JF Ptak Science Books   Quick Post

I have on my desk a carbon copy of a manuscript sent to the copyright office and then on to the Library of Congress, where it went into (I guess) a dead-end collection called the “Pamphlets Collection” (which is not THE pamphlet collection, something that would no doubt contain many millions of items), and then after a number of decades that collection came to me.  In any event, that is why I have it–but now, after having discovered it after owning this material for 17 years, I wonder what it is I do with it.

The work is by Yohanna Ibn al Farmouzi, The Great Oriental Dream Interpreter, a Practical Encyclopedia of Dream Interpretations, and copyrighted in 1936  (by John Pana-Fermos, which is Al Farmouzi, Americanized). The subhead reads: “Based upon the study of over 40,000 dreams, extending over a period of forty-six years” with an index of 2,644 keywords (but then confusingly moves on to say “the interpretations of Eleven Thousand Dreams”).  In any event, whatever it is that is going on in the manuscript is orderly, neat, fairly well-written, and big.  The typescript is 498 pages long, and I estimate contains about 250,000 words, which is a substantial thing.  

All that said, it is one man’s work on dream interpretation, which means that the reader depends on his insight to lead a conversation on a LOT of different topics.  Perhaps it is of interest simply for its extensive index/categorizer of dream elements, which runs 15 single-space pages of four columns.  

Mr. Pana-Fermos did publish pieces of this work–one part is a 1000-dream analyzer of 50pp, and another is a love-dream bit.  But there is nothing it seems to match this massive work. 

I’m just not sure where it should go.  No doubt it would be very interesting to some set of people.