[Reading experience] The grammar of imagination: imagination arises out of familiarity

Inspiration has always given people the feeling of nothingness and etherealness. It comes and goes without a trace. As a creator, you can only look to the sky and make hexagrams, waiting for the gift of God. Nine out of ten creative writers have been asked "how do you get your inspiration" and "why does it always come in a steady stream"? I would answer: Creativity is a muscle that needs to be exercised. The more you use your muscles, the more developed you are, and your ability and flexibility will increase accordingly. Imagination also improves with practice. After Lenovo became more relaxed, the more ideas I thought about, the more I got them. There is also a way to practice. Italian children's writer Gani. In "The Grammar of the Imagination", Gianni Rodari teaches you how to decompose the imagination and get a glimpse of the operation of the imagination.

The mind is born in sorrow and dies in joy

Imagination is alive, grammar is dead. When I saw the title of the book, I immediately asked: How can imagination have grammar? Yes, there really are! The grammar here refers not to the rigid rules of language that confine people in order and let them be controlled, but the method of defamiliarizing things, teaching you how to bounce freely between the boundaries of the frame and walk out of the familiar track of daily cognition . Familiarity is the greatest enemy of creativity. As Luo Dali said, "the mind is born in sorrow and dies in peace." Imagination is not independent of the brain's ability to operate on its own. Without external stimuli, there is no opposition; with friction, inspiration can be spelled out. A binary frame is bad for thinking, but good for imagining.

" Imagination" contains Luo Dali's experience of making up stories with children. Each chapter records some methods to activate the imagination, as well as his observations on the working of the mind. Yes, the imagination needs to be activated. It does not start out of nothing, but needs to mobilize, configure, reorganize, and even alienate our cognition of everyday things. When doing these assignments, it helps to break the existing framework of experience, "trying to regain control over objects and concepts, and refusing to formulate". When children rewrite a fairy tale, they use what they have seen and heard to develop the storyline. After the rewrite, the fairy tale has their own imprint on it, and it is no longer the same as the original. Therefore, Luo Dali believes that in addition to art, science, humanities and social sciences, playfulness is equally helpful to the development of civilization. In the process of playful play, it involves the use of imagination and creativity. These inputs make children move from "consumer" to "producer": the ability to produce stories, create ideas for self-entertainment, and solve problems while playing.

imagination and emotion

Luo Dali said that imagination has liberating value. Allowing the imagination to run fast is very important to a person's development: "Let everyone speak freely, not to make everyone an artist, but to make no one a slave". Everyone has an imaginary mind and a desire to express themselves, which is innate. A society's emphasis on imagination, so that a person's mind can be fully developed, reflects the emphasis on the individual. When the society pays too much attention to production, the imagination will be obliterated by the excessive development of rationality.

Imagination and emotion are closely related. In order to better understand the close relationship between imagination and personal experience, Luo Dali made a very beautiful analogy:

Throwing small stones into the pond caused ripples to spread, shaking water lilies, reeds and paper boats... When the small stones sank, they stirred up the water plants, frightened the fish, and set off another wave of subtle disturbances. When it sank, the silt floated up, and some things at the bottom of the forgotten pool resurfaced due to collision... Words are like stones. After they fall into the brain, they will fluctuate in the horizontal and depth directions, triggering a series of chain reaction.

Our imagination of a thing is driven by emotions, and when the silt floats on it, it proves that the subconscious mind is also touched. Suppressed emotions, unremembered images, and unspeakable pain are expressed and released in the form of imagination. These emotions constantly stir people's hearts and become the soil for creation.

Imagine this, very fluctuating. Whether a stone stirs up a thousand waves or ripples depends on the viewer's attitude. In a dystopian world, emotions and imagination are often the objects of repression. Ordinary people think that it is a ripple, but it may be viewed as a thousand waves by those in power. Orwell invented the word Newspeak in "1984", which pointed out the number of words and affected the scope of thinking. The scope of thinking is narrowed, and your imagination can only do so.

When it comes to dystopian fiction, how can we not talk about the people in Brave New World? They are only allowed to have sex, not lust. Their sex lacks the emotional part, and after the incident, they continue to be sheep that are tamed by humans. Emotional fluctuations are difficult to control, and depriving them is a precaution. Whether it is the annihilation of imagination or the suppression of emotions, they all point to the changing face of human nature, how to strain the authoritarian spirit headed by "stability" and "harmony" in everything: all the dynamic and unpredictable aspects of human nature will affect the authoritarian spirit. Governance creates a threat, so it is necessary to strike first and castrate people to "half-humans".

creative error

Strange, obviously we are talking about making up stories, why is it involved in politics? Imagination is not only a personal matter, but also a political dimension. Politicians also love to make up, but their make-up is to cover up mistakes and blind the masses, but some mistakes are very creative and activate the mind. The glass slipper in Cinderella is an example. Charles, the author of the French version of "Cinderella", wrote a pair of squirrel hair material into a glass slipper due to a beautiful misunderstanding. Every mistake can be turned into a story, an unintentional mistake, opening a gap in the familiar daily life and revealing the essence and possibility of some things hidden by the daily life. These mistakes can be turned into beautiful creations because of the environment where they can speak freely. Without self-imposed limitations, the imagination can continue to flow until the idea is formed.

Don't think that authoritarianism kills creativity. wrong! wrong! wrong! Everyone doesn't know that authoritarianism is well-intentioned, and it wants to stimulate creativity through suppression. Didn't Luo Dali say that? It takes a departure from the familiar trajectory to initiate creativity. This can't be said, that can't be asked, isn't it actually encouraging people to express themselves out of their usual language habits? Creativity begins with restrictions, prohibiting others from swearing, but forcing people to swear without swearing, the jokes in it...you know! (I can't hide the laugh)