At the Borders of Sleep

Book excerpt: 'At the Borders of Sleep' investigates a liminal or threshold state between two fundamental modes of human consciousness, the waking state and the sleeping one - which are not as distinct from one another as is commonly thought. Liminal states are so subtle and evanescent that only literary depictions can do them justice; and so literature, along with philosophy and some science, has generated this book's argument. That argument is then turned back upon literature to show how both reading and writing are liminal experiences, taking place at the edges of conscious thought.