The Eyelid
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
An unnamed, unemployed, dream-prone narrator finds himself following Chevauchet, diplomat of Onirica, a foreign republic of dreams, to resist a prohibition on sleep in near-future Greater America. On a mission to combat the state-sponsored drugging of citizens with uppers for greater productivity, they traverse an eerie landscape in an everlasting autumn, able to see inside other people’s nightmares and dreams. As Comprehensive Illusion – a social media-like entity that hijacks creativity – overtakes the masses, Chevauchet, the old radical, weakens and disappears, leaving our narrator to take up Chevauchet’s dictum that “daydreaming is directly subversive” and forge ahead on his own.
In slippery, exhilarating, and erudite prose, The Eyelid revels in the camaraderie of free thinking that can only happen on the lam, aiming to rescue a species that can no longer dream.
“A slight but quick-witted and thoughtful philosophical parable that falls somewhere between Camus and Gaiman’s Sandman universe.” – Kirkus Reviews
“Determined readers will revel in the sheer fecundity of ideas in this fiercely imaginative acid trip of an allegory.” – Publishers Weekly
“Always provocative, Chrostowska investigates the notion that dreaming itself can be a subversive act.” – Quill & Quire
“The Eyelid! I devoured it! André Breton would have delighted in this unique disquisition on the nature of revery, nightmare, and dreams – realms undeniable essential and as yet unvanquished.” – Rikki Ducornet
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Chrowstowska's alternately fun and stuffy dystopian novel (after Permission), a sleeper cell of dreamers rises up against enforced wakefulness. An alternate present finds the authorities intent on maximizing productivity; Greater America deprives its citizens of dreams by a system of drugs and virtual realties called Comprehensive Illusion (CI). Early on, the unnamed narrator stumbles into Onirica, a rebel republic and state of mind where dreams can be had. Citizens of Onirica attempt to subvert CI by upsetting its "symbolic order of reality" and creating a "united dreamworld." Guided by Chevauchet, Onirica's ambassador, the narrator wanders ghostlike through the streets of a parallel Paris, inhabiting people's dreams. "All should enjoy right of passage through the dreams and daydreams of others," according to Chevauchet, "on condition that they abstained from meddling in them." When Chevauchet dies, the narrator assumes his mantle and control of "Operation Dormitory," harboring sleeping insurgents as the authorities close in. Chrostowska at times overstuffs this Calvino-esque fairy tale with literary and academic references, but she succeeds in making Onirica a rebel worth rooting for. Determined readers will revel in the sheer fecundity of ideas in this fiercely imaginative acid trip of an allegory.
