I turned on the radio and heard the announcer say: "American actor Harvey Keitel has been shot dead on the steps of his apartment building in New York. The radical Islamic group Jemaah Islamiah has claimed responsibility, saying that the assassination was carried out in protest against America's continuing occupation of Iraq. Friends of Mr Keitel say that the terror group must not have known that he was a staunch critic of the war in Iraq and had actively campaigned against it."
Notes for Freudian Interpretation
I remember the wording of the announcement quite clearly as I had the dream just before waking up and immediately repeated it to Ellen, poor girl.
I had this dream last Saturday, two days after the 25th anniversary of John Lennon getting shot outside his apartment building, which is obviously the source of that motif. It was also the end of a week in which people had been pleading for the release of Norman Kember, the peace activist in Iraq, whose kidnappers had said they were going to kill him at the weekend, which is obviously the source of the other motif. The night before I had the dream, my colleague, Mark, asked whether I'd come into contact with Jemaah Islamiah while I'd been in Indonesia. I thought that that was quite a bizarre question, as I'd been teaching English to Koreans in a language school and living in a strange suburb with armed guards everywhere, rather than engaging in Jakarta's militant political demi-monde.
Why was Harvey Keitel getting shot, though, instead of John Lennon or Norman Kember? I don't think he cropped up in connection with anything in particular in the days before I had the dream. Clearly, Harvey Keitel is the key to the interpretation of this dream. Or, rather, my associations with Harvey Keitel are. However, I don't think I associate much with him. Clearly, though, I am wrong.
Oddly, the last item on the news bulletin that woke me up that morning, ending the dream, was about Richard Pryor having died. That's a interesting enough coincidence, given how rarely I dream about American actors dying, but what makes it even more satisfying is that the only thing I've seen Richard Pryor in since I was a kid is 'Blue Collar', in which he co-starred with Harvey Keitel. Actually, now I think about it, I saw him in 'Lost Highway' as well.
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