A Flattened Protagonist: Sleep and Environmental Mitigation in Lydia Millet’s How the Dead Dream

Abstract

Thinking with contemporary American novelist Lydia Millet’s How the Dead Dream (2007), this essay explores sleep as a form of ecological relief and argues that the form of the novel can critically expose the limitations of a “set-aside” approach to environmental conservation. As the protagonist T. loses the ability to sequester personal losses, he pursues co-sleeping opportunities with critically endangered animals both in zoos and in the wild. Through his somnolent form, the novel imagines sustainable and rehabilitative alternatives to traditional character development.