Land and Dreams of Will

"Land and Dreams of Will" opens Gaston Bachelard's duology about the earth within the framework of the series "Psychoanalysis of the Elements." The author explores active dreams that invite us to influence matter: myths and images of pottery and blacksmithing; rocks and cliffs as creatures from the prehistory of our imagination; precious stones and their relation to the depths of the unconscious; minerals and metals as the past of the globe. Bachelard's poetic investigation traverses the works of such authors as V. Woolf, E. Lönnrot, H. Melville, J. W. Goethe, J.-P. Sartre, A. Blok, A. White, S. Yesenin, and others. "Matter will be understood as the secret energy of the worker. The objects of the earth return to us the echo of our promise of energy. We need only to bestow upon the processing of matter the dreaminess it deserves, and the narcissism of our courage will awaken within us."