I dreamed I was in class, teaching Jonathan Lethem's The Fortress of Solitude, a novel I taught in English 150W last fall.
The dream started with a student observing that the book had a dream quality, but that it was very pessimistic. Was there a connection?
The question was the catalyst for what felt like an epiphany. I rephrased it--in a very teacherly way, for the class: Is there a relationship between the fact that this book seems pessimistic about the social issues it raises (mainly about race relations in Brooklyn) and its pervasive dreamlike tone? In my mind, it seemed suddenly obvious that there was a relationship and that it was something about the dreamlike atmosphere provided individual characters with a way of thinking there way outside the hard facts of life that seemed to straightjacket their destinies. An epiphany, by definition, is just out of reach and then, suddenly, is grasped, whole, coherent. Dreams lend themselves to epiphanies because so much of their content is ephemeral, difficult to grasp, and because they can convince us that the incomplete or incoherent is actually whole and brilliant.
Then I woke, wondering if this was a genuine epiphany. If it was, I had had an insight in a dream that I'd never had in life. Was this a very humble version of Robert Louis Stevenson dreaming the basic plot of Jekyll and Hyde or Mendeleyev dreaming the periodic table of elements (according to which chemicals are categorized)? I'm not sure that's what happened. I need to think about whether the insight is really an insight. It's not a brilliant insight, but it may be true, at least partly, and it isn't a thought I'd had before the dream.
It also occurs to me that the dream might have involved displacement--that the epiphany implied to Wide Sargasso Sea or Jane Eyre (or both) more than or as much as to The Fortress of Solitude. I'll have to think about it.
By the way, if anybody is interested in reading about a host of inspirations had by artists, leaders, and scientists in dreams, take a look at Robert Van de Castle's "Dreams that Changed the World" on Blackboard.
Comments (4)
I'm looking forward to reading Van de Castle, and I have long wanted to read Lethem. This dream actually had me laughing for a moment, because I imagined you waking up with your finger pointing upward, and saying something like "A-ha!"
As far as the idea--I think there is definitely something there. You mention, "and because they can convince us that the incomplete or incoherent is actually whole and brilliant." They also seem to suggest that the ephemeral is understandable, maybe even attainable. As in, we can fulfill our dreams--but maybe that's a little cheesy.
Posted by Scott Cheshire | October 19, 2006 4:13 PM
Posted on October 19, 2006 16:13
AND I have to say it's interesting that the very subject matter, and the tone of the dream has now seemed to leak into your waking life in that your now trying to determine how whole or complete an idea is while the very idea is about the nature of complete or incomplete ideas. This made more sense before I typed it out.
Posted by Scott Cheshire | October 19, 2006 4:21 PM
Posted on October 19, 2006 16:21
I remember reading this post a while back and thinking "Wow, even his dreams are academic." But about a week ago, after extensive work on my project, I was actually dreaming about my thesis. At least, I think I was dreaming. I remember coming to some very insightful idea that would help cohease the ideas in my paper. At least, I think it was insightful.. Anyway, it's interesting how the work we're immersed in manages its way into our dreams. It makes sense knowing how much time we spend on it.
What's also interesting is that your dream, like mine (which actually may or may not be a dream) reminds me of State's argument that dreams can help in problem solving; they allow you to make connections in your dreams that you noramlly wouldn't make in waking consciousness because of limits you've placed on your thoughts or in this case the text. Though the conclusions we come to in our dreams aren't bizarre at all, I wonder if our dreams are an example of State's argument on a lower scale.
Posted by annie hall | December 27, 2006 1:26 AM
Posted on December 27, 2006 01:26
To Annie Hall: I think you're absolutely right about the States's point and this dream. I wouldn't call this a major insight or a problem solved, really, but it does represent the process (and possibility) at least.
Let's just hope I don't have too many academic dreams!
Posted by Lydgate | December 29, 2006 2:29 PM
Posted on December 29, 2006 14:29