Content warning thread 34/
One step further, we get a bit abstract. People say where there's smoke, there's fire. But consider the role of a smoke alarm. It's essentially a stand-in for the fire, to alert you to a danger and get you to stop whatever it is you're doing before that imaginary danger becomes real.
Content warning thread 35/
On the final step, there be dragons. Except, not really. No human being has ever seen a living, breathing dragon, in the flesh. There is no way for such dragons to appear before us, right now. We made them up.
Content warning thread 36/
Similar could be said of dinosaurs. They, too, aren't 'real.' True, we have a trove of fossil evidence that proves they existed millions of years ago. But there's zero chance that Mum will get to see a living, breathing Velociraptor in her lifetime. The dinosaurs depicted in Jurassic Park are just as unreal* as any dragon.
Content warning thread 37/
These last couple of examples are what the philosopher Jean Baudrillard called 'pure simulacra' - things beyond our reality that are nonetheless imposed upon it:
Content warning thread 38/
There are four orders (or levels) that we can group simulacra into, to define just how far removed they are from the 'real world:'
- the sacramental order, where reality is reflected;
- the order of maleficence, where reality is masked;
- the order of sorcery, where elements of reality are missing;
- pure simulacra, where there is no relation to reality.
Content warning thread 39/
The smoke alarm warns us to a fire that does not yet exist, and is an example of *sorcery*; the real estate photos cover up the dirt and grime of daily life, and so are of the *order of maleficence*; assuming no prior editing by the photographer on Tripadvisor, their meals are as true a *reflection of reality* *, in that moment, as we can find.
Content warning thread 40/
So, let's put ourselves in Granny Weatherwax's shoes, as nemeses of untruth and artifice. When the king is killed in the play, we're in the order of sorcery. The events on stage point to something that *appears* real, but isn't. After all, the actor playing the king hasn't literally been killed.
Content warning thread 41/
By this definition of sorcery, we can say the same for every scene we've ever watched on film or television where someone gets shot. As I've written before, Mum *can* immerse herself when it's a police drama. She is able to imagine herself as an onlooker in these scenes that she breathes sharply when someone gets hurt - but not so immersed as to run to call for an ambulance.
Immersing herself when it's a fantasy, then, is a matter of practice. And I think I've made a breakthrough...
Content warning thread 42/an exercise bike for the mind
The question is no longer, "What would I want in a fantasy if I were a mum," but instead, "What book do I give Mum to train her fantasy muscle?" When I discovered Discworld in 2022, I thought I was onto a winner with the Witches novels. And maybe I was. If Mum had had the time to read them, I would've found out by now.
Content warning thread 43/
Before Mother's Day this year, I was enlightened by a certain fantasy book I had to read for a Creative Writing seminar. I say 'fantasy,' but magic realism prefers to be called as it is - fantasy with a 9-to-5 job. I gave Mum a story of an emperor, and his guest, an explorer who's travelled many thousands of miles to see him:
> Kublai Khan does not necessarily believe everything Marco Polo says when he describes the cities visited on his expeditions…
Content warning thread 44/
Kublai Khan is enraptured by these idyll cities, as though they were the refractions of a ray of light shone through a prism. He escapes his crumbling, stagnant empire into these smaller worlds - and though he struggles to imagine and build his own imaginary cities at first, he learns soon enough.
Content warning thread 39.1a/
(Yes, natural and artificial lighting can make food look better or worse, but for the sake of my model, I'm ignoring those factors.)
