Rogan: okay guys, I am throwing in the towel on this one, but there is a
pluralstories read of historical importance that I just cannot get through: Peter Ibbetson, by Gabriel du Maurier. If one of YOU want to take a crack at it, it’s long in the public domain; have at it!
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9817Looking at that summary, you might be wondering why this fiction book you’ve never heard of from 1891 is of research interest to me. Well, like His Dark Materials inspired daemonism, and Steven Universe popularized gem-style fusions, Peter Ibbetson inspired at least TWO completely separate and unrelated people to use its techniques for “dreaming true.” Ida Craddock (the woman harassed to death for marrying an angel in 1902) loved this book and references it specifically in her diaries, and Celia Green in the 1960s mentions a lucid dreamer using the same technique successfully, which is in turn cited by Benjamin Walker in 1974.
Needless to say, it’s shockingly rare to see something like this mentioned from this early period. I REALLY want to read this book! I just... can’t get through it. So now I'm telling y’all about it.