We need to escape
- Jan 11, 2020
- 3 min read
Happy New Year to all my readers! I apologise for missing December's end of month post, the festive season took over. Now that is all safely behind us, what lies in store for the year to come? Whatever lies ahead, I believe we will all need a bit of escapism.
In recent years we’ve seen a return to adventure and escapism. The continuing popularity of Harry Potter and Star Wars and the revival of His Dark Materials on the BBC to name just a few, remind us that a good, escapist adventure appeals to all ages. We live in difficult times and, whether adult or child, stories are the way we make sense of our world and understand the fight between good and evil. In Pullman’s His Dark Materials, the quest for knowledge is key and, in our era of fake news, political lies and slogans, it is vital that our children learn how to find, understand and tell the truth.
Powerful stories remind us of things we once knew instinctively. Children cannot be fooled, it is only as adults that we doubt ourselves. We carry our memories and our past with us and they have made us what we are. Such is the story of The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman, my book, and now play, of the decade.
It's a story about magic and imagination, about history, good and evil and survival. The book was 2013 Book of the Year and I have loved it from the beginning. So when the National Theatre staged its production this winter, I was quick to book tickets. It is a magical performance with stunning sets and effects and it literally took my breath away. Quoting Tara Prescott-Johnson in the NT programme "The boundary between the world we take for granted and whatever lies beyond is much more permeable than we expect. That is the tension at the heart of Neil Gaiman's work: between the mundane and the magical, and perhaps more importantly, between how others see us and (the truth of) who we actually are". This conversation between the writer and the director gives you a flavour:
Gaiman admits it is "semi-autobiographical" and therefore has more emotions in it that some of his other work. It speaks powerfully to the emotions and the past in all of us.
According to Professor Martin Conway " 'memory' is in truth a mixture of memory and imagination. The Ocean at the End of the Lane begins with a middle aged man returning to his childhood home and sitting on a bench remembering. According to Professor Conway, such reveries are important acts of creativity which we should all indulge in, every day. They activate a complex brain system where memory and imagination can mingle in fecund ways. Some memory researchers think this state is essential to wellbeing.
The previous Children's Laureate, Lauren Child, was passionate about children having the time and freedom to 'stare into space', believing that only then can they develop their creative imagination. Perhaps then, we should all allow ourselves and encourage others to take time for reverie. To quote Conway again, "what the story of Ocean evokes so well is that specific relationship we as adults have with the child we once were. It is in part a sense of loss, and in part some nameless emotion that recognises the identify of the child we once were, and which validates the fantasies, the insights and the realisations we experienced".
So in 2020, I urge you to escape: to take time to dream, to remember, to reflect - the world will be a better place.
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