Dreamwork: Why All Work Is Imaginary

Dreamwork is a book about the ideas, dreams, dreads and ideals we have regarding work. Its central argument is that, although we depend on the idea of work for our identity as humans, we feel we must disguise from ourselves the fact that we do not know what work is. There is no example of work that nobody might under some circumstances do for fun. All work is imaginary – which is not to say that it is simply illusory, but rather that, in order to count as work, it must be imagined to be work; so that a large part of what we mean by working is this work of imagining. Work is therefore essentially mystical – just the opposite of what it is taken to be. Dreamwork looks in turn at worries about whether or not work is hard; the importance of places of work; the meanings of hobbies, holidays and sabbaths; and the history of dreams of redeeming work.