Эпизоды
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The Sleepers begins with a poem about John and the meaning of his name. Chapter 51, the last chapter, begins with a poem about Sleeping Beauty, the metaphor for America Asleep. I've copied the poem here for you to read. Thank you for listening to the complete version of The Sleepers. Please leave a review on Amazon and share the links with your friends.
Sleeping Beauty adorned the dais,
Doll-like and dainty.
A monument to men and madness.
Preciously placed by imperfect people,
Unnaturally perfected.
As stone rests on stone,
No bosom or breath heaves.
She, symbolic sufferer of our sin.
Cleverly concealed and clearly seen,
The public panacea, pristine and impregnable,
Eternal evader of capricious men,
She wants and waits for no one.
I found her fickle and firm.
I sought the sumptuous satisfaction,
Of kissing the sweet, sonorous Sleeping Beauty.
To find freedom in flesh and wake a nation.
But cold and clenched lips returned my gift.
Detached and distracted, she decidedly declined.
Sleeping Beauty awoke only to reject resurrection.
Wresting from my arms, she rests again,
Content with the quiet complacency sleep bequeaths. -
The puppet and strings have played a key symbol throughout this story. In these last chapters, it is time to cut strings and reveal the puppet masters. Enjoy the penultimate chapter.
And for those curious about the reference to Ozymandias, it is a poem by Percy Shelley. Very short read and well worth it. The kingdoms setup by man shall fall. Will SleepFree face the same fate?
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Пропущенные эпизоды?
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Just this and two more episodes remain. We are on the home stretch and the puzzle pieces come together, but changing the world and ending the great dream does not come easily. Chapter 49 is written from Ray's perspective in a dream. I love the concept of communicating with others through dreams. It seems to be the substance of how we hope we communicate in the physical realm -- by sharing and living our dreams. Of course, in the world of THE SLEEPERS, this possibility goes perhaps too far and we forget that dreams are nothing without life.
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When the average number of child births in a country continues to fall, distant cousins can become meaningful relationships. This was part of the premise of how I first wrote this chapter. Then I considered whether borrowed sleep would encourage you to have more children, whether as a client or a sleeper. I pessimistically wrote that with more hours, you may want to really focus on the one child as a client. And by the time this future comes, perhaps more stringent population controls would be in place. For sleepers, I figure it would be even more discouraging having more children, only because there might be so little time between multiple jobs (though you could put them on the market at 8 to bring in extra income). So I imagined a world where the birth rate continued to crash. That philosophical chapter was mostly deleted, but the key premise drives the root of what remains. Enjoy.
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I wrote the chapter about nightmare transfer very early when first developing this story, back when I spent significant time in the childhood section. Later I moved this chapter to the end so that Jane could understand John's motivations but also Ray's true empathy for his friend. The latter half of this chapter, the return of a classic character, was one of the last few pages I wrote after two friends (and beta readers) said I needed to close out this part of the story better. I'm so glad I listened.
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Have you ever thought you had experienced a dream many times, but had no true recollection of the prior dreams? In this chapter I explore the concept of deja vu and how our mind allows us to know the end before the beginning. John and Jane work together on how best to introduce the Cumulus drug into the sleepers' cocktail and not raise any suspicious alarms from lucid manipulation.
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When you've finished the podcast, I'll be very interested to know what was the most important chapter to you. For some beta readers, this is that chapter -- the most important political chapter for driving home the metaphor of the sleeping world, as told through Jane. In this chapter, I explore the different interpretations of equality and where we risk going as a country when we take equality to the extreme, as predicted by Alexis de Tocqueville. Half of this future society is the same; they are near perfect equals, all happily sleeping, getting paid essentially the same standard rates, all sharing the same misery, and too busy sleeping to know it.
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John has perfected his lucid dream masterpiece and moves to transmit it to Ray, the first real test to see if he can change a man with his dreams. There are hints throughout the story, but I enjoy thinking about this aspect of the SleepFree world. What it would be like if someone started changing your life as you slept? Would you oppose such changes, considering the risk too high?
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As trust increases between John and Jane, he reveals more of the plan, including a new lucid dream designed to test Cumulus. Jane makes clear to the puppet master just how hard it is to love a man and lie to him.
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John begins to transform under the influence of the Cumulus Drug. With Jane as a confidant in the plan, she expects more involvement, opening a door for us to learn about transferring dream content. I wrote Chapter 37 after years of trying to become a lucid dreamer and finally experiencing a flying dream, my first crack at lucidity. All the tricks of Karl (my research) had paid off. But flight is just the first step...the world of total lucid control awaits.
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Showing Jane the secret laboratory only wets her appetite for more. Whatever John does in his free time, Jane wants to know...and she wants to be included.
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You can only date someone so long before they will question what is behind the locked door in your two bedroom apartment. Jane is not afraid to challenge John and push him to reveal his secrets in this latest episode. And John must come clean with his parents on the existence of a new girlfriend. His efforts to find the Cumulus drug are wearing him out as he trials various nightmare-inspired drug concoctions, but his efforts will pay off. Project Cumulus advances!
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Most of THE SLEEPERS is from John's perspective. He may be a sleeper, caught in the system of giving away 7 hours a day to another, but he is not the norm. He does not exactly represent the typical sleeper. Jane's students provide a real insight into true sleepers. Their parents survive by selling sleep. Their families have weathered downturns, pandemics, and crises, finding peace in steady sleep jobs. In Chapter 32, Jane is confronted with the reality of the American Dream vs. the ideal. Will she break like the sleeper class? Or will this drive her passion and bring her closer to John.
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After not dating anyone since Samantha, John meets Jane, a teacher of sleeper children. It is the night of the annual company gala. Something about her attitude to life will tempt him beyond his commitment to finding the Cumulus Drug. I enjoyed picturing how someone as well off as John, but still a recluse by choice given his clandestine research, would date anyone. Kind of like imagining Obi Wan Kenobi inviting a woman to his desert habitation. These interactions will be fantastic and unique.
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This is the start of Part 4, titled Jane. We've had parts about Karl, Lucius and Samantha, Ray, and now you meet Jane. For potentially obvious reasons, I particularly like this character! Jane is a school teacher for sleeper children. She provides an important perspective and balance to the sometimes skewed reality of Ray and John. She's passionate about the value of life and inspiring sleepers to stretch beyond the sleeper expectation. And for those liking a break from my voices, Jane is read by Jane Greaves.
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As a chemical engineer, I spent a lot of time in school thinking about what are conserved quantities. We have an entire class called "Mass and Energy Balances", where you rely on conservation of mass and energy to solve problems (some may find this very boring, I know). A friend and I used to consider what else in life might be conserved, meaning its quantity is finite. When I got to writing a chapter about a turning point in John's life, I remembered our line of thinking and decided, "What if Luck is a conserved quantity? What if Ray & John are in some cosmic play where only one can succeed? Perhaps if one fails miserably, it will open the door for the other, and vice-versa." And thus was born this chapter. Plus, I loved thinking about how Ray, someone with 23.5 hours a day awake, would handle adversity.
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Big surprise for this episode. Hope you enjoy the change for a week. This episode is from the perspective of Ray and Senator Lucy Esperanza. We really see the role of the Senate Sleep Committee (SSC) in preserving Pax SleepFree. Politicians would not dare upset a powerful voter bloc like the sleeper class. FYI I had a whole series of chapters dedicated to Senator Blair but I cut those out for this podcast. I plan on sharing some as deleted chapters after finishing the main story.
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With John and Ray now employed by SleepFree Inc, Chapter 25 explores the scientific pursuits of this sleeper-client pair. Chapter 26 is a look back at John's childhood when he trials attending an all-sleeper school, realizing just what it's like to be a real sleeper. In my graduate research, I set up many experiments and learned mostly by doing. I like to imagine what John must be like to build his own lab in a back room, complete with rats for testing Project Cumulus. Takes a very dedicated individual for such a crusade. Would you go to such lengths?
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In these chapters, Ray and John transition from university life to work at SleepFree Inc. I love the imagery of a person with an umbrella in the rain and tried to tie that parable together in this story about rain. How do you react to the rain? My kids want to run and jump on the trampoline as soon as a storm starts. They face the world with glee. Perhaps we all need some more time smiling in our storms.
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This is one of my truly focused political science chapters. The book used to be filled with these sidebars, but I removed most to improve pace. However, this chapter is so important, I could not pull it out. I hope you enjoy the metaphor and can learn something about our world as you ponder what happens in the world of sleep.
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