"You wish to see the distant realms? Very well. But know this first, the places you will visit, the places you will see, do not exist. For there are only two worlds - your world, which is the real world, and other worlds, the fantasy. Worlds like this one, worlds of the human imagination. Their reality, or lack of reality is not important. What is important is that they are there. These worlds provide an alternative. Provide an escape. Provide a threat. Provide a dream, and power, provide refuge and pain. They give your world meaning. They do not exist; and thus they are all that matters. Do you understand?"
-Neil Gaiman, "The Books of Magic"
Image by Jacek Yerka.
9 comments:
Get your hands on The Sandman series sometime soon Róisín - they are unbelievably great!
Also i deleted the first post cos I just figured out you were referring to me. My bad!
Gotta LOVE this interweb for confusion :-)
I'm struggling with this one. I've never read any Neil Gaiman and know nothing about him. I would like to know, though, whether this quotation represents his personal view of reality, fantasy and the existence of other dimensions. If anyone can enlighten me...
JJ- as far as I can tell (and, as I said, I haven’t read this series) it’s a quote from one of his characters. What I take it to mean is that our imaginations define who we are, or in other words, our fantasies frame our realities. Something along the lines of what Berkley or Descartes used to natter on about. But that’s just my interpretation and my head’s a bit fried today so philosophical debate wouldn’t be advisable.
Declan- I’ve been meaning to get round to reading the Sandman novels for years! They used to sell them in the comic book shop downstairs from the flat in Galway but I was a poor student then and could never afford them. Oh, and by the way, I thought I’d use your alias ‘cause I never noticed you using your real name anywhere on your blog and wasn’t sure what the story was with that. Thought maybe it was your alter ego Jimmy McKenzie spinning out such vast amounts of schpiel over there, sort of like a blogging superhero who’s latent power is wit (and the ability to find some of the most ridiculous stuff on the net). :)
Just posted that comment twice. Dunno how I manage to do these things...
Thanks for replying, Roisin. I wouldn't dream of frying your head further. Not today, anyway!
Who wrote those words above the typewriter? And do you have any pictures of Ireland you might consider posting? I like pictures of Ireland.
JJ- Edgar Allen Poe wrote them, as far as I remember, but I got the typewriter as a freebie off another blog. It’s the only thing in the sidebar that’s not my own but I love it too much to part with (although I have another similar quote by Wilde that I’m thinking of replacing it with). Anyway, about the Irish photos, if you look back through my blog you’ll find some, especially around January with all the snow and what not. (If you click on the ‘photo things’ button you should find them.) I’ve some more I’ve been planning on posting and I keep meaning to get out and take more but any day I get off it always seems to rain. Typical really. Well, I hope some celtic crosses will do for now.
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