Whether a dream is a thought. Whether dreaming is thinking about something. Suppose you look on a dream as a kind of language. A way of saying something, or a way of symbolising something. There might be a regular symbolism, not necessarily alphabetical—it might be like Chinese, say. We might then find a way of translating this symbolism into the language or ordinary speech, ordinary thoughts. But then the translation ought to be possible both ways. It ought to be possible by employing the same technique to translate ordinary thoughts into dream language … obviously there are certain similarities with language … compare the question of why we dream and why we write stories. Not everything in the story is allegorical. What would be meant by trying to explain why he has written just that story in just that way? There is no one reason why people talk. A small child babbles often just for the pleasure of making noises. This is also one reason why adults talk. And there are countless others.

Ludwig Wittgenstein, Lectures and Conversations

 

First performance: September 2002, Dimitria Music Festival, Greece, Klio Blonz, Roxani Konstantinidou.

Book of Dreams (flute & piano)

BOOK OF DREAMS (2002) for flute & piano. Duration: 16 minutes
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