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SOMNIA

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find it here: http://www.burningbuilding.com/somnia...


“HOW SLEEP STOLE 3,315 YEARS FROM HUMANITY AND COULD HAVE STOLEN MORE”

By Student #36

November 28, 1776

ebook

172 people want to read

About the author

Isaac Marion

25 books4,371 followers
After 9 years, 4 books, and 1 pretty good movie, R and Julie's story is about to reach its conclusion.

THE LIVING, book 4 of the Warm Bodies Series, is available now.

isaacmarion.com

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5 stars
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
Profile Image for Sandra.
372 reviews16 followers
September 2, 2015
How Isaac Marion always manage to entertain me and also make me dubious of the world I live in, will always be fascinating to me. Everything I've read by him, is thought-provoking.

In this short futuristic story; sleep or "somnia" is a cured disease, and it made me think about it in a deep way. Could you imagine a world where there's no such thing as sleeping? I cannot either, but that doesn't mean that it is not appealing in some practical fashion. Think of the possibilities if sleep was not required to function.
"So much has happened in such a short time, but so much time wasted! What if Sleep were cured sooner? At the dawn of man, 10,000 B.C? What unimaginable future age would we be living in today? What blinding wonders would compose our lives?
But more importantly, what would you do? Would you do something important with the extra time? Or just let it pass?

Excellent, thrilling and somehow fathomable short story!
8 reviews11 followers
September 1, 2014
A clever concept. Sleep viewed as a plague is ingenious. I wasn't too sure about assuming that humanity would change so quickly without it though, considering dreams help us be more inventive and creative. I suspect Marion is hinting at that subtly with how deeply the society has changed - I very much liked the hint of doubt or dissonance about "progress" given that the student and teacher don't even have names. It was a bit odd that all the people and inventions were the same though, just earlier.
Profile Image for Ailla Magcamit.
237 reviews44 followers
August 4, 2017
I'm getting a theme now. Every Isaac Marion story (may it be a novel or something a short as this one) will always be thought-provoking. He allows the readers to see the "What ifs" in life and opens up the readers' imaginations.

I have a love-hate relationship with sleep. I love sleeping but there are also times wherein I feel like sleeping is an absolute waste of time. In those hours of unconsciousness, I could've read a novel, or studied my lessons, or ate. The opportunities are endless.

Still, I guess I wouldn't really want sleep to be cured. It's some kind of a reward after a long tiring day.

On another note, I think Somnia's point is to let us see how humankind is wasting time doing unproductive things; that since we are out for about 8 hours everyday, we should make the remaining 16 hours left of consciousness count.
Profile Image for Emma Sutton.
4 reviews
October 15, 2014
Ever heard of the saying, "Sleep is for the dead."? It would be amazing if there was a cure for sleep. We could learn so much more, and do SO much more. I wonder if our world will ever be like this, and if it is, I probably won't be around to see it. No cancer, world peace, no global warming, etc,. That might not seem like a lot, but it would a massive improvement in our world.
Profile Image for Kayleigh.
14 reviews
September 2, 2014
It's always amazed me how we come to just accept sleep as a natural thing in our lives, but never have I thought of it in this way! Short and very imaginative, Marion has managed to create a believable future with things that sound normal yet are non-existent, quite a challenge for a writer but he makes it look easy. Wonderful piece of writing.
Profile Image for yani.
243 reviews
May 17, 2015
I've always thought about this before but until this short story, it was never coherent enough--just bits and fragments of what Isaac did here. And it's beautiful. And somehow scary. I'm no scientist but I love how this is so thought-provoking.
Profile Image for Alex Martin.
152 reviews
August 9, 2015
What a weird story.

This alternate universe story focuses on a question that I have never even thought of, "What if we cured sleep?"

Of course, you don't "cure" sleep, it's not something the needs to be cured, but this story shows what would happen if humanity never slept and productivity was increased by a substantial amount to the point where human evolution as we know it today happens about 600 years in the past.

Interesting story, definitely would recommend.
Profile Image for BellaGBear.
676 reviews51 followers
November 2, 2014
The writing was good, but I do not agree with his theory what happens when sleep would be cured. I do agree that we probably will develop faster as human species, but it is unlikely to have more free time. When a normal day is 24 hours, routines and working hours will probably get longer as well. This diminishes free time, but will actually quicken net innovations and such
Profile Image for Jess.
730 reviews15 followers
March 22, 2015
I forgot how much I loved Isaac Marion's writing, from reading Warm Bodies years ago. This short story was a sort of dystopia/utopia mix that asked 'what if there was a cure for sleep?'. Thought-provoking stuff, indeed.
I'd hate not to be able to go to sleep. Imagine being stuck in reality for your whole life.
Profile Image for Tamara.
45 reviews
January 17, 2015
Thought-provoking indeed. Imagine having all that extra time. I can't help but think of how many books I'd be able to read in a day, a week, a month, a year if we somehow found a cure for "Somnia". What would you do with your additional hours?
Profile Image for Fatma Alshamsi.
7 reviews11 followers
Read
July 20, 2015
Imagine being stuck in reality your whole life, I can never imagine myself in this kind of situation.
Well-written story.
Profile Image for April.
46 reviews
November 19, 2015
Very interesting short story with an interesting concept with sleep as a disease. I love sleep so this would be even more sad to me than not having names in school.
Profile Image for Janjohn.
417 reviews16 followers
July 3, 2016
This is kinda weird, but nice. So Sleep was cured, huh?
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews

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