"Mme. Zelda's Dream Interpretation Machine" was seen in Paris in 1964, on twelve different locations. The picture you see on this page, is a prototype we found last year, after a long search, with a distant relative of Madame Zelda.
Who is "Madame Zelda"? Presumably, she was born as Genevieve Bouris, in 1942, in Algeria. At an early age, she acquired the nickname La Somnabule", because she went through many sleepwalking episodes. She moved with her parents to the outskirts of Paris in 1953, where they started a small business. Genevieve was a bright student and studied psychology and philosophy, but never finished in order to obtain a degree. With her fellow students (one of them is now the acclaimed psychology professor Etienne Querais!) she founded the Ecole Rêvue, and organised dream workshops twice a week in the small back room of her parent's shop.
From her dream research and diaries she wrote a thesis on dream analysis (Au Bout de la Rêve, 1962), that was rejected by the university because of "the abundance of inconsistencies and plagiarisms". |
Desillusioned, she left her promising career at the university and worked in her parent's shop. It was at that time the Dream Interpretation Machines started to appear in various Paris localities. Until this day, nobody knows how they worked. Some say they were extremely accurate in interpreting dreams - others claim it was just an amusement park attraction and a big hoax. Nevertheless, within the year they were placed, the mayor of Paris ordered them to be removed, for reasons that are still unknown.
Not long after that, "Zelda" and her parents moved out of Paris, and nobody knows where Genevieve Bouris is right now, or if she is still among the living. Some claim she is currently living in Algeria again, in a remote village, under a different name. Others say she married an American tourist and moved to Kansas. |
