Ep 6: Rereading Hong lou meng 紅樓夢, Chapter 5, part 1

Chapter 5 part 1

It’s part one of Chapter 5, a return to the Land of Illusion 太虛幻境 in one of the most famous chapters of Dream of the Red Chamber (Hong lou meng 紅樓夢, Story of the Stone 石頭記), the dream chapter! This is also one of the most complex chapters of the novel (so many allusions, so much art and imagery!), so we have broken up our treatment into several separate episodes. We begin working through some cryptic and surreal imagery and messaging, and discuss in some detail the psychological and psychoanalytical dynamics reflected in the dream material. Get ready for some strange otherworldly bureaucracies, famous poems and songs, and the emergence of desire in its infinite sensual and representational forms.

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