We all dream. Some of us remember our dreams, and others don't. What significance do dreams have? Do they matter? Do the images we see, the emotions we experience in our dreams count as anything more than a subconscious memory in our waking lives? What is it to dream?

Definitions of dream on the Web:

• a series of mental images and emotions occurring during sleep; "I had a dream about you last night"
• imaginative thoughts indulged in while awake; "he lives in a dream that has nothing to do with reality"
• ambition: a cherished desire; "his ambition is to own his own business"
• pipe dream: a fantastic but vain hope (from fantasies induced by the opium pipe); "I have this pipe dream about being emperor of the universe"
• have a daydream; indulge in a fantasy
• a state of mind characterized by abstraction and release from reality; "he went about his work as if in a dream"
• experience while sleeping; "She claims to never dream"; "He dreamt a strange scene"
• someone or something wonderful; "this dessert is a dream"

Although there are 8 definitions listed above, this blog is going to focus on mostly the first:

"a series of mental images and emotions occurring during sleep"

In the works of literature that this blog will discuss, authrists-author/artists- incorporate dreams and dreaming as a motif. However, each authrist uses the motif a bit differently. Carl Jung, who worked with Freud, believed that the dream's bizarre quality is an efficient language, comparable to poetry and uniquely capable of revealing the underlying meaning. It seems that many authrists agree with Jung, whether or not they are aware of it, and are creating countless works of art and literature that embrace the poetic truth of waking life.