This week, I read “The Society of Reluctant Dreamers” by José Eduardo Agualusa.
I pity the narrator, Daniel. After he started covering topics about society and politics when “Portuguese newspapers” took him on as a correspondent, his father in law does not like what he wrote and has a different perspective/opinion on the narrator’s writings. Due to that Daniel got fired from his company and his relationship with his wife worsened which eventually led to divorce.
After living at Armando’s apartment for several years, Daniel went to the Rainbow Hotel. Hossi Apolonio Kaley is the owner of the Rainbow Hotel and it turns out that they went to the same school together before. During Daniel’s stay there, he discovered a mango-yellow waterproof camera when he was swimming. He took the camera with him and plugged the memory card into his computer then downloaded the pictures later that night. He became obsessed with the Cotton- Candy-Hair-Woman, Moira Fernandes and often dreamt about her. It made me wonder if there is any meanings behind his action/behaviour of his obsession.
One of the vivid conversations in the story for me was a conversation between Daniel and Hossi about being vegetarian. Hossi rejected when Daniel invited him to join on his chicken and chips. Daniel was surprised that Hossi is a vegetarian as there aren’t many of them in Angola. Hossi then pointed out that Hitler and Gandhi were both vegetarian as well. It is harder for people to accept the fact that Hitler liked animals because of all the harmings he has done to the people. On the other hand, it is easier for the people to accept the fact that Gandhi liked animals and was a vegetarian. This reminded me of how important a person’s image/reputation to others is and how extreme it can be. If a person who is loved by everyone does something ‘bad’, most of the people will let it pass thinking it was an accident or maybe that person was going through a bad day. In different circumstances, if a person who has a bad reputation does something ‘good’, most of the people would find it hard to believe and will still have negative thoughts about the person.
I personally believe people dream because of their unconscious desire that they are not able to satisfy in reality. In the story, Helios mentioned that dreaming is rehearsing reality. I found the divorcing examples he used interesting. However, I felt like instead of ‘rehearsing’ it’s more like helping ‘making up their mind’. As I have mentioned, one of the reasons why people dream may be due to one’s unconscious desires. Therefore, the dreams are just there to help them be more certain of what they want in reality. So instead of ‘rehearsing’, it gives people the motivation to perform the action.
A question I have for the class is: How does dreams affect one’s life?