Acting Your Dreams: Using Acting Techniques to Interpret Your Dreams by Ben Tousey
Authors: Ben Tousey
Ads: Link
our Dreamwright may be trying to help us communicate
more clearly with others. Sloppy enunciation can be a source of conflict in
relationships, and if you’re seeing a lot of it in your dreams, then you might
also take a look at how you interact with people.
Denotative
Definitions of a Word
The Denotative
definition is the literal definition of a word, i.e. a “hand.” If you refer to
a hand here, you’re speaking of the actual hand at the end of the arm, the one
that you can hold up in front of your face. The old saying… “I can’t see my
hand in front of my face.” We could call this the dictionary or Denotative
definition.
A fun mnemonic
for this word would be to use a slangy musical term. We could call them de-notes.
In music, that would be the actual note you play when playing a musical melody.
Connotative
Definitions of a Word
The Connotative
definition is the emotional definition or emotional sense of a word. So when I
use the word hand, it could have other meanings. It can be disciplinarian,
arthritic, clenching, grasping, holding, or any combination of all these. Hands
can be warm, gentle and caressing, or they can be harsh and ugly, bringing
pain. Can you lend me a hand? Always looking for a handout. I can beat you
hands down. Hand me that axe will you? This is a pretty handy little gadget.
I’ve got to hand it to you. Try to play the hand you’re dealt. All hands on
deck. One hand washes the other. If your right hand offends you cut it off.
Don’t let the right hand know what the left hand is doing.
A fun mnemonic
for this word would be co-notes, or the notes that go alongside the notes or
harmonies that fill in the chord in music. So you’ve got de-notes, the actual
note on a scale, and co-notes.
Imagery
What kind of
imagery do the words bring up? This has less to do with the actual words and
more to do with the images they conjure when you use them. Going back to our
previous example, if I use the word hand, and you conjure up an old and
decrepit arthritic hand, one that you saw on your grandmother, then that is the
imagery of that word.
Your
Dreamwright will purposely use words that bring up certain images either
consciously or subconsciously. Sometimes all it takes is looking at a specific
word in the Dreamplay to find the key that will unravel its meaning for you.
Rhythm
Rhythm is a
subtle thing. It can be described as the meter of the words as they’re spoken.
When someone is frightened, their words tend to speed up and their pitch rises.
When someone is in love, their rhythm slows down and their pitch drops. Brian
Williams has a rhythm as he delivers us the news. Many comedians have garnered
laughs imitating the rhythm of Captain Kirk and his exaggerated pauses in the
middle of sentences. Speaking of comedians, ever heard the phrase “timing is
everything?” Again, listen to any Shakespearian play and you will hear obvious
examples of rhythm. Poetry is another form of writing that relies heavily on
rhythm.
Paraphrasing
Paraphrasing is
putting somebody else’s words into our own. Sometimes when we read a quote that
we find thrilling, we want to tell our friends. But unless we remember the
quote by heart, we end up paraphrasing. The same is true when we try to quote
our favorite lines from a movie.
Sometimes as we’re
studying dialog or monologues, it helps to paraphrase them just a little bit.
This will help us understand what they are really saying. When I was learning
how to do Shakespeare, my teacher had us all take the play we were working on
and paraphrase it. That exercise alone did more to help me understand the scene
and the character than anything I had tried up to that point.
The same is
true of dreams. Sometimes the Dreamwright has used some form of word or
sentence structure that has us baffled. There is no need to be frustrated by
this. Simply paraphrase the words in such a way as to maintain the idea of
what’s being said.
more clearly with others. Sloppy enunciation can be a source of conflict in
relationships, and if you’re seeing a lot of it in your dreams, then you might
also take a look at how you interact with people.
Denotative
Definitions of a Word
The Denotative
definition is the literal definition of a word, i.e. a “hand.” If you refer to
a hand here, you’re speaking of the actual hand at the end of the arm, the one
that you can hold up in front of your face. The old saying… “I can’t see my
hand in front of my face.” We could call this the dictionary or Denotative
definition.
A fun mnemonic
for this word would be to use a slangy musical term. We could call them de-notes.
In music, that would be the actual note you play when playing a musical melody.
Connotative
Definitions of a Word
The Connotative
definition is the emotional definition or emotional sense of a word. So when I
use the word hand, it could have other meanings. It can be disciplinarian,
arthritic, clenching, grasping, holding, or any combination of all these. Hands
can be warm, gentle and caressing, or they can be harsh and ugly, bringing
pain. Can you lend me a hand? Always looking for a handout. I can beat you
hands down. Hand me that axe will you? This is a pretty handy little gadget.
I’ve got to hand it to you. Try to play the hand you’re dealt. All hands on
deck. One hand washes the other. If your right hand offends you cut it off.
Don’t let the right hand know what the left hand is doing.
A fun mnemonic
for this word would be co-notes, or the notes that go alongside the notes or
harmonies that fill in the chord in music. So you’ve got de-notes, the actual
note on a scale, and co-notes.
Imagery
What kind of
imagery do the words bring up? This has less to do with the actual words and
more to do with the images they conjure when you use them. Going back to our
previous example, if I use the word hand, and you conjure up an old and
decrepit arthritic hand, one that you saw on your grandmother, then that is the
imagery of that word.
Your
Dreamwright will purposely use words that bring up certain images either
consciously or subconsciously. Sometimes all it takes is looking at a specific
word in the Dreamplay to find the key that will unravel its meaning for you.
Rhythm
Rhythm is a
subtle thing. It can be described as the meter of the words as they’re spoken.
When someone is frightened, their words tend to speed up and their pitch rises.
When someone is in love, their rhythm slows down and their pitch drops. Brian
Williams has a rhythm as he delivers us the news. Many comedians have garnered
laughs imitating the rhythm of Captain Kirk and his exaggerated pauses in the
middle of sentences. Speaking of comedians, ever heard the phrase “timing is
everything?” Again, listen to any Shakespearian play and you will hear obvious
examples of rhythm. Poetry is another form of writing that relies heavily on
rhythm.
Paraphrasing
Paraphrasing is
putting somebody else’s words into our own. Sometimes when we read a quote that
we find thrilling, we want to tell our friends. But unless we remember the
quote by heart, we end up paraphrasing. The same is true when we try to quote
our favorite lines from a movie.
Sometimes as we’re
studying dialog or monologues, it helps to paraphrase them just a little bit.
This will help us understand what they are really saying. When I was learning
how to do Shakespeare, my teacher had us all take the play we were working on
and paraphrase it. That exercise alone did more to help me understand the scene
and the character than anything I had tried up to that point.
The same is
true of dreams. Sometimes the Dreamwright has used some form of word or
sentence structure that has us baffled. There is no need to be frustrated by
this. Simply paraphrase the words in such a way as to maintain the idea of
what’s being said.
Similar Books
