Role of Imagination - Coursework Example

Essay, English Topic: Imagination Introduction The final frontier of the power of imagination is mind. One reaches to the end of the secular world at that frontier. One has to transcend the barrier of mind to enter the portals of spirituality. Imagination is the world of possibilities and not certainties. No two sets of possibilities can be identical as such it is an area of conflicts which is amenable to arguments and counterarguments. Beyond the mind barrier, it is the world of practical experiencing, as such imagination is powerless and extinct there. It is the area of bliss, not an area about which different opinionated statements are aired and clash. At that level your experience and my experience are the same with no contradictions whatsoever, as no pluralistic phenomenon exist. Role of imagination and spiritual pursuit Kent Forrester writes, “Never has an author asked so much of his readers. Bradburys nostalgia for a golden age, his hatred of "glitter-eyed psychiatrists, clever sociologists, resentful educationalists, antiseptic parents," and his anti-materialistic biases occasionally seduce him into artistic lapses. Once an advocate of Technocracy, Bradbury has turned on his previous love with a passion.”(50) Even the best creative minds oscillate between spirituality and materialism and Bradbury must have gone through that process which has reflection in his writings. When discussing about the role of imagination, one needs to understand the essential difference between religion and spirituality. Religion is the process and spirituality is the final product. Religion is the area of ritualism and experimenting, and spirituality is about direct experiencing. Religion is the area of collective activity whereas the individual is the sole participant in the process of direct experiencing. The concepts of religion originated to educate the humankind about the virtues of love and tolerance in the day to day dispositions and life as a whole. Turn the pages of history; the effect of such evil tendencies can be seen in the totalitarian political systems. Political and religious totalitarians are so engrossed with their own positions that they are not willing to give space to any other possibilities. The sapling of imagination is crushed in such an environment and the growth of free thought is curbed. The role of imagination in literature and art The seeds of imagination sprout fast in the field of literature and art which are alternative beats of the same heart. Imagination is an effective sensitizer. Its reflective activity is helpful; it reaches out to the depths of human existence and possible molding of the future, without the need for experimentation. The purpose of true literature is to unfold the path of justice to the physical universe. But the world of imagination is not always pure. Contamination has encroached upon this area also and instead of elevating the mind through noble thoughts, it has polluted the atmosphere. A desensitized mind wedded to a particular political ideology, or religious fundamentalism, is not the harbinger of noble literary ideas. Literature then turns out to be the tool of propaganda. Manipulation of ideas for a particular cause, without giving scope for free flow of thoughts, is not the contributory factor for the fertile growth of imagination. The creatures of literature have the capacity, though their power of imagination, to formulate socially hostile situations, and make distortions appear as real. Such writings have the power to contaminate the mind and also turn the audience hostile. In political language, such situations have led to tremendous social upheavals and evolutions. However, the real art requires imagination. On the positive side, imagination is the source of endless delight and love in its many dimensions. Imagination probes the past, highlights the possibilities for the future and often provides stunning tributes to the universal truth. Imagination is promise for the future Imagination offers possibilities for the future. Such possibilities are for the betterment of future and for taking the society to the upward spiral. Positive imagination provides the vision for the future of humankind. Next, such imagination translated through positive speech demands attention and direct action. Religious leaders get maximum advantage of such contingencies. To sensitize the followers of a particular religion, they demand obedience and faithfulness to the revelations in the scriptures. That is the easiest way to appeal to the imaginary world of the people. Imagination and faith drive people to the possibilities of future with the hope of a positive engagement, much better than the realities being faced at present. Meaning, imagination and faith propel men into a future, that is, into a living engagement with concrete experience under some vision of reality that binds together the present. Imagination is not the permanent but the changeable feature of the thinking process of an individual. One’s perceptions change with the passage of time. Kent Forrester in article, “The Dangers of Being Earnest: Ray Bradbury and the Martian Chronicles” write, “However when I reread Bradbury, I found disquieting elements that I hadn’t noticed when I was younger. There was, for instance, a shrill devotion to ideas at the expense of his narratives” (50).Thus, the horizon of imagination of an individual is constantly on the shift, with the practical experience gained in various interacting situations. This happens with both with the creators of art/literature and the audience for such creations. In the Story “The Off Season” the narration goes that “Under the influence of Bradburys plots, the Martians kill. Under the influence of his "neo-humanism," we are told that the Martians are cleaner and nicer than we are.”(52) Thus the world of Bradbury’s imagination has taken the complete somersault. What place does imagination have in our lives today? The role of imagination has assumed importance on account of the compulsive selection process that we are obliged to make even to decide minor issues or consumption related to our day to day life. Even if one has the ultimate loyalty for a particular product, market forces and messages through the advertisement in the print and electronic media make us take a second look at our choices. For example, for some decades the numbers of tea or biscuits brands were limited. Now one finds an entire section in the malls devoted to these simple items. The flight of imagination has to do the work-out exercises to come to a decision to buy. This holds well for the profound issues also. Imagination is the key to progress. All human inventions were thoughts first, that arrived from a persons imagination. Without imagination, we would still be cavemen, afraid to think of a world outside. Human beings, it is said, are the crown of creation. They are supposed to be the greatest creation of God, with limitless power of imagination. Humans can imagine the worst and the best about the future, which may or may not happen. Children too are imaginative without their being conscious of the limits of that exercise. As one grows up, one consciously thinks about the importance of being imaginative. At any stage of life, imagination is the inseparable part of thinking of the mind of an individual. Imagination has a life-cycle. It has a beginning and it has to end, giving birth to another cycle of imagination. For children imagination may be fun. For scientists and researchers imagination is a serious exercise. They are always working on the tidings of their imaginations, with the hope of a productive break. The exercise does not end with the one cycle of imagination getting completed. The next imagination sprouts in the domain of the mind. Some of the outcomes of the flights of imagination may be well-connected. Other may appear disjointed, and yet they reveal the restlessness and goings-on in the mind of the writer. Kent Forrester writes, “Let me list a few images out of Bradburys stories and see if you dont remember the same ones I remember: the scurrying metal mice in "There Will Come Soft Rains" who are used as miniature vacuum cleaners, and who continue to work feverishly as their house burns down; the mechanical coffin in "Wake for the Living" that embalms the brother and then digs his grave and covers it behind him; the childrens nursery in The Veldt, with electronic walls that fill the room with the smells and sounds of African lions; the crushed butterfly on the boots of the time traveler in "A Sound of Thunder." And always the running children in tennis shoes, the rockets belching flames, the old-fashioned burials (53). Thus the wheel of imagination never stops in the minds of the scientists and researchers and the circuit of their thought currents flows on and on. Imagination vs. realism The products of imagination often are in conflict with realism if one takes into consideration their functionality. Aaron Barlow, in his article “Loss in the Language of Tomorrow Journeying Through Tucson on the way to “Usher II” writes, “In many ways, it is the robots which are realism. Just like the writings of realism, however, they only look real but cover mechanical innards. That’s the irony of realism as Bradbury imagines it: art never is real; it only appears real through our imaginative acceptance of it as a stand-in of reality.”(115)Thus a product of human imagination rules the world of realism; but they are real only in appearance camouflaged with their inner mechanical structure. Their functionality, however, is real as they contribute to productivity in the designated style. Kent Forrester writes, “At least a fourth of “And the Moon Be Still as Bright" consists of Spenders lectures on ecology and aesthetic.”(51) The importance of environmental science has been realized by leaders all over the world and Bradbury’s characters have proved to be prophetic on this count. Recollection of the imaginings of the past is an excellent exercise to review the gains and losses in one’s life. Often, the childhood imaginings look ridiculous in adulthood. In old age, one often regrets for the adulthood imaginings. In this ever-changing world, when an individual is impacted by various types of influences and counter-influences, the world of imagination is constantly on the shift. But a really determined individual, who desires to achieve something tangible in life, has to rely on the exercise of imagination and try to translate them in action. Imagination getting converted into realism and realism giving room to further imaginations is an ongoing process. When an individual applies break and stops the process of imagination, it is the beginning of degeneration. The flight of imagination may cross the moon; but then the creative mind will think of beating the stars. Imagination keeps the builders in any segment of the society competitive. Curtail imagination; it is as good as applying breaks to the process of dynamism. Imagination propels changes to the existing thought processes of an individual. As the wise saying goes, when the thoughts are changed, the mind is changed; when the mind is changed, the man is changed; when the man is changed, the society is changed. When the society is changed, the nations are changed. Only then the imagination of changing the world for the better will be a concrete reality. But the impetus for imagination will not stop even at that stage. Rather, the process of imagination is eternal, without the beginning or the end. It is the Cycle that sustains the world. Works Cited Forrester, Kent. The Dangers of being Earnest: Ray Bradbury and the Martian Chronicles. The Journal of General Education, Vol. 28, No. 1 (SPRING 1976), pp. 50-54; Penn State University Press Barlow, Aaron. Loss in the Language of Tomorrow Journeying Through Tucson on the way to “Usher II”. Read More