Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Alternate Universe Sweet Valley Twins

The rising action in the narrative of my dreams is paved with used books (literally - stacks of books exist where they don't in real life, creating walking paths and walls). Used books, like gumball machines that I can use without putting in a quarter, are something I see in my dreams a lot. They are always secondhand paperbacks, stacked with the spine facing up like at the library book sale. I am hunting through the titles until I realize I'm dreaming and get Lucid. This usually happens when I come across the Alternate Universe Sweet Valley Twins books. The Alternate Universe Sweet Valley Twins books are books that seem like real Sweet Valley Twins books, until I notice that the number is wrong or the title is weird or the cover picture is completely different (and not just because it's Bruce Emmett illustrating instead of James Mathewuse, like the overhaul they did in the late 90s). See here:



(same book, different cover illustrator)
I call them Alternate Universe because they seem like they could exist at first - because one time, in an older copy of a real SVT book, the title listed for the next book (listed at the end, where they usually ask a question and say "Find out in the next book [title]") was different than when the next book actually was printed/ published. Like, #33 was listed as The Wakefields' Visitor at the end of Book #32 but when #33 really came out, it was called Elizabeth's New Hero. Clearly just publisher oversight due to the fact that the next book in the series comes out every month. But the alternate title would exist in a parallel universe.
I like to think that Piper, my character, exists in the Alternate Universe Sweet Valley Twins books. Of course, once I happen upon one in my dream, then realize I'm dreaming, the book changes/ ceases to exist. It's hard to hold onto things in dreams. Sometimes I get lucid enough to realize, "Damn, my brain is awesome for being able to completely recreate, visually and as a tactile sensation, a mental version of all these books." With title and layouts and cover pictures and text inside that I can sort of read, sometimes.

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