Journey to Peridëis

Alisha, a high school graduate without a university place in the grey everyday life of the GDR, gains access to nothing less than paradise—a secret realm that is quite reachable on foot, if only one knows its entrances. Alisha learns that the relevant paradise literature has certain gaps, for the land of dreams is indeed also a land of wet dreams. Not only, but also. This isn’t far-fetched; one need only think of the most ordinary dreams. But it is well known that priests and poets alike tend to shy away from this topic in embarrassment, which is a pity, for the inhabitants of paradise do entirely different things than eat cream cake all day and sing pious songs to the sound of harps while gazing rapturously upward instead of watching their path. What becomes a source of pleasure and adventure for Alisha causes significant headaches for certain secret authorities—and not only because one could reach the West via paradise. Rather, the hereafter contradicts state theories and would therefore be deemed hostile and negative. The story draws on legends and pictorial representations from various cultures, in which men gained special powers by drinking milk from fairies or goddesses, and weaves them into an action-packed erotic fantasy tale with numerous satirical references to the here and now.