One day, the narrator unexpectedly receives a visit from someone who announces: "Claus Patera, absolute lord of the realm of dreams, has commissioned me as an agent to deliver you the invitation to relocate to his country." He follows the invitation of his school friend Patera to his dream realm located somewhere in the depths of Asia, which is actually a surveillance state, and spends three years there—until the complete destruction of the realm in an apocalyptic battle between Patera and the American Hercules Bell. It is a war of evil against good, where it becomes evident that one cannot be distinguished from or separated from the other. Alfred Kubin (1877-1959), a visual artist, wrote his first and only novel during a creative crisis in just twelve weeks. The Other Side, published in 1909, had a significant influence on expressionist and post-expressionist literature.