantomimed it in six minutes twenty seconds flat, soup to nuts -- and yet profoundly moving and eternal. I could have gone longer but alas, I must tend to the pudding -- which by the way, in the 1951 film, is filled with gin and served to the children!
A couple other papers of interest:
Charles Dickens' Hypnagogia, Dreams, and Creativity
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8353174/
Revelation, Nonsense or Dyspepsia: Victorian Dream Theories
http://faculty.mercer.edu/glance_jc/files/academic_work/victorian_dream_theories.htm
Dickens and the Psychology of Dreams
https://www.jstor.org/stable/459694
If you find a PDF for this one, please do forward!
Thanks for sharing these! We are more likely to watch the muppets version this year but I love the magical slightly ghostly energy of Christmas Eve. It’s taboo to talk about it but that darkness is key.