Chapter 6 of potential hindrances to our creative development continued…
Finding ideas instead of trying to think of them is just one approach to expanding the scope of the imagination beyond what is already preconceived. But if we have limited ourselves to what David Bohm referred to as “one’s habits of mechanical perception in terms of preconceived ideas and learning only for specific utilitarian purposes”, even this slant might not help.
What if we’re convinced that the imagination is a childish fool’s engagement?
In her collection Words Are My Matter: Writings About Life and Books, Ursula K. Le Guin writes:
“In America the imagination is generally looked on as something that might be useful when the TV is out of order. Poetry and plays have no relation to practical politics. Novels are for students, housewives, and other people who don’t work. Fantasy is for children and primitive peoples. Literacy is so you can read the operating instructions. I think the imagination is the single most useful tool mankind possesses. It beats the opposable thumb. I can imagine living without my thumbs, but not without my imagination.”
When I first got into teaching in primary and secondary schools, I couldn’t relate to the dominant attitude that, as teachers, we are preparing our students to face reality. This feels like it’s up to me to mold my students to fit a cast in the world that has been made by someone else, which would make me a kind of machinist. This is linked to a perception of education as ultimately training for jobs. I’ve always preferred to see the world in constant change without any guarantees and, therefore, my students get to explore their totality and dream a reality into being (Yes, this includes any desire for a fulfilling career and other practicalities like payin’ rent and taxes). This comes down to the question— what is reality? Can we just assume and all agree with the term ‘reality’ defined as some universal end point of absolute truth? Is reality in opposition to imagination?
I don’t mean to keep bumping into these really big questions— they are just an inevitable part of the playing field of art and creativity. I’m not doing them any justice here but perhaps you’ll be stirred to your own inquiries. There are all kinds of science and philosophy out there to explore and challenge the idea of ‘reality’ and it’s up to you if you’re curious or blocked by what you feel is a limited imagination. To get things rolling, I would check out two short (15min) lectures by British writer and speaker Alan Watts produced by KQED San Francisco in 1959: ‘Things & Thinks’. It was filmed 60 years ago but the content seems fairly timeless.
Something that stands out to me is how Alan Watts puts it: “This world is a great wiggly affair. Clouds are wiggly, waters are wiggly, plants are wiggly, mountains are wiggly, people are wiggly. But people are always trying to straighten things out.” This reminds me of something Carl G. Jung pointed out in ‘The Undiscovered Self’ which is that our world is largely constructed by theory or “attempts to straighten things out”. [This may be getting thought heavy so bear with me]:
“Any theory based on experience is necessarily statistical; that is to say it formulates an ideal average which abolishes all exceptions at either end of the scale and replaces them by an abstract mean. This mean is quite valid, though it need not necessarily occur in reality. Despite this it figures in the theory as an unassailable fundamental fact. The exceptions at either extreme, though equally factual, do not appear in the final result at all, since they cancel each other out.”
He goes on to illustrate this through an analogy of a pile of pebbles: If we were to weigh each stone in the pile and get an average weight of 140 grams, this doesn’t tell us much about the real nature of the pebbles. The first pebble we pick out of the pile isn’t going to be 140 grams and it might well happen that we could go through the whole pile and not find any pebble that weighed exactly 140 grams. 140 grams isn’t anything real to a 134.4 gram pebble.
“The statistical method shows the facts in light of the ideal average but does not give us a picture of their empirical reality. While rejecting an indisputable aspect of reality, it can falsify the actual truth in a most misleading way. This is particularly true of theories which are based on statistics. The distinctive thing about real facts, however, is their individuality. Not to put too fine a point on it, one could say that the real picture consists of nothing but exceptions to the rule, and that, in consequence, absolute reality has predominantly the character of irregularity.”
Through our entire cultural education we have been offered interpretations of a reality of the world and ourselves that are constructed on endless averages that project some regularity (body height/ weight, what age we should begin talking/walking…). It’s easy to miss out on or ignore the irregular phenomenon and relative exception of our individual experience. It’s pretty wild that we are something unique and singular which cannot be known or compared with anything else. At the same time, we are a member of all humanity and must be described as a “statistical unit” or else nothing general could be said about us. I would like to think of the general averages as a guide to help me locate my singularities (I know what I am by knowing what I am not) but, if I’m being honest, I can get sucked into the anxiety of am I doing this wrong? or am I deluding myself? It’s just easier to conform to the consensus reality and dismiss experience outside of this as coincidence or imaginings.
source unknown.
Have you ever had an extraordinary experience and shared it with someone who said “that couldn’t happen, it’s all in your head”? This is a popular no-nonsense tough-guy attitude that says I face facts and don’t indulge in wishful thinking. I am not dismissing the possibility of getting caught living in our own fantasy world to avoid problems like our families, the bills and whatever rough shadowy aspects of life. Using the imagination to habitually keep the world at arms length is probably going to be trouble. But it’s another kind of delusion on the same seashore to be completely buried in some fixed/practical/ physical/ average facts of our existence, because this stance is still one sided and ignores the irrational, irregular and invisible realms.
When a 6 year old tells me, “there’s no such thing as magic!”or “Santa isn’t real!”, I can get where he is coming from. I can see how a child who is afraid of the dark or monsters under the bed is told that these things don’t exist— that’s comforting. And I guess if those aren’t ‘real’, neither are friendly faeries and flying reindeer and such. I understand parents wanting to protect their child from ‘foolishness’ or ‘b.s.’, but what if playing ‘make believe’ helps us confront the great mysteries of life?— like the monsters or demons inside of us, for instance. Aren’t thoughts and ideas real? Is the spirit of Santa Claus a thing? The ability to imagine something that does not exist (in physical time and space) is how we are able to invent, process, and create something new in the physical world. You could say it is necessary to our evolution. Wasn’t the reality we perceive today imagined at some point?
Neil Gaiman, who is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, nonfiction, audio theatre, and films, wrote:
There are only two worlds – your world, which is the real world, and other worlds, the fantasy. Worlds like this are worlds of the human imagination: their reality, or lack of reality, is not important. What is important is that they are there. These worlds provide an alternative. Provide an escape. Provide a threat. Provide a dream, and power; provide refuge, and pain. They give your world meaning. They do not exist; and thus they are all that matters.
Coraline. 2009 An American stop-motion animated dark fantasy horror film directed and written for screen by Henry Selick based on 2002 novella by Neil Gaiman.
All of this was an attempt to point out the complexity of the origin and source of what we might call ‘reality’ and how it is closely allied with imagination. As I’ve pointed out before, one of art’s greatest offerings is it’s ability to unify opposites and expose our one-sided tendencies. Getting more familiar with the full-spectrum of ourselves allows us to go beyond the fear of being duped or conned to view the unique truth of a situation. Aren’t we always building stories to convey or expose the truth?
If you’re reading this, I’m guessing you already consider the imagination to be more than foolhardy. But even when we’ve recognized that we’ve given in to learning for utilitarian purposes and are ready to enter new worlds, we need to be prepared for the inner scoffing “yeah right” voice to be right there with us. I say just let it be that pain in the ass (but bright) kid at the magic show who yells, “I know how you did it!”
It’s still magic even if you know how it’s done.
TERRY PRATCHETT
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