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Two words about a novel, its universality and dehumanization

2026-05-12 09:46:00, Opinione Ardi Stefa

A high school senior asked me today why, for so many years, "The Palace of Dreams" has been studied in high school and has never failed the exam.

The question intrigued me and I explained to her and the class that “The Palace of Dreams” is not simply a novel about the Ottoman Empire. It is a novel dedicated to every power that fears the free man. Kadare attacked every regime that feeds on fear. Yesterday it was a communist dictatorship. Today it is neo-dictatorships in European and democratic costume.

And this is precisely where its greatness lies: no matter how many times the regimes change, the book remains the same, because the mechanism of repression remains the same. Only the uniforms, the words, and the propaganda logos change.

Dictatorships used to control speech. Then they controlled books. Then they controlled thought. In “The Palace of Dreams,” power goes even further: it seeks to control what is uncontrollable, the subconscious. Dreams. Fear. Anxiety. Silence. Human instinct. Because every dictatorship knows that a person can remain silent with their mouths, but rebellion always begins in the mind.

Once upon a time, there were employees of the "Tabir Saraji" who interpreted dreams. Today, there are patronageists who interpret the political beliefs of citizens. Back then, they tapped into the subconscious. Today, they tap into life.

Orwell warned about this in “1984” with Big Brother who watches you even when you sleep. He also said this in “Animal Farm” with the pigs who become identical to those who claimed to fight. Franz Kafka described this with the absurd bureaucracy that oppresses you without even giving an explanation. Albert Camus felt this with the absurdity of man stripped of meaning and freedom. And Ismail Kadare brought this to Albanians in the most poignant way: through a palace where dreams are collected, just as data, votes, patronage agents, surveys and electoral files are collected today.

Because the "Palace of Dreams" isn't dead. It's just changed technology.

Today, no one asks you what you dreamed about last night. They ask you who you vote for. Who you like. Who you drink coffee with. Whose statuses you curse. Who called you. Who you are. What you think. Instead of clerks interpreting dreams, we have armies of patronage agents interpreting political beliefs. Just like in the novel: the individual is no longer seen as a person, but as material for control.

In modern dictatorships, there is no longer any need to put you in prison or behead you. They just need to put you on a list.

On the list of "ours" or "theirs".

On the list of militants and suspects.

On the list of jobs or "must sees".

Therefore, every authoritarian power has the same obsession: to strip man of his individuality and turn him into a statistic. In numbers. In votes. In affiliation. To alienate, dehumanize, depersonalize.

And here I answer the embarrassing question: "Why does the Palace of Dreams, even though it has been in the matura program for years, continue to fail the exam? Is it because it is too universal? Or because it is too current?"

The student who reads it with a free mind does not only see the sultan or the communist dictatorship. He also sees the modern government that talks about democracy, while building control mechanisms over the citizen. He sees the administration that demands obedience and not professionalism. He sees the militant who replaces the citizen. He sees the fear that masquerades as stability. That is why the Palace of Dreams continues to fail the matriculation exam, even though it has been on the program for years. Not because it is difficult. But because it is very clear.

Because the high school graduate who reads it properly understands a dangerous truth: any regime that seeks to know everything about the citizen is afraid of him.

And perhaps this is why the novel remains “dangerous.” Not for what it says about the past, but for what it reveals about the present.

Because dictatorships are not afraid of dead books. They are afraid of books that continue to be read like a mirror and are a political virus. And above all, you understand something that the government never wants in a high school exam: that the controlled citizen is not a citizen. He is a subject of administration.

A generation that truly understands the "Palace of Dreams" may not accept living inside it tomorrow./ CNA