Imagination
"Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand."
~Albert Einstein
To me the fantasy genre is the epitome of what using your imagination is all about. Reading fantasy makes you think 'what if' and encourages you to move past accepting what you are told. Would Einstein have received his Nobel Prize in Physics for developing his theory of general relativity without first using his imagination to 'think outside the box'? I very much doubt it.
As a child, fantasy stories helped me learn to question the world around me. My mom might have told me that the wardrobe leading to Narnia was simply a figment of C.S. Lewis' imagination, but I still wondered if she could be wrong. This one is still up for debate. *grin*
I firmly believe that when your perceptions of reality are blurred as a child, that is the absolute best time for creativity to blossom. When creating my fantasy worlds, I feel the closest to that blurred reality of my childhood.
What is your favorite quote? Why do you write the genre you write?
How about that wardrobe? Where do you think it could be hidden?
My favorite three quotes:
ReplyDelete1. "They couldn't hit an elephant from this distance!"
-Last words of Major-General John Sedgwick
2. "Patience is a virtue."
3. "Times are bad. Children no longer obey their parents and everyone is writing a book."
-Cicero, circa 43 BC
I write fantasy because it's cool and there's a whole lot of freedom. I'm also somewhat of a medieval enthusiast, so the common real-world parallel is the usual for fantasy, the late middle-ages. I also write war/action because it's easy to write (no boring parts) and I'm also a combat enthusiast.
I love that quote, so totally true! And I'm with you about the wardrobe, I should take a tour of the English countryside and hunt for it :)
ReplyDeleteI'm lucky, I can give a quote & the reason I write all in one!
ReplyDeleteFrom Tolkien's Mythopoeia (http://home.ccil.org/~cowan/mythopoeia.html):
Blessed are the legend-makers with their rhyme
of things not found within recorded time.
It is not they that have forgot the Night,
or bid us flee to organized delight,
in lotus-isles of economic bliss
forswearing souls to gain a Circe-kiss
(and counterfeit at that, machine-produced,
bogus seduction of the twice-seduced).
Such isles they saw afar, and ones more fair,
and those that hear them yet may yet beware.
They have seen Death and ultimate defeat,
and yet they would not in despair retreat,
but oft to victory have tuned the lyre
and kindled hearts with legendary fire,
illuminating Now and dark Hath-been
with light of suns as yet by no man seen.
But seriously . . . why I write fantasy? Because there are some truths that are better veiled in magic and mystery, and because it's just plain fun!
I think my fascination with big old houses comes from my desire to find that magic wardrobe. I don't write fantasy but a healthy belief in it helps to keep me writing...if you know what I mean.
ReplyDeleteI write fantasy mostly because I have an active imagination and feel I just need to get it down, that and writing is my escape from the craziness. (:
ReplyDeleteI love this quote! Being able to re-live my childhood is one of the best parts. I don't write fantasy (historical), but I still have to use my imagination. Otherwise, my characters wouldn't exist!
ReplyDeleteI write/love fantasy because the options are endless... it's what my soul loves... and I'm going to write what I feel I need to express. So much fun! <3
ReplyDeletethis is the very reason I love fantasy. I think it's the only genre I'll ever really enjoy writing:0
ReplyDeleteNutschell
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