Learning through dreams

I’m a fan of Sheila Heti, a Toronto-based author. Her book, The Middle Stories, is one of the most amazing books I’ve ever read. It’s more a piece of art than a book. Literary art. And I think of her current project(s) as something very similar.

Every heard of postsecret.com? People send in their deepest, sometimes darkest (but sometimes funniest) secrets to the curator, Frank Warren (who gave an amazing keynote at sxsw), who posts a few new ones every Sunday.

Sheila Heti is doing something along these lines, but a bit more political… sort of. She’s launched a series of blogs, starting with I Dream of Hillary and I Dream of Barack (she’s since added I Dream of Both and I Dream of McCain, for all those Republicans out there.

The process:

1. Clinton, Obama, McCain (mostly the first two, but hey, McCain deserves some credit too) launch the most interesting US presidential race in years and become the talk of the town, creeping into every nook and cranny of our concious and unconcious minds
2. Sheila Heti starts her blogs
3. You dream
4. You send your dreams in to Sheila Heti’s blogs (only REAL, SLEEPING dreams, people)
5. Sheila Heti posts them
6. I spend hours reading them

I’d love to say that the time I spent/am spending pouring through these was leading to some deep revelations about the candidates, or the people who dream about the candidates, but it’s not. I’m just enjoying it, and hey, I’m having a bit of trouble focusing today.

Perhaps the best part of this project is this quote, from the Search Engine podcast, a show I’ve recently started following, and the source of this great find… anyway, the quote:

Jessie: “Sheila, is there a point to this?”
Sheila Heti: “… no…”

Check out the…. March 6 or 7 Search Engine podast for an interview where you’ll find that Sheila Heti is learning more, but only just a bit more, from these stories than I am. And read The Middle Stories, seriously. The full text is available online, and the Princess and the Plumber is among the funniest things I have ever read.