Dreaming Is a Private Thing
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| Author | Isaac Asimov |
|---|---|
| Country |  USA |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | science fiction short story |
| Released in | The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction |
| Publisher | Fantasy House |
| Media Type | Magazine |
| Released | December 1955 |
Dreaming Is a Private Thing is a science fiction short story by Isaac Asimov, first published in the December 1955 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and reprinted in the 1957 collection Earth is Room Enough. Asimov's original title for the story was "A Hundred Million Dreams at Once", but F&SF editor Tony Boucher changed it, and Asimov liked the new title so much he kept it.
Jesse Weill is founder and owner of Dreams Inc, a company that produces dreams for mass consumption, just as films used to be viewed, although they've been superseded by 'dreamies'. Dreamies can be viewed in private at home by anyone with the equipment and cash to buy or rent them - just like present day videos or DVD's. They are produced by specially trained individuals, often social loners or eccentrics as a result of their intensive training over many years (see Mark Annuncio in Sucker Bait).
Weill is shown a new development - under-the-counter pornographic dreamies - and asked by the governmment to assist in cracking down on them. Meanwhile, he interviews a ten year old boy as a potential dreamer, a lucrative occupation if he turns out to be suitable and undergoes training.
He also gets told by one of his best dreamers that he doesn't want to work any more, as it's ruining his social life. But Weill knows from experience that the dreamer can't stop dreaming once he's become used to that way of life, even if he wants to.
One of Weill's staff tells him that a competing company is opening a chain of 'dream palaces', where everyone can absorb the same dream simultaneously, but he is of the opinion that it won't work. As he says, dreaming is a private thing.
| Earth Is Room Enough |
| The Dead Past | The Foundation of S.F. Success | Franchise | Gimmicks Three | Kid Stuff | The Watery Place | Living Space | The Message | Satisfaction Guaranteed | Hell-Fire | The Last Trump | The Fun They Had | Jokester | The Immortal Bard | Someday | The Author's Ordeal | Dreaming Is a Private Thing |
