up above the world so high

Two of the most prominent symbols that recur in my dreams are fish and elevators. Both can be exhilarating (swimming down a clear, swiftly moving stream with colorful, silvery fish alongside or zooming to the top of a cathedral-like space in an intricate elevator box) or terrifying (enormous looming fish in deep dark water or a rickety, wooden elevator that stops miles above the earth, and leaves a dizzying gap between itself and the floor). BLDGBLOG, a terrific blog about architectural progress and philosophical intersections, had this post recently. I don't dream often about being TRAPPED by an elevator, but it fed into that odd dream world of mine. I had the same feeling while watching Being John Malkovich (from which the above image is taken)...