I remember seeing Lord of the Rings at the movies and thinking Wow. Yes, it was a great looking movie but that is not what impressed me about it, but it was the looks. The Fellowship arrived at the cinemas in 2001 but, I already knew the story as I had read the books for the first time (starting with The Hobbit) over two decades earlier, when I was eight or nine.
What impressed me about the movies was that much of what I saw within was so similar to what I had already held in my imagination for all those years. What has changed since however is that my imagined characters are now the cast from the movie. They have been replaced and in a very subtle way, my imagination has been hacked.
This is not a bad thing per se, but it does interest me in respects to imagination, creativity and their death through consumption. I am sure there are many people here who have read the books well before the movies and I ask you, when you close your eyes, what does Strider look like? Frodo? Gandalf? Most probably, you have been hacked too and hold the same images as I. Actors.
Next question: What does Tom Bombadil look like? Can you answer? He was from the same book and had an entire song-laden chapter given to him yet, didn't appear in the film. How good are your memories now? Personally, I am glad that chapter was removed from the movie as I didn't enjoy the singing in the book and would have hated it even more if I couldn't skip it.
Do you realise the problem?
Albert Einstein said:
If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.
Sure, at the time, movies were not such a massive industry and were out of reach for many but, there is something to be said about the reading of stories rather than the showing. It has to do with the activation of creativity.
When consuming a movie, there is very little space for the imagination as the story moves so fast and the visuals are so strong. There is little room for much thought at all. Imagination is the process of creating thoughts and ideas without having them present. When the movie provides the visuals and the story line, the creative process is not required to act.
However, when reading (or listening for a young child) the imagination is essentially forced into gear and must work to build imagery to make sense of the story. This practice (in my opinion), is vital for future creative abilities, whether it be artistic or analytic because, the imagination is our problem solver.
And, it is a powerhouse at it. It has the ability to imagine the most fantastical of worlds, simulate interactions and work out ways to close the gaps to make it into reality or destroy and rebuild with only a few calories of energy expenditure. One thing it really feeds upon is collaboration though, specifically, diversity of ideas that challenge it to re-imagine again and again.
Do you see the problem yet?
We are more connected than ever and we share stories like we have never done before. For those who watch a lot of shows, do you not notice the same forms, the same premise, the same lines being spoken across them all? Those that watch a lot of movies, how often are you wowed by the visuals yet disappointed by the depth of characters and story? How often do you consume something unique, something you haven't seen before, something that makes you really think?
How much time do you spend using your imagination to close gaps, understand the narrative, create an internal world that is your own individual blend of idiosyncratic views of life. How much time do you spend using the superpower we have been granted through evolution or an unlikely god?
It is our imaginations that drive our species forward, it is our creativity that is able to problem solve and adapt for environments we have never seen before. It is this skill that will bring about world peace, colonies on Mars, free and clean energy or, destroy us. Yes, destruction is part of evolution too.
If we no longer have the capacity to imagine a better world, how do we plan on building one? This homogenisation of imagination where small groups hold strong and similar views of the way things should be, is evident in our polarisation, aggression toward others and an unwillingness to have an even tempered conversation without it devolving into violence.
Without healthy imaginations, reality is lost. This is no fairy tale.
Taraz
[ a Steemit original ]
