Commentary 09

41. Back in the hospital. Interesting here is that we don't know the duration of these dreams as they affect Roger and Sue's monitoring. And we don't know which one, if any, is causing blanks in their recording. I don't think I ever tied this down particularly, mainly because the pace keeps changing the dreams and accelerating the interaction, and it became moot at some point.

The interesting point is to "consider this while sleeping" phrase, which comes from Jose Silva's last works.

42. Now we're back into Joe's library. A joke about the relative importance of authors. And here you get a layout of why he had this library and realizes that he is really creating his own dreams - at least this one.

43. And so it's logical that he goes to the only place our kahuna shows up - that stretch of Hawaiian beach. And he gets a lecture similar to the Nazarene's parable about the lily of the field.

Joe reveals the underlying purpose for life (at least one of them) is to enjoy it immensely. "Look to the meaning behind the words. Find the language of self, soul, spirit."  If you wanted to boil down the premise of this book, and the real boon which Joe works to take back to the world, this is it.

44 Dream within a dream. Which is itself a conundrum - or is it? This dream Joe has introduces the witch-doctor as a character (aluded to earlier) and tells a mini-origins story of the figure. Also where the amulet came from.

I attempt to discuss the powers of the statue again, but leave it with a simple allusion. (I've been tempted to write this all out, but even here, it's not appropriate. I'll leave it for a later time, or some academic to do the work.)

We may or may not be seeing Doreen as a bit of a Mata Hari here.

45. Back to the library. Haanel is explaining the secrets of the Universe (from his "Master Key System"). As the Nazarene nodded, it's to my own research point that all these self-help authors are saying the same thing in different ways. Lots of crossover points. (See my "Go Thunk Yourself" series.)

But as you study this carefully, you'll see Joe is working this all our for himself, which is exactly what this novel was suposed to do. I only hope that its not didactic, which is the reason for exploring fiction as a vehicle for this type of material. It certainly worked for Aesop.