"The art of dreaming" and Donny Darko

[JTiedes]

has any one here seen the movie and read the book. there are some fascinating connections that i would love to discuss.

yes i know there is the same thread in movies but im trying to catch the book lovers too

[KickChick]

More often time than not, the book is always better than the movie ... so I will delete the other thread as crossposting not allowed... (just too confusing ;) ) and we can continue discussion on one or the other or BOTH! :D

[alex_000]

The movie was fantastic.

Haven't read the book though :(

(and the books are always better than the movies - very few exeptions there)

[JTiedes]

ok the book "the art of dreaming" is not the movie nor is it a movie
its just the movie donnie darko and the book had some interestin connections

1 those worm hole things that showed what the person was thinking about in the movie. very similiar to the shifting of intent in the book

2 the ability to travel time and distance into alternate worlds, but no matter how similiar they may seem a different world is a dangerous one

3

4

there might be more they just dont come to mind right now

seriously though, if you havent read anything by him, go check out carlos castenada. his a brilliant author and is considered to be one of the greatest modern fiction writers out there. if your looking for an easy read, skip his books, but if you want something thought provoking and truly intriguing, check it out

[KickChick]

ok the book "the art of dreaming" is not the movie nor is it a movie
its just the movie donnie darko and the book had some interestin connections



:confused: .. am I the only one who didn't quite understand this??

So Donnie Darko is the movie by Rich Kelly and Art of Dreaming (http://www.prismagems.com/castaneda/donjuan9.html) is a book by Carlos Castenada

all I can say is that there may be a correlation between the two.... the character in the movie is either on the verge of losing his mind or on the breakthrough of some grand epiphany.... much like Carlos

[JTiedes]

wait so kick chick, have u read the book?

the main similiarity was the wormholes that grew out of the peoples bodies, and the shifting of the assemblage point in the book

hopefully someone has read the book too :cool:

[woodrow]

I always thought the shifting of the assemblage point was just a manner of explanation. People may not understand one way of thinking. If you repackage the exact same information in a different way, then people might get it.

The assemblage point moving around is just like saying "seeing it from another person's point of view". That is what I think.

I think that Carlos was a real tight hiney, strait laced, narrow minded scientist type. Don Juan wants him to open up his mind to the reality of the world. He can't. He would need a hammer to crack open Carlos because he is so stuck where he is at.

So first Don Juan suggests he do drugs. Those force a person to think differently. No matter how hard they stick to the old way of thinking, the drug makes them see things in a new way.

Then Don Juan invents all of these different ideas of assemblage points and stuff because it is what Carlos wants to hear. Carlos is a anthropologist. He won't hear anything except facts and theories. So Don Juan makes up a theory. Don Juan cares for Carlos and wants him to be a real human being. He is willing to do anything, even make up stuff, to bring Carlos away from his cold scientific stuck in concrete existence into the breathtaking world of intuition and real knowledge.

I was mad for a long time when I began to think Don Juan was making things up to Carlos. It took me awhile to see that he did it because he wanted what was best for Carlos.

There are some true things in the book. One of the things that I found important was that Don Juan was always hitting Carlos. Why? Today, if you hit someone, people say you an abuser or you need to go to jail. In the books Don Juan is hitting Carlos every time he meets him.

The other important idea was how often Don Juan abandoned Carlos or left him in scary situations. Why? Don Juan loved Carlos like a son. Why would he leave him in embarrassing situations? Don Juan is trying to teach him. So why does he use that method?

If I can give you a hint? If you don't remember anything from the books, remember one scene from the intro of one of the books. It might be the art of dreaming. I forget.

Carlos goes to visit another sorceror that Don Juan had mentioned. He had met the man and the man invited him to visit. So Carlos goes to visit. The sorceror, wish I could remember his name, says "what are you doing here?". Carlos as usual gets flustered. He says "I wanted to ask you questions". The man says "Why don't you ask Don Juan? He is your teacher". Carlos shrugs and says he does not know.

Then, and this is the important part, the sorceror dances. Or that is how Don Juan describes it. He dances and drives Carlos away. Carlos cannot control himself and is forced to leave the man's house. He explains this to Don Juan and Don Juan says "Oh. You must have angered him. He drove you away".

Carlos says what are you talking about? He did this funny little dance, he did not ask me to leave. The answer that Don Juan provides to Carlos is what you want to remember for the rest of your life. It is real and true and if you can figure it out, your life will change forever.

[JTiedes]

yea i agree with you that carlos was stuck in his ways ect. but did u enjoy the literature anyways, becuase i sure did. the part of shifting the assemblage point that i was talking about was when he refered to the energy bodies and when you saw them how the were shaped

woodrow, have you seen the movie? if not i reccomend renting donny darko asap

[woodrow]

No I have not seen the movie. I will have to check it out.

I thought the books were good, sure. I have read them 2 or 3 times now.