Let's Invent the Value of Imaginaries
Storified by jacquelineZ ·
Fri, May 05 2017 16:12:40
Playing is human nature. We enjoy playing games when we are children. After we grow up, at least me, we utilize every minute of vocations to explore the world as much as we can. I believe that what we have experienced is an important component that defines who we are. However, in reality, there are many barriers blocking us from exploring the world and enjoying those wonderful journeys, like a heavy assignment or working load. As Kenny Kink complains about his work, he just wants to go on a travel andnot worries about working for living.
Therefore, going on a literary journey is a good alternative to compensate for our inability to discovery the beauty of the entire world. As Brendan Wayfarer’s post provides us a way, we can even travel the entire U.S. at home, sitting in front ofthe computer screen.
A huge benefit of going on a journey in literature is that when you open a book, you can set off at any time and go anywhere. If you are tired with this journey, just simply close the book, the journey ends. If you want, you can open another book and travel on, with another author, on another journey. I think this is exactly the value of the literary journey; we can go on whatever journey, regardless how ridiculous it is or how challenging it is, and we can always come back home.
Throughout the semester, six authors have taken me with them on their adventures. In The Tempest, I have seen Miranda & Ferdinand develop a romantic relationship at the end of the play and seen Antonio find forgiveness from Prospero. In the movie Wizard of Oz (1939), Dorothy learns to be brave; learns to have courage; and most importantly learns to understand the meaning of home through her journey. In Home and Mad Max: Fury Road, the main characters though go on totally different trips, they have the same goal, both looking for redemption. In Slaughterhouse-Five, Billy goes on a time traveling trip; he has special ability to go back and forth in the dimension of time, and get relief from his past in his journey. In the last one, Field of Dream, Ray accomplishes his father's baseball dream following the quests he received. Those journeys all show the value of literature journeys that as a reader we can choose for whatever journey we want to go, and we can imagine how big the world is; journeys in literature can always give us the experiences that we want.
Among all those journeys, my most favorite two journeys are Billy’s journey in Slaughterhouse Five and Dorothy’s journey in Wizard of Oz. Their journeys seem totally different from each other, whether the reasons that urged them to stepon their way, or what have experienced are totally irrelevant with each other. Yet, I think that they have one thing in common: that their journeys all happened in a fantasy world, which is created by their imagination. It is the magic and value of the literary journey that we can learn and enjoy whatever we want from our imagination.
I think the following tweet gives a good generalization of how literature journeys look like:
Wizard of Oz and Meaning of Home
For Dorothy, she always dreams of leaving home, since there are so many stresses and frustration around her that she can’t stand or resolve. Her neighbor wants to take away her only friend, Toto, and her uncle and aunt can’t defend her. As she mentions, she wants to “find somewhere over the rainbow, and the dreams that you dreamed of”. So in the movie, the literary journey takes Dorothy to Oz with a tornado, and she is able to be “somewhere over the rainbow” (Wizard of Oz, 1939). Then along the journey, she finds meaning of home. On her trip, she also meets lion lack of courage, the scarecrow lack of brain, and the tinman, lack of heart. While she is helping them to find what they need, she also learns to be brave, and how to love. She finally realizes the importance of home and she would pay anything for exchange of being home. Luckily for Dorothy, it is a dream, so she is at home all the time.
It is, of course, good for Dorothy that she can grow up and learn the most important thing that, “there is nowhere like home”. Mostly important is she learns this from a valuable dream journey. Thinking back to our childhood, have we ever thought about being away from home? It is sometimes hard to understand the value of something until we lose it, as Dorothy did when she left her home. However, the literary journey lets her to be away and come back easily. I think that is the value of the literature journey. It lets us be away from reality and also gives us something along the journey; we learn like Dorothy, that"thereis nowhere like home" (Wizard of Oz, 1939).
Slaughterhouse Five and Time Traveling
Billy’s journey is a better illustration of the value of the journey in literature; in Slaughterhouse-Five Billy travels to Tralfamadore, an alien planet which is only known by Billy. Most importantly, when Billy makes this trip he is able to get the sense of release from his past because he escapes his own reality. As Josh Simpson suggests in his article, “This Promising of Great Secrets,” “[Billy Pilgram] is so tormented and haunted by the burden of the past that he find sit necessary to ‘reinvent’ his own reality" (266). First, the following brief YouTube video reminds us of the book’s plot.
From the book, I can see how Billy reinvents the world. Billy redefines time and death, which bothered him, especially after his wife’s death. On Tralfamafore, he redefines death as: “when a person dies he only appears to die. He is still very much alive in the past, so it is very silly for people to cry at his funeral” (Vonnegut, 26).
Besides Billy’s enjoyment of this literary journey, the author and narrator, Vonnegut, probably enjoys the journey as a companion of Billy as well. I think that Vonnegut writes Billy’s journey in the way that he does because he also wants to be on a journey like Billy’s. In the book, I can see many characteristics of Vonnegut appear in the characters of the book. For instance, Vonnegut, like Billy, was a soldier and POW in WWII. In the book, there is a made up author, Kilgore Trout, who “bears a striking resemblance tothat of Kurt Vonnegut,” as suggested by Jesús Leratede Castro (116). To Vonnegut, writing the book Slaughterhouse-Five is like Billy going to Tralfamadore; as the creator of this world, Vonnegut can also get a sense of relief from his past by writing this literary journey.
The value of literary journeys for the heroes who experience them, the authors who create them, and the readers who read them is: the literary journeys are imaginable journeys and they can take them to wherever they want and get whatever they can’t get from reality. Dorothy can’t really be away from her home, but she can step out ofher home into her dream and go after what she wants. After she gets what she wants, she can always go back to her home. Similarly, Billy can’t find what he needs in reality, but he can find a sense of relief in his delusion. He can live in his imagination the way that he likes. Like Billy, Vonnegut can’t find relief in other ways, but he might get relief from writing the literary journey. Last and mostimportantly, the value of literary journeys is to take the readers to anywherethey can’t be, finishing the goal they can’t accomplish, and realizing themeaning of they can’t understand help create the value of literary journey.
Obviously Vonnegutdoes show the value, as we can see from @Not Liam’s posts; he very much enjoys the experience ofthe literary journey, and he even wants to be caught onto Tralfamadore. Also as @AdamPersinger suggests that he learns another way of perceiving someone’s death; otherwise it is unrealistic on the Earth.