If I had to paint a picture...
It would be a reality,
‘Cause it’s only what’s inside of my heart.
Color of Love
This, I think, is the second time in my blogging history that I will shoot off a post from lyrics of a song. Each of these times, I’ve had a rare sense of fulfillment lifting words from two of my favorite artists through childhood years. The lyrics have opened a new way of seeing for me, one that appeals fiercely to the child within, the kid who heard those songs spun from records off the needles of his father’s Turntable long before the dawn of CDs.
Billy’s, for one, is an album I promised myself, in those days when large, black flying saucers called records were the vogue, I’ll add to my personal collection when I got old enough to foot the bills. I think I made the grade. Not with a record though, but a ‘2 CD’ special edition produced by some Shandong Chinese company. That don’t mean it’s a pirated copy as any Nigerian would willingly bear witness.
Now, on what I was saying before I interrupted myself. Billy’s song is a nod to the work of the imagination in fiction writing. Here’s a paraphrase of the last two lines in case I left you out there in the dark, “reality is only what’s inside of my heart”.
There are some genuine curiosities here. Remember the time pictures never lied? Those days are now stowed faraway in the dark and water-clogged basement of history. No thanks to the computer and two thumbs up to you tube. In fiction, it’s still true that pictures don’t lie. Strips of film flickering on the walls of our mind are never false, no matter how weird they may appear. Ever since the first moments I glimpsed the Spanish artist’s biography on Wikipedia, I find it difficult to quit his quotes and thoughts entirely. This one sort of brings the subject home,
Everything you can imagine is real. Pablo Picasso
The Fiction Highway doesn’t take you down Beyond Reasonable Doubt Avenue, yet it gives on The-Truth-The Whole-Shebang-and-Nothing-But-The-Truth Intersection.
I’ve never held much of a brief for reality, at least in my written work. All too often it (reality) is to the imagination what ash stakes are to vampires. Stephen King
Realism smolders the flames of creativity. Common sense cripples our imaginative ability. If it is your dream to thrive in fiction writing, quit playing on reality’s team. To be sane, level-headed, practical and logical as it applies to fiction is suicide. Being realistic is to be short sighted, reality at best is a distraction.
Good writing – good stories – are the imagination’s firing pin, and the purpose of the imagination, I believe, is to offer solace and shelter from situations and life-passages which would otherwise prove unendurable. Stephen King
A universe without walls exists within the boundaries of the individual mind and the key to this excitingly new realm is imagination. That’s the tangent where the river (imagination) leaves Oklahoma (reality) and never looks back, not as much as a passing glance. All the strings of weird thought wired up to create an atmosphere that is way beyond what is generally accepted reality yet not less real and of course, wielding power and influence over the physical.
The minute you sense those weird thoughts rowing downstream on the creeks of your mind, that’s your ticket. Take it. Run! And never look back.
Keep your pen bleeding!
Akpan
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Nicely written post, love the quotes too...:)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Rohit. I really appreciate that!
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