Imagination
in the Blogging World
Since the
beginning, myth and imagination has influenced how we see the world. Our
history books are filled with the romanticized idea of events that actually
occurred. In Anne of Green Gables, Anne is consistently known as a character
with a knack for imagination. While many think that daydreaming and imagination
is a way to hide from reality, this is not true. Our imaginations are a product
of human labor. For some, this comes easily, but for others they struggle to
see beyond the scope of their own reality. By using our creativity and ability
to re-imagine our own personal world in blogs, today's technology allows each
of us to take part in the transformation and growth of our culture.
There are many
definitions and ideas that surround the broad topic of imagination. While one
common definition is the producing of ideal creations that are inconsistent
with reality, or in other words, the ability to picture our lives differently than
they are, imagination is also the ability to face and resolve difficulties, or
having resourcefulness. In order to picture different outcomes and be able to
act when they come our way, we need to be able to visualize different results
of our actions. Imagination is something that is important that we develop,
because it allows us to “live in a subjectively colored world unlike the gray
world of reality(study of imagination).” While imagination often has an
emphasis on the “power of invention,” it is important to have a broad
definition in order to encompass all the small facets of the nature of
imagination. In one particular article, called "Do you use your
Imagination?" by Remez Sasson, the definition of imagination is
questioned. It isn't a useless waste of time, but the ability to visualize
different situations and events. By using this tool, we can prepare ourselves
for different problems that may arise, plan events, and create something
completely new.
In a more romantic sense, one blogger named John
claimed that there is a traditional "understanding imagination as the
spiritual heart of the human person." By combining both of these ideas, it
can be argued that imagination is both useful and romantic. It covers every
aspect of human life. It allows us to be practical and accomplish things that
we need to do daily, while still allowing us to show a reflection of what lies
within our hearts. There is a new study
about the sociological aspect of imagination called the sociological
imagination. “The new sociological imagination is a search for satisfactory
ways of understanding the contemporary world in a rational, communicable,
telling and coherent way, while also contributing to the development of the
public sphere and a collective understanding of social issues. If we apply this definition to our total
understanding, then our perceptions of reality become the blueprint for our
lives.
Anne of Green Gables
is the perfect book to exemplify the power of imagination in our daily lives. The
story begins with a young, unloved orphan named Anne, who is quick to love, and
quick to hate. She is talkative and willful, but she is filled with a desire to
be good, despite her tendency to make dreadful mistakes. In Anne's case, her
imaginings affected her everyday life. She was a dreamer, constantly trying to
form her world to fit the way she saw things inside her head. She had so many
ideas that she formed a story club in order to 'cultivate her imagination.'
Anne influenced so many people because she dared to dream big and spoke of the
things in her imagination unabashedly. People today are still dreaming, and
imagining things that they want to happen in their own lives.
In Anne of Green
Gables, one of the main characters, Matthew Cuthbert, is known for being shy and
unable to speak his mind to women. He is stuck in his own boring, daily
routine. When he and his sister, Marilla, plan on adopting a young boy to help
around the farm, they accidentally get a girl instead- Anne. While Marilla
wants to send Anne back to the orphanage, Matthew imagines what his life would
be like with a talkative young girl around. From the moment Anne and Matthew
left, her imagination began to change the way Matthew saw the world around him.
In that one instant where he allowed his imagination to run free, he let his
heart open to this love starved little girl, and it ended up changing his life
forever. Anne is known for saying, “It is delightful when your dreams come
true, isn't it?" Anne had a way of not using her imagination just to escape
the world, but to influence her life and the lives of others.
Marilla Cuthbert
is severe and believes in duty and decorum above all else, although she does
have a sense of humor. While it takes
awhile for Marilla and Anne to find a sense of balance between their two
opposite personalities, Anne helped Marilla see the lightness and joy in the
world, while Marilla helped Anne to use her imagination for useful things.
While our imaginations are a tool we must take advantage of, in the beginning,
Anne only used hers in order to dream of fanciful things that could never
actually true. Under Marilla’s influence, these imaginings and daydreams turned
into ambitions that made Anne work hard in order to become a college graduate,
school teacher and writer, all in a time period where women were supposed to
stay at home, get married and have a family.
While reading a
literary criticism on Anne of Green Gables, an author wrote, while the writer
“cautions against letting the female imagination run wild, (the writer) does
not deny the power of imagination nor suggest that a woman’ life can be
negotiated through reason alone. Our ability to imagine is also our ability to
create, to wonder, to inspire, and to influence the real world. In order for
change to happen, it has to start with someone thinking about how things can be
different. If we stick to our old routines and never picture anything other
than our real lives, then everything stays the same. Inventions, and new ideas
all begin with imagination. However, this does not mean that we should ignore
our real lives, but use imagination and reality in a perfect balance, allowing
each to play a role in who we are and what we do. A blogger named Darcy wrote,
“"Imagination is not an unalloyed good, and neither is instant access to
everything anyone ever wrote on a topic. But it's probably better than the
alternative. Looking directly to the use of imagination, it's true that broadly
defined imagination is essential. Arguably we couldn't function without it, the
ability to envision a situation different from the current one doesn't just
allow us to change our lives in significant ways, it helps us to simply get
through the day. But not all imagination is of the same quality."
In the digital
age, we are now capable of spreading our thoughts and ideas to the entire
world. The hope is that our own perceptions of reality influence someone else
and their own perceptions. We aren't speaking to ourselves, but to the entire
world. The only problem is everyone wants to be unique and to put their every
thought and feeling out there for everyone to see. Like Dr. Burton said, a lot
of content on the Internet is inert and doesn't really have a point. However,
the digital media has the potential to act as a medium for our own ideas to become
the blueprint for other people's ideas about the world. Blogging is one of the
many useful tools that the Internet provides for creative expression. In
today’s media culture, blogging is the perfect outlet for our thoughts and
ideas to turn into creative content, because it is a space with no rules. White
twitter and facebook are mainly used for chatting, looking at pictures and
writing a short, meaningless status update; blogs have the ability to become
much more than that. It is n this forum that people represent their creations,
rant about their inner thoughts, display their personalities, and write about
the things they love.
By reading blogs,
we become well acquainted with the individual that writes them. Blogs that we
keep coming back to have a common theme of allowing us to see behind the words
and pictures, and letting us see the person that is writing them. This has
changed how we read literature today, because now we expect to be entertained,
and well informed all within a shorter body of text. Literature that we don’t
understand is quickly skipped over. Blogging has influenced the ways we connect
with text.
Even more
importantly that how blogging changes how we connect to literature, blogging
has changed the way we create, and even the nature of imagination by allowing
the world to comment on our thoughts and inventions. This "social
proof," that our ideas are relevant and interesting to someone other than
ourselves changes the way we think. By allowing others to engage in our
imaginations, we transform the way we ruminate. Our imaginations have the
ability to move our lives in different directions than we originally expected.
It is important to use blogs not just as an online journal, but also as a way
to really express the way we think and to be creative in a social atmosphere.
By allowing the two-way street of letting our ideas influence others, and
others creations spark our own ideas, the online culture of letting imagination
run wild and free directly affects our lives.
"On the human imagination events produce the effects of time. Thus,
he who has traveled far and seen much is apt to fancy that he has lived
long."
Bibliography
The Lion and the Unicorn 34 (2010) 125-147 c. The John
Hopkins University Press
Olis-Gadea, Hecter Raul. “The New Sociological Imagination:
Facing the Challenges of a New Millennium.”
International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society 18.3-4
(2005):113-122
Montgomery, L.M., and Cecily Margaret Devereux. Anne of
Green Gables. Peterborough,
Ont.:Broadview, 2004. Print.
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