Why do you assume that imagination differs from reality? There's no reason for that assumption. Imagination can map the real world, and does.
To degrade imagination to the level of irrational falsity is precisely what happened in the 15-16C when religious folks were on witch hunts and found the devil in any imaginative constructs that seemed to go against dominant beliefs in reality, like the Word). This led to an anti-visuality attitude that still persists among some people. I think it happens to be quite true that we imagine the reality we experience. I also think we believe what we imagine by which is meant that we believe our impressions to be true until we believe otherwise. WC --- On Sat, 11/29/08, [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Lehrer and Whitman > To: [email protected] > Date: Saturday, November 29, 2008, 4:14 PM > I'm afraid I truly began to object to Jonah Lehrer and > to his book "Proust > Was a Neuroscientist" even before I got to a word > Lehrer wrote. A mind that > would choose this quote from Wallace Stevens to be the > first line of his book > is > not a mind for me: > > "Reality is a product of the most august > imagination." > > Sounds august itself, that line, doesn't it? It is, > like much Stevens's > poetry, a dreary commonplace jumped up by the emperor's > generalizations to > seem > like profound wisdom. Not only is it falsely inflated, it > is, to most anyone > who > considers it seriously, false period. > > We all have heard the commonplace expressed in homlier > terms, like, "What one > man sees as a glass half empty, another sees as a glass > half full." The > pessimist and the optimist, addressing the same > "facts", will interpret them > very > differently. The underlying notion is true enough but > utterly trite. Do you > feel the "reality is" that the life of man is > solitary, poor, nasty, brutish > and > short? I don't. We have different attitudes, > energy-levels, "livers" -- thus > producing what Stevens calls our imaginations. > > Where Stevens's cliche merits being called flatly > false, is, say, when you > step in a hole and break your leg, or get cancer, of your > spouse's head is > crushed by a falling rock. That rock is, in most > people's vocabulary, "real"; > it is > not the product of anyone's imagination. Beware of > anyone who begins a > sentence, "Reality isb&" > > From his "Prelude" (Oy!), I judge Lehrer an > adroit and mellifluous writer > whose mind is, as Whitman's was, as romantically drippy > and formless as melted > chocolate. > > I have never enjoyed people who revel in their > inconsistency -- as Whitman > did. Lehrer differs from Whitman: Lehrer does not realize > he is inconsistent. > > > The one line from his "Prelude" I hope you will > remember as you read on in > his book is: > > "Our science is incomplete, no map of matter will ever > explain the > IMMATERIALITY of our consciousness." > > > > ************** > Life should be easier. So should your homepage. Try the NEW > AOL.com. > (http://www.aol.com/?optin=new-dp&icid=aolcom40vanity& > ncid=emlcntaolcom00000002)
