The Society of Reluctant Dreamers has probably been my favourite book all term and I would recommend it to anyone, especially people interested in postcolonialism or contemporary Africa. I was really fascinated by the idea of giving life and artistic representations to dreams, and I think the book added an interesting perspective to issues of historical and future truths we’ve been exploring for the past couple weeks with Bolaño and Cercas. In particular, I wanted to talk here about how Agualusa used dreaming (about “fictional worlds”) as a method of making sense of a real world.

I thought that the dreams in the novel could represent a subconscious understanding that there was a way forward or a method of action, and Moira’s efforts to paint them was to give reality to them. In that sense, Hélio’s machine also could represent something people use to see reality clearer, whether it’s through unrealistic dreams displaying the workings of the subconsious or dreams reflecting reality. Additionally, when Hossi died and appeared in others’ dreams everywhere, it seemed like the nation grew to understand that change was necessary, seeing the man in the purple coat as a symbol or a trailblazer. I felt that there might have been a Biblical undertone in the final scenes as well, where Hossi was known to be dead, but his twin comes back in the purple coat (what the dream foretold) to confront the president and force him to release the dissidents on the hunger strike. Even though the president knew Hossi didn’t really come back to life, the symbolism was present.

In the story though, dreams can be more than just symbolic: many of them are truthful, representing history or the future. I think having written this post, I believe that in the novel, dreams are only as powerful in our reality as our understanding of their symbolism enables them to be. The place Karanguiri called the “Angola where almost all Angolans live” had a national dream of equality and one against corruption, but it seemed to take the collective dream of Hossi, the “unknown soldier,” marching up to the President and demanding it, that made it more of a possibility. The unity it provided, with even the president himself believing that the “fake” dream ultimately had some truth, was the only reason Jamba’s entrance could have worked.

My question this week is “In the novel, what do you think gave dreams (like the dream of Hossi or Daniel’s dreams) their power to reflect reality?”