hand out lyrics for the song “Sweet Dreams”, asking students to pick one of the four screens to interpret the potential meaning of this song. Additionally, ask students to utihze the web as a resource if necessary. This interpretation should be at least one page long and specific examples should be used to prove the interpretation’s point. This activity should finish out the first class period of this lesson and will be due the following day.
- Ask students to respond in writing to the following prompt:
What would be your idea of a dream come true? Be as specific as possible.
- Play “Sweet Dreams” by La Bouche while students write.
- Ask students to share their prompt responses.
- Ask for volunteers to share their screened interpretations of yesterday’s lyrics to “Sweet Dreams” (Eurythmics/Marilyn Manson versions), making sure two from each screen are shared. While students present, write down responses on the overhead or the board. When students have finished sharing, note similarities and difference in these. Invite students to speculate as to why there are both alike and dissimilar versions.
- Display the lyrics to Iron Butterfly’s song In-a Gadda-Da-Vida” on the overhead. Be sure to note that this song was first released in 1968. Ask students to read these while the song is playing and to think of what the song might be about. (There are several versions of this song, including a radio-edit of less than five minutes, as well as a live version that is over fifteen minutes long.)
- Following the song, ask students to get into groups of three and discuss potential interpretations. Remind them to ponder which screen might best work for this song (three mixiutes).
- Invite each group to share its findings.
- Discuss the story of the song, reading from the liner notes of the CD In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (reissued in 1995) how the lead singer of Iron Butterfly had consumed nearly a gallon of wine before he finished this song, whose chorus was supposed to be “In the Garden of Eden.” When asked by his drummer what the title was, the drunken Doug Engle replied, “In-A-Gadda-Da Vida”. Point out how many students may have come close to this version simply by connecting the title with the historical screen (the stoner culture of the sixties). Note the religious allusions, as well as the literary and psychological symbols ("take my hand”, “please”, etc.) Also note that the song later took on the meaning of “in the garden of life”, which also can be discussed in terms of screened symbolism.
- From a plot mapping perspective, ask if students feel this song is complete. Why does it seem like a fragment? Lead students into a discussion of our Western notion of literary completion (from the introduction-body-conclusion style to the exposition-rising action-climax-falling action-resolution model). This linear way of thinking is not universal, as other cultures ascribe value to circular thinking. (For example, Native American culture values the circle or hoop as the symbol of life and unity, so oral or written literature may not have the beginning/end lineage that most students are used to.)
- Going back to the notion of dreams, ask students to reflect on how their dreams are not usually linear in that it is difficult to pinpoint an exact introduction/ body/conclusion to them. In fact, they may seem incomplete or fragmented, or even illogical in Western terms.
- Tie in the concept of imagination to dreams as a way of exploring the potentially illogical side of these nocturnal visions. Is imagination, as in dreams, the mind playing tricks on the logic? Or is it more than that? How does this relate to the concept of imagination in the Romantic era? Note what The Oxford Illustrated History of English Literature defines as Romantic imagination: “a faculty for reordering former sense impressions: the perceiving mind and the perceived object are separate” (290). How does that play against what we think of as dreams? Ask students to discuss this notion.
- Ask students to think about what fosters and promotes imagination. List responses on the board or 