Chapter 8: A Prophet Dreams

Abstract

I SAW MYSELF DRIVING in an automobile through the avenue of a large city. Years later, it seemed to me that the avenue in my dream looked very much like New York City's Fifth Avenue. There were skyscrapers on both sides of the street and huge loudspeakers plugged into every window. Many automobiles-I tried to count them, but I don't know how manydrove by in long chains. The traffic was closely knit; each car had a loudspeaker in place of a horn. When a driver touched his horn, a spoken advertisement came forth instead of the usual blare of the car horn. I heard, "The fastest passenger liner to the U.S.A. is the Mauretania." The queer thing was that these and similar sounds repeated themselves automatically, like recordings. Other advertisements, like "Buy Camel cigarettes" came from windows of the skyscrapers. The dream ended in a nightmare of noise and I woke up.