I dreamt. And in my dream, I played a game with everyone else in the universe. The object of the game was to truthfully answer questions, revealing as little as possible. For what you revealed was taken away from you, all your likes, dislikes, prejudices and opinions. After having lost all easily extractable personality, you went to die. Not being a great one for tact, I lost rather quickly and joined my family in a small chamber, bereft of any furniture. Rich red carpet covered the floor, and in the ver center of the room were four very ornate coffins, all invitingly open. My family, as in an unthinking daze, slowly climbed in theirs and lay down, the lids quietly clicking shut after them. At last I stood alone, looking at my own beautifully decorated coffin with plush green velvet and gold trim. I walked numbly to it and climbed in. The lid closed over me.
I found myself in a world of black sky and thousands of icy blue stars. I knew I could have whatever I wanted in the world; only that there was no longer anything I wanted.
Pale green words typed themselves across the starry sky. They soothed me, talking to me, taking away the last dregs of my personality. At last it was satisfied that I was blank. It made ready to dispose of me when some tiny spark left in me flared up.
"You cannot take away the essence that is me!" I cried. "Experiences, likes, prejudices, opinions, all can be relearned. But you cannot take away what is me!"
"Very good," the letters responded, somehow managing to sound condescending.
And in a flash, I was out of the blackness...and sitting in a desk, idly flipping through a dictionary. I reached the last word on the last page...
And I was back in the eternal game.
This dream is particularly odd because I don't believe in souls (genes plus environment) and the ending is even stranger...but I found this an interesting dream nonetheless.
