clem + co

For some reason I recalled an Edwardian text, -- still sold on the street of new York by the way as a cutting-edge psychological work, and in Urban Outfitters, among the usual bookstores. A quick search on the web proved that 10,000 Dreams was available as an etext from Gutenberg.org.

I was off and running.

My goal was to illustrate the florid superficiality of the text in servlet form; to model its language in random graphics for which I've has something of a passion over the past few years, and generally to find interstitial places between literary history, low culture, technology, and spurious psychology.

This text was written in 1901 by a fellow named Gustavus Hindman Miller about whom I have no information whatever. It really is a piece of junk, but is full of period charm. Its title varies widely:

• Ten Thousand Dreams Interpreted,
  OR, WHAT'S IN A DREAM. A SCIENTIFIC AND PRACTICAL EXPOSITION
• What's in a Dream: a Scientific and Practical Interpretation of Dreams.
  G. W. Dillingham company, NY (1901) NUC# NM0587131.

Dreams, Their Scientific and Practical Interpretations.
T.W. Laurie, London (1910) NUC# NM0587126

• Ten Thousand Dreams Interpreted, or, What's in a Dream: a Scientific and Practical Exposition. M. A. Donohue & company, NY, [n.d.] NUC# NM0587130.
  (This is the closest match to this etext)

It has been called everything from 'Irresponsible Nonsense' to 'Pure Archaic Drivel.' It is intended as an amusement of the most harmless sort and has been edited a as little as possible.