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We all dream. Even my dog dreams; he whines when he dreams, perhaps because his dreams are as filled with anxiety as my own sometimes are. Dreams – bad dreams and nightmares, particularly – can be profoundly unsettling and disturbing. They can shock and terrify us because they cannot be controlled: they are their own narrators, and the only way we can resolve their penetrating stories is by attempting to interrupt them. Only by jolting ourselves and waking up, we can enlighten ourselves and come to light, and only by generating daydreams, we can counteract the malign influences of bad dreams and nightmares and take charge of our lives. Bad dreams and nightmares can bring dread and devastating realizations: they can leave us marooned in our past. Daydreams, by contrast, can generate options, and perhaps a renewed joy in life as well: they demand that, despite obstacles and despair, we move onwards into the future. They are artful stories; they are the art of utopia and are filled with our wishes and anticipatory illumination. They appeal to us to become artists and narrators of our lives. Participating in the creative arts – writing, painting, acting and making music – is to envision dream-like visions of where we want to go with our lives. Without the arts, without writing especially, and without our conscious picturing the ideal other life, there is little possibility that our desires will be fulfilled. We need hope, and we need daydreams to map our destiny. I believe we need to act on our daydreams, and not slumber into nocturnal nightmares. These beliefs and ideas have been informed by studying the work of Ernst Bloch and his notions about daydreams (not nocturnal dreams). He is a neglected, iconoclastic philosopher, and I believe brilliant. In this article, I propose to discuss his theories about daydreams and then turn to the neglected, Austrian-Jewish painter Mariette Lydis, who in her various works offers proof that daydreams play an immense and important role in our creative lives. Contemporaries, both Bloch (1885–1977) and Lydis (1887–1970) wrote and/or painted during the same century as Freud (1856–1939) and Jung (1875–1961). Both were of Jewish origin. Both survived the First World War, the Nazis and the Second World War. Both kept realizing their desires for a better world through writing and picturing their writing.

Abstract
In focusing on the interaction between various mediations of the fairy tale, Zipes refutes dichotomies of print vs oral controversies that scholars – especially Willem de Blécourt in Tales of Magic, Tales of Print (2011) and Ruth Bottigheimer in Fairy Tales: A New History (2009) – have been promoting to paint a misinformed history of fairy tales as having literary (rather than oral) origins. Zipes changes the terms of the debate by arguing that researchers should turn their attention to recent sophisticated and innovative theories of storytelling, cultural evolution, human communication and memetics to see how fairy tales enable us to understand why we are disposed towards them and how they 'breathe' life into our daily undertakings.

Part of a special section, "Is There a 'Telos' Left in Telos? Reflections after 100 Issues," reviewing concepts of cultural industry proposed by Max Horkheimer & Theodor W. Adorno & later amplified by Paul Picone. Adorno's theories arise from his experience of European fascism & US capitalism. He saw the use of art to sell commodities as leading to a more violent society, as mass-produced art encouraged people to relinquish their individuality. The cultural industry of capitalism, through entertainment & leisure, convinces people of their uniqueness & freedom, while also conditioning them to participate in a commodity society. Even protest & intellectual criticism are coopted to legitimize the claims of democracy & the free market. A discussion of movies, sports, & education demonstrates the messages presented to society that enforce conformity & participation in capitalism. M. Piciocchi

A review article on books by: Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust (Ithaca: Cornell U Press, 1989); & Paul Breines, Tough Jews: Political Fantasies and the Moral Dilemma of American Jewry (New York: Basic Books, 1990 [see listings in IRPS No. 68]). Bauman explains why traditional sociology & lay opinion still subscribe to the view that a rationally conceived socialization will result in a progressive, nonviolent, nonracist form of society. He argues that the WWII genocide of the European Jews was due in part to the intermingling of religious racist anti-Semitism & the "civilized" conditions of modernity. Bauman also looks at reasons for the "success" of Nazi genocide programs. Breines offers a compelling critique of American Jewry & its urgent plea to oppose those forces of Americanization & Zionization that bring out the fascist potential of American Jews & Israelis. He examines how Jews have been stereotyped as gentle & meek, but goes on to show that Jewish "toughness" is an integral part of Jewish social identity. Both books are lauded as solid contributions to the study of Jewish identity.

Translated by Jack Mitchell. Berlin: Seven Seas Publishers, 1976. 179 p.

In the English-speaking world, it is generally believed that there are very few Jews living and thriving in Germany. Yet, there has been an unlikely postwar history 1945-2001 that has been somewhat repressed in North America and the United Kingdom. While most people are well-informed about the Holocaust and the consequences that this tragic event has had for the world, very few people know that there has been a steady increase in the population of Jews in Germany since 1945 and that there is a flourishing 'Jewish' culture, certainly a relatively strong Jewish presence, in Germany today. Does this development mean that Jews are playing a significant role in German social life? Does this mean that the great German-Jewish relationship, often referred to as a kind of symbiosis, has re-emerged despite the odds against it? The sixteen essays in this book written by the leading critics in the field cover the fascinating changes that have been made in German society since 1945 in the Jewish communities, literature, theater, film, architecture, and other areas of interest including an examination of the resurgence of anti-Semitism in Austria. For anyone interested in reading about the unpredictable transformations in German-Jewish relations since 1945, Unlikely History will provide information and insights into a history that needs to be told to bring about greater understanding of Jews and Germans in contemporary Germany