In quite moments of winter night mind is encountering a world made of fantastic ideas like a philosophy is taking shapes as if the voluminous cloud in rainy days with fast running winds. The numbers attached are just for you to segregate the words.
1. Chimera - Though this may refer to anything that is elusive, the original chimera was the grotesque creature of Greek mythology. Female, fire-breathing, with a lion's head, a goat's torso and a serpent's tail. When I was a child I never thought too much about what all of these body parts would have signified, but a goat now brings to mind symbolism for lasciviousness and a pact with the devil.
2. Dream - I have often wondered whether blind people can dream. Not those who lost their sight due to an unfortunate accident, but those who were blind at birth. Can their imagination frame images and colours that other people can see? Can they see how other people look in their dreams? It seems improbable. Do they, then, not dream at all? That surely seems like an anomaly too. I would ask someone who has experience, but that would be rather rude. I think I should just read up on it.
3. Illusion - I do not know why the first thing that comes to mind is the illusion of how an object that s placed in water appears to be at a lesser depth than it is. I remember many classes in school that dealt with the physics of light - how it travels in straight lines and is refracted and reflected... relative densities of different media and angles of deviation. I am far from the original idea, but am I really far from it?
What if all of science is an illusion? How do we know what the nature of the universe is? Have not those who have gone before us been proven wrong? Are not theories discredited every day?
4. Disillusion - To be disillusioned is a very horrible empty feeling. It is as if everything you believed in had been pulled out by the roots and lost. It does not have to be sudden - it can be a gradual process, but the realization is always sudden, and it hits you out of the blue. I believe it could lead to an existential crisis - it makes one dwell on the more serious aspects of life - whether it be about relations with other people, mankind's future... It is rather terrible. But it can lead to great and beautiful things.
5. Conceit - I believe half of the stories and tales that are the most popular with children and are known by most of them have some character who is conceited - it is usually a woman who is proud of her beauty or wealth and invariably walks with her nose in the air and sniggers and smirks rather than smiling. So, we are warned against conceit when we are little children... but does that stop us from believing we are better at things that most other people? Excessive pride causes a lot of hardship - it hinders relationships with other people, as the ego does not allow one to come to a compromise in a situation where it is wise to do so.
6. Daydream - On a sultry summer's day, it is a joy to sit under a tree, and dream. Daydream. There are fantastic castles to be built and filled with furniture of the imagination. There are alternate lives to live, there are heroic deeds to be done. I am sure daydreams are beneficial. If nothing else, they keep us in a happy, optimistic frame of mind. Have you ever noticed the small smile people wear when they are in dreamland? They do not think of dark gloomy things, but are experiencing some great joys. All men can escape to their own kingdom inside their head.
7. Delusion - Human stubbornness knows no bounds. There may be facts that stare us in the face, cry out for attention and clammer for acknowledgement, but we tend to stick to some other things that we believe that are totally to the contrary. This is a delusion. A very dangerous thing - it is denial of truth, even to oneself, and can have harmful consequences. Getting someone to lay aside a delusion is very difficult - that is the nature of delusions, to take deep pernicious root and spread daily.
8. Figment - It is often the figment of imagination that leads to the writing of the most wonderful literary works. One small fantastic idea that is totally out of the world yet something that we would all dearly love to see true, takes hold of a person and they tell its tale. Perhaps it is divine inspiration that leads to such ideas - they are so delightful and endearing.
9. Hallucination - Hallucinations were often used to great effect in Gothic novels, a number of which I have read. Not only could they allow the author to import any wild, fanciful, improbable idea into the story, it would hold the attention of the readers because it would be something so out of the ordinary that they would grip the edges of their seat and read on in a frenzy. Human beings seem to love drama and the happening of impossible events.
However, at a psychological level, hallucinations are downright scary and symptoms of severe disorders that might need a long time to cure or ameliorate.
10. Fantasy - Most of the books I read when I was a child, and those that I still love revolve around fantasy. Whether it be Tolkien's vast realms of Middle-earth and beyond, or his synthetic languages that evolved along with the histories of their fair speakers, fantasy always had a grip on me. Then came C.S. Lewis, with his endearing and charming stories that bring alive mythical creatures and places, where children are kings and queens and nature and human beings live in perfect harmony.
Human beings have always indulged in fantasy - is not mythology a very refined and epic form of it?
1. Chimera - Though this may refer to anything that is elusive, the original chimera was the grotesque creature of Greek mythology. Female, fire-breathing, with a lion's head, a goat's torso and a serpent's tail. When I was a child I never thought too much about what all of these body parts would have signified, but a goat now brings to mind symbolism for lasciviousness and a pact with the devil.
2. Dream - I have often wondered whether blind people can dream. Not those who lost their sight due to an unfortunate accident, but those who were blind at birth. Can their imagination frame images and colours that other people can see? Can they see how other people look in their dreams? It seems improbable. Do they, then, not dream at all? That surely seems like an anomaly too. I would ask someone who has experience, but that would be rather rude. I think I should just read up on it.
3. Illusion - I do not know why the first thing that comes to mind is the illusion of how an object that s placed in water appears to be at a lesser depth than it is. I remember many classes in school that dealt with the physics of light - how it travels in straight lines and is refracted and reflected... relative densities of different media and angles of deviation. I am far from the original idea, but am I really far from it?
What if all of science is an illusion? How do we know what the nature of the universe is? Have not those who have gone before us been proven wrong? Are not theories discredited every day?
4. Disillusion - To be disillusioned is a very horrible empty feeling. It is as if everything you believed in had been pulled out by the roots and lost. It does not have to be sudden - it can be a gradual process, but the realization is always sudden, and it hits you out of the blue. I believe it could lead to an existential crisis - it makes one dwell on the more serious aspects of life - whether it be about relations with other people, mankind's future... It is rather terrible. But it can lead to great and beautiful things.
5. Conceit - I believe half of the stories and tales that are the most popular with children and are known by most of them have some character who is conceited - it is usually a woman who is proud of her beauty or wealth and invariably walks with her nose in the air and sniggers and smirks rather than smiling. So, we are warned against conceit when we are little children... but does that stop us from believing we are better at things that most other people? Excessive pride causes a lot of hardship - it hinders relationships with other people, as the ego does not allow one to come to a compromise in a situation where it is wise to do so.
6. Daydream - On a sultry summer's day, it is a joy to sit under a tree, and dream. Daydream. There are fantastic castles to be built and filled with furniture of the imagination. There are alternate lives to live, there are heroic deeds to be done. I am sure daydreams are beneficial. If nothing else, they keep us in a happy, optimistic frame of mind. Have you ever noticed the small smile people wear when they are in dreamland? They do not think of dark gloomy things, but are experiencing some great joys. All men can escape to their own kingdom inside their head.
7. Delusion - Human stubbornness knows no bounds. There may be facts that stare us in the face, cry out for attention and clammer for acknowledgement, but we tend to stick to some other things that we believe that are totally to the contrary. This is a delusion. A very dangerous thing - it is denial of truth, even to oneself, and can have harmful consequences. Getting someone to lay aside a delusion is very difficult - that is the nature of delusions, to take deep pernicious root and spread daily.
8. Figment - It is often the figment of imagination that leads to the writing of the most wonderful literary works. One small fantastic idea that is totally out of the world yet something that we would all dearly love to see true, takes hold of a person and they tell its tale. Perhaps it is divine inspiration that leads to such ideas - they are so delightful and endearing.
9. Hallucination - Hallucinations were often used to great effect in Gothic novels, a number of which I have read. Not only could they allow the author to import any wild, fanciful, improbable idea into the story, it would hold the attention of the readers because it would be something so out of the ordinary that they would grip the edges of their seat and read on in a frenzy. Human beings seem to love drama and the happening of impossible events.
However, at a psychological level, hallucinations are downright scary and symptoms of severe disorders that might need a long time to cure or ameliorate.
10. Fantasy - Most of the books I read when I was a child, and those that I still love revolve around fantasy. Whether it be Tolkien's vast realms of Middle-earth and beyond, or his synthetic languages that evolved along with the histories of their fair speakers, fantasy always had a grip on me. Then came C.S. Lewis, with his endearing and charming stories that bring alive mythical creatures and places, where children are kings and queens and nature and human beings live in perfect harmony.
Human beings have always indulged in fantasy - is not mythology a very refined and epic form of it?
No comments:
Post a Comment