Reconciliation of Dreams

Dreams and the realities are always hard to reconcile as the need for one abstracts the confusion in the other. Hallucinatory schizophrenia is one extreme condition where the individual probably acts in reality not fully conscious of the consequences but enjoying a trance like pleasure of psychedelia. This is what happens to Arnold Layne, a classic Barrett composition where he mixed the surreal imagery of a mirror hung on the way that gives a “distorted view” juxtaposed with plain fact in “doors bang-chain bang-he hates it”. There is always a twist or irony in Barrett’s song writing with passages of dark humour which are traditionally associated with nonsense verses.

-Joy Roy Choudhury