The Truth of Imagination - Research Paper Example

31st October Visionary Literature In the world, there is allowed a wild thinking and wild guesses about things that especially are expected to happen in future. The greatest obstacle has always been the inaccessibility to materials and the limitation of the information and knowledge availability. Some of the future expectations and focuses have been ambiguous to others whereas they have utter sense to some of the people. This has essentially brought a class of writings called literature (Leopold 19). This is an embodied compilation of learning letters. It views all those printed compositions, written materials that are meant to promote knowledge with as artistic excellence and have a world view in its context (George 23). It identifies the aspect that itself being an artistic combination of different thoughts of which are memorable in nature and it’s not anything without this oneness which brings life and being as one and harmonious. Literature incorporates the stories, plays, poems and other creative thinking that revolves around a certain topic (Baskin 11). The meanings of the different literature will be different according to the person doing them or the context. Literature has been depicted to have visionary imagination. This concept too many remains a myth but to others it’s a mythical truth with in-depth thoughts. The name imagination means the ability to form images in the mind of somebody. This however is seen to have two aspects in itself when merged with visionary where there is that formation of images in the mind and still the engagement in the creative thinking (Welburn 34). It is seen as visionary where a person has strong and original ideas about how things might be different in future or how they may change then. Whenever a person forms images in the mind, this brings in a new world which is not only unreal but also happens to be so, though in the mind of the person forming the images, this is not illusion but something that is intangible but almost real. The other case of being visionary is seen to achieve an autonomous status after being formed in the mind of the beholder and needs no verification by another person simply because the beholder considers it to be true and therefore external judgment is not required. In addition this, it functions on its own stand and requires no external support (George 34). A visionary person is almost seen as a day dreamer and whose imagination surpasses his reason and has little enthusiasm of what probably might be possible. Non-visionary literature is that part of writing that does not go out of line to bringing out beeper thoughts and inspirations. They are concerned with the usual happenings and have to be agreed by the different bodies of knowledge and individuals. It doesn’t go beyond the ordinary and focuses on matters whose happenings will be influenced by the current and are not surprises. There are several elements that are seen to make it visionary this has made this line of thought to be interesting and have a deeper inspiration to ask more or read more; Otherness; this has been brought about to be the transforming aspect of the literature which brings the attention of the unknown world to the known or the present world. At the time of writing, the picture brought about is only imagined and the way of operation of this world is not in the ordinary way of doing things as well as the worlds ordinary rules do not apply (Baskin 51). The components are not fantastic neither are they completely separated from the truth, but are very imaginative. Transformation and reversal: literature is a form of writing where its visionary aspect allows it to be transformational and where the ordinary reality is reversed. This does not mean that what is known to be true and real is taken in the opposite direction, as men get to be women or the east now becomes west (Welburn 37). What it means is that, what is expected to happen naturally does not inadvertently happen. Something that seems almost automatic does not turn out to be so, like when a strong and well trained army looses a war against few opposing them. Transcendental Realms: the strangeness of the visionary literature does not only lie with the characters involved, but also with the scene around these actors. These two are cosmic and not out of the local picture. It brings out the scene as one which transcends the ordinary, like if it were the earth, it is that which is super earth in its nature, may be with more strengths or with self regulators or just something that is out of the ordinary way of things. The place that is portrayed by the visionary literature is not only that different but also above the then time and place of the person bearing the vision and therefore the otherness portrayed as transcendent. The Imagination: this literature takes out the reader in a wild of bewilderment and new way of reading where he is required to change his way of reading and to have an imaginative mind in doing this. Otherwise, without formation of these pictures and scenes in the mind, the fantasy that would have achieved is not achieved whereas this is what that makes it have tough of unfamiliarity (Leopold 56). Whatever we imagine is somewhat related to what we experience4 but it brings it in the future captivating manner. Kaleidoscopic Structure: there is no smooth continuity of events in the literature. There are disjoint times in what is expected to happen. There are brief units which shift their focus time after the other, but have disconnections at times and in them incorporate distinct components. There are momentary pictures ,fleets, scenes and characters that are seen to operate for a short period and are in a short while dropped out of sight and this brings out a diverse disjoint units that do not follow a sequence or get to be that related so that it does not fall into a cause and effect phenomenon. The events that are seen to occur do so without any fore shadowing in the text that would have otherwise triggered their action. Symbolism: the story qualities of such literature is borrowed from narratives, this type of literature is heavily symbolic but not pictorial. The symbolism will heavily depict the images required therein but not the use of pictures in them as a representation. The visionary aspect of the literature is itself not supposed far off from the reality (Wallace 29). It should have real characters but no fictitious things as representations just because it is visionary. The point here is that the context should correspond to real people, places, events or objects, all in the context of the present or the future. In addition to this, the events may be historically related but the question will be hoe the writer relates this together. Also, the individual symbols may not be the real ones in terms of time and place, but should relate to the meaning assigned to them. The story of Celephais brings out the element of otherness through its imaginative aspect and the reality of things that makes us picture the tremendous aspects that are being highlighted. The story talks of the spears of grass o help us see how long and straight this grass is. The writer talks of the abyss where the entire world fell abruptly into the un-echoing emptiness of infinity (Baskin 71). This brings about the aspect in a manner that he reader is left to think of how great and deep this hole could be and the dead end that everything ends up into and also talks of the laughing winged things that are seen to laugh at the whole world. The story revolves around transcendental realms in a way that makes the reader have a different picture other than that of this world which is known, with the two characters being brought out as supermen. Kuranes is revealed to be the creator of ooth Nargai and is said to from then remain his god for evermore and the riding on the horse is said that the riders seemed to gallop back through time (Baskin 78). Kuranes is brought about to have super powers to fly over the mountains where there were faint, lone campfires and continues to say that few men could have seen it, showing that he was not like the others. In addition to this, he is also brought about as a person from the infinity where matter, energy and gravitation exists Imagination is brought about where it says that Kuranes had stayed all the eternity for one hour. This is helping the reader to get a wider aspect of many things might have happened in that one hour as if it was the whole life of the person. In another instance, “galloping over golden sands; and then the luminous vapors spread apart to reveal a greater brightness, the brightness of the city Celephais, and the sea coast beyond, and the snowy peak overlooking the sea, and the gaily painted galleys that sail out of the harbor toward distant regions where the sea meets the sky.” Clearly brings out an imagination of where the horsemen floated (George 55). The sea has been severally brought out that it meets the sky at a certain point. This symbolizes the distance .how far that seaward wall was. It is in this that we know that these seamen were far off and the sea extended very far away. The story has kaleidoscopic structure. There is no complete flow of the activities from one to the other in that there is a shift of the places that the events are happening after a time. At one time he awoke in London not knowing how and the next moment we see him in the Tanarian hills The book, death not the end is a book that almost contradicts its author who is said to have committed suicide. The ad executive seemed so impressive and at ease while in the world. He was the classmate of the writer as shown at the end of the story. The ad does not want to portray himself as the weak person or even portray his character. Contrary to this, he becomes fictitious and it has happened in several occasions not portray him as a tortured personal acquaintance the essence of fraudulence is brought about as that of contemporary man just as it is for the contemporary art. This he asks whether it can mean a trap or an addiction but later says that endemic is the work of contemporary art (George 64). The question would still remain whether Wallace is a genius or a fraud. He then argument was that the endemic would appear together with virtues like generosity, freedom and truth. The writer does not provide events as happening sequentially but the book has discontinued series that range or differ in the scenes. It takes us from one point to the other and the events may be seen to happen in this book in different areas but not sequentially. This character is brought about as a strong person with characters that are different from superior to those of the other employees and with strengths that are not in line with those of the others.. In the book, “23 minutes in hell” by Bill Wiese, he notes that in 1998 November 22nd, he was asleep in his house when at around 3 am, he was plunged into deep sleep and in this he was taken to hell literally where he was tormented and experienced real pain as if he had gone to hell in reality. He argues that that was not dream because 15 years later he can still recall what happened as if it was just yesterday (Leopold 77). He notes that he was later taken to heaven in a place where there was great light and saw himself praying before God. This kind of writings is seen as visionary and is argued to be out of the ordinary in that there is a lot of imagination where he takes himself to be in that place in reality and even feels the pain. He observes that he was in a cell with wild beasts that had even features like those of normal men and their size was not the ordinary. He has said that they had an odor that could itself kill him (Wallace 67). In addition to this, he says that his body was being torn by these beasts but there was no blood that oozed out or even water. This brings out the imagination in him through the dreams. He brings out the element of transcendental realms where the characters involved are more imaginary and the scenes are super. It brings out the beasts as very big with powers that are unimaginable. In this book the animals are seen to talk and they have the power even to hold the person by the chest. The Kaleidoscopic Structure is brought out in a manner that leaves the reader to try to guess what might be happening in that time. The writer says that at the next point from one point is that he saw himself lying at the throne of God. This transformation of where he was is somewhat the thing that makes it lack the continuity due to the breaking of the events in that they have not gone step by step (Maureen 67). The writer said that death penetrated him but eluded him. This has bed brought about to show the extent to which he had suffered. The darkness that roamed I hell and the smell of hell is for symbolizing how evil and crooked that place is, how evil I is and merciless whereas the light when it comes to heaven symbolizes the peace, forgiveness, mercy and the goodness that is therein Works Cited Clarke, Herbert George. “What Is Literature?”The Sewanee Review Vol. 35, No. 1 (Jan., 1927), pp. 53-71.The Johns Hopkins University Press Damrosch, Leopold, Jr. Symbol and Truth in Blake’s Myth. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton UP, 1980. Howard, Jennifer. "The Afterlife of David Foster Wallace." The Chronicle of Higher Education 57.19 (2011). Jon Baskin. The point: A journal of ideas/ Death is Not the End David Foster Wallace: His Legacy and his Critics. Spring 2009. Moran, Maureen. "Visionary Imagination." English Literature in Transition 1880-1920 53.4 (2010): The Dream Cycle of H.P. Lovecraft: Dreams of Terror and Death." (1995): 81. Wallace, Foster David. Death Is Not The End from Brief Interviews with Hideous Men. New York: Little, Brown & Co., 1999. Welburn, Andrew J. The Truth of Imagination: An Introduction to Visionary Poetry, Basingstoke and London: Macmillan, 1989. Read More