I have a question for all of you people. If your mind was an actual, literal place one could go to, what would it look like? Be as creative and metaphorical as you'd like. Discuss.
After watching Inception, I think my mind would probably be a Penrose Stair, just to confuse and annoy anyone who actually got inside.
My mind would be sort of like a library...but not an organized library with really knowledgeable librarians. It would be a library where someone had just come in like a whirlwind, pulled books on a subject, then got distracted, piled them somewhere to come back to, and moved on. Over...and over...and over. Sort of like this: It would make sense to me, for the most part, but no one else would be able to figure it out. Edit: Whoa, Banzai. Your mind just blew my mind.
Mine would look like the British railway network: two or three main lines, with hundreds of different local lines branching off, but which all eventually work their way round to the main lines again. Unlike the British railway system, however, my thoughts tend to run on time, unless sidetracked around Morecambe.
My mind, hmm. . . I think it would be like whole miniature world. I’m not sure what all exactly would be there but there would be a dungeon there, like a giant fortress of bone and dirt—a place I send myself for some good self-loathing time, it would be very barren and lonely, dead silent. There would be a giant snow field that would be dyed black, red and pink with blood except for at the heart of it, where there would be a little circle of untouched snow, sort of resembling all the innocence lost and taken from me, and the little bit I have left. There would be a Grand castle on a grand mountain that would be full of Valkyries or Amazons—strong powerful, beautiful women that represent what strength and honor I have, my defense mechanisms for the things I love and the issues with pride I have. Then I suppose I would have a place for all the ideas and stories and characters within my brain, and they would have to live in a large town that would probably transcend all genres and time periods and classes. I would have a great wall somewhere built with memories of the times I’ve had with friends and family, building upon its self, getting stronger. There would be a house somewhere, full of dead people and things I can’t let go of and there would be a cliff or a tall building and there would always be someone falling off of it and a bloody mess would pile up in the back of my head and force me to take care of myself and try to not let the hard things pile up again and start to destroy me. There would be a cave with a pool of water and the walls would be covered in gem stones and it would have this sort of hum to it, it would smell like earth and it would be the place I run to when I can’t take the things of the outside world and close to it would be a grove of some sort grove or jungle, something vivid and alive and beautiful, hot, the place closest to home where I would bring my loves and fantasies. And finally at the very center there would be a giant tree. It would grown from the depths of my head and branch out to each part, connecting my world and at its foot there would be a well, deep as I can possibly be and from it would come all my hopes and dreams and thoughts and all the things that make me who I am and keep the whole world in there functioning. Or something like that.
The seven seas. The surface of the waters ever-changing, glinting like silver in the sun, pewter-grey, sometimes crashing waves whipped with foam. Underneath, life of all kinds is teeming, although some areas have been deprived of oxygen or polluted too long to sustain anything. There are some deep, deep areas never reached by light, where just a few little blind fish feel their way along. And on the ocean floor, a few cracks where the plates meet, liable to be split apart any moment by volcanic activity which could send out a destructive tidal wave...
I hate questions like this because I keep feeling like I'm being tested, and I HATE being tested. People who never smile take notes and go off to back rooms and pass judgment on me. Anyway, my mind would look fairly boring, like a wide prairie covered with long grass and the occasional forest with lots of small furry animals and birds. Then gentle foothills, then some fairly low mountains. The sort of landscape people drive past a great speed on their way to someplace interesting. But underneath, there would be treacherous caves and huge deposits of very valuable ores and minerals and gemstones and so on, but all that is locked into very hard, tough rock so that it's almost impossible to mine this stuff. It takes a huge amount of work to get anything valuable out, even though there's plenty of value down in there somewhere.
Mantha, I definitely agree with you there. I feel like my mind would look look a bit like a researcher's laboratory during a warzone. The warzone only because I also get frequent migraines. A researcher's laboratory because you have to have controlled and manipulated variables when you test new things. The equipment is complicated to those who are unfamiliar with it, and it's very breakable if you arent careful. A laboratory can create wonderful things (like silly putty) and evil things (like napalm --I took these examples from comedian George Carlin), and I think I'm all over the place like that too.
I was about to type out everything I knew about my dream world, you know 'to freak out the normals' but I think you did it better. If you die before I do at least I'll have the landmarks to find you. If it's the "What Dreams May Come" heaven at least.
An untouched wilderness surrounded by an impenetrable force field. My mind is my refuge, where I let my imagination grow out of control. Unrestrained. Free from the wanton desecration of civilization. There would also be a small hut outside the force field, where I keep all my information pertaining to the real world. It is also here that I allow reality to do its thing. The real world usually uses this hut as a sort of staging area, where it tries various tactics for bringing down the barrier. It never stops trying. It never stops failing. Any outsider is free to see the hut, as it's the public part of my mind. But as for the protected wilderness, you're not getting in. Not without an invitation. Unless I trust you, you're not getting so much as a glimpse of how my inner mind works. What kind of a refuge would it be otherwise?
Yeah. My mind would be... very, verrrry... cluttered? I dunno if that's the right word, but it works. There'd be a bunch of big sectors, with little rooms around them. Each sector would have oodles of different things, like rocketships, or dinosaurs, or boxes of cereal. And in each area, there'd be a bunch of little me's running around trying to control everything, but failing miserably. Whenever I'd get mad, a bunch of animals would stampede and destroy my happier things. Whenever I'm sad, one of the sectors would get flooded with water. And so on.
filled with booby traps Or at least an obstacle run. As for the visual.. think about the gardens of Eden but filled with books!
Mine would be an awesomely architectured (yes, that's a verb now ) castle that would have lots of winding staircases to accomodate my leftiness. There would also be lots of pine trees outside, and a beach. But not the hecka-cold "Castle by the Sea" beach. Every room would be a library, organized by subject (science, history, writing ideas, drawing ideas, etc.). Of course there would be a bedroom, where I go to when I'm too darn tired to think. In the center of it all would be my imagination room, where all of my outlandish ideas would be locked. If I'm lucky, they'd float into the subject rooms, where I'd catch them and keep them in cages in my writing idea rooms.
My mind would be an anus. There's so much **** inside that no one wants to go there, but occasionally does something useful.
I became sceptical at the mention of a castle - castles are pretty big! - but when I read "full of dead people" and "close to a jungle" I knew I was right all along!
