Imaginative Journey Notes: The Stimulus Booklet

1.The road not taken: - Robert Frost

  • Imaginative Journeys allow us to explore future possibilities through speculation
  • Extended metaphor of the ‘road’ used to express both past and future decisions and actions. Frost describes using the imagination in times of indecision to explore the consequences of possible choices. –“…long I stood /And looked down one as far as I could”
  • Each of the four stanzas characterises one stage of this process of speculation and decision. The first has an optimistic tones created by colour connotations of ‘yellow wood’ and the suggestion of transience and movement through its flowing structure with the repetition of ‘and’ - ‘And sorry I could not travel both /And be one traveller, long I stood / And looked down one as far as I could’.
  • “Yellow wood also indicates that it may be the beginning of autumn, which could symbolise the sense of change and possibility at the turning of the season.
  • The second stanza suggests indecision as the composer chooses a path that ‘wanted wear’ and therefore carries less clear consequences. Taking the path that he knows or even imagines to understand less is a courageous decision, but the composer appears uncertain, using low modality language such as ‘perhaps’ and ‘really about the same’.
  • The third stanza expresses regret at the opportunities lost by choosing one path over the other. Imaginative journeys can conceive of multiple possibilities at once, but in reality taking one path involves rejecting another, as frost muses ‘Yet knowing how way leads on to way / I doubted I should ever come back’
  • The last stanza brings resolution to the speculative tone of the poem, with high modality statements such as “ I shall be telling this …” and a clever segue from future to past tense “somewhere ages and ages hence - /two roads converged in a wood and I, I took the one less travelled by”
  • After suggesting the power of ht imaginative journey to explore the future, then rejecting the value of speculation, then mourning the malleability that an imaginative journey loses when translated into a physical journey, Frost places value in the entire process in his last line ‘And that has made all the difference’

2.The Ivory Trail: Victor Kelleher

  • Imaginative Journey is inspired by the unknown and exotic, constructing fantasy world
  • This book cover uses a montage of exotic imagery and colour to inspire imaginative journey in the responder in an attempt to encourage them to read the novel.
  • A triangular reading path is established that leads the viewer’s eye from a flood lit sphinx and pyramid to the silhouetted domed temples to a human face superimposed against rippling desert sands. Deep oranges and reds draw together the images with darker colours at the edges emphasising the content and creating balance. This synthesises highly charged images into an overall impression of excitement, thrills, mystery and intrigue that the responder’s mind immediately begins to explore.
  • The concept of journey is subtly built up by the rippling movement of the sands, the anticipation in the expression and eyes of the face, and the false perspective created by the layering of images. Also significant to this meaning are the prominently placed title “The Ivory Trail” and the tag “Not all journeys have and ending”. Short and simple, these two textual interjections carry connotations of danger, excitement and the unknown.
  • Using a variety of visual and textual features, this text carefully instils fleeting impressions of exotic locations and cultures, and he concept of journey, into the minds of responders in an attempt to encourage imaginative journeys that will promote the novel.

3.The Wind in the Willows: -Kenneth Graeme

  • Imaginative journeys may be inspired to persuade individuals to action
  • The possibilities explored through imaginative journeys may be intimidating to some yet inspiring to others
  • The impact of the imaginative Journey depends on the individuals personality and experience
  • Bright cheerful colour is again used to suggest optimism and excitement –“they saw a gypsy caravan, shining with newness, painted canary yellow picked out in green with red wheels.” The symbolic value of this cart as a vessel for journey both physical and imaginative is further established by Toad’s statement “there real life for you, embodied in that little cart”
  • Characterisation is used to express the different attitudes towards imaginative journey. Toad is depicted as loud, verbose and exuberant through the flowing structure of his dialogue, punctuated by exclamations and clichéd rhetoric. His first words are “There you are!” and he launches into a spiel about “the open road, the dusty highways, the heath, the common, the hedgerows, the rolling downs”. His excitable and definite nature appears to complement his extravagant and imaginative speculation about journey – “travel, change interest, excitement! The whole world before you and a horizon that’s always changing!” This is an endorsement of the potential of any kind of journey to be a rewarding experience, but like The Ivory trail cover, Toad tries to use imaginative journey to persuade Mole and Rat.
  • Mole seems impressionable and easily led. He is willing to join in Toad’s imaginative journey, and is indeed ‘tremendously interested and excited’, but his lack of dialogue suggests that he is a weak character without the necessary spirit to initiate an imaginative journey on his own. However he is an eager follower and is clearly sensitive to the imagery Toad lays before him. The juxtaposition of these three vastly different characters, united by their response to imaginative journey, highlights the role of personality in its appreciation and value. Mole, without dialogue, may come to represent the responder, absorbing the attitudes of the stronger Rat and Toad
  • The character of Rat embodies all those who do not wish to engage with the imagination at all, even when offered the chance by someone else. Everything about Rat seems sedentary or slow. The Phrase “thrust his hands deep into his pockets” suggests a heavy foundation in reality, in the here and now, and Rat’s first dialogue is said “slowly”. Rat attempts to destabilise Toad’s decisive “when we make our start this afternoon” by picking it apart “did I overhear you say something about ‘we’ and ‘start’ and ‘this afternoon’?” Both toad and rat are clearly vying for the support of the impressionable Mole, each using different techniques of rhetoric to persuade him to their own attitudes about imaginative journey.
  • Toad’s jocular ‘ I want to show you the world. I’m going to make and animal of you my boy!’ is rejected by Rat’s final high-modality statement “I am going to stick to my old river, and live in a hole, and boat, as I’ve always done” This emphatically defines him as conservative and unwilling to explore the possibility of imaginative journey.

4.Journey to the interior: - Margaret Atwood

  • The imaginative Journey allows us to conceptualise our lives or experiences as journeys.
  • In this text, this is done through a detailed extended metaphor that compares the examination of one’s inner self with a physical journey through a harsh landscape.
  • The title “Journey to the Interior” is a play on words referring both to an inner journey of self-discovery and a physical journey inland. This title appeals to the Australian cultural connotations of ‘interior’, calling to mind the often ill-fated expeditions of early explorers in the central desert.
  • The composer imagines her own journey of introspection in terms of a trek through difficult terrain. The initial tone is contemplative, as the composer muses that ‘travel is not the easy going /from point to point’. The hardship of the journey is suggested through imagery - “I move surrounded by a tangle of branches; a net of air and alternate light and dark”. The contrast and confusion evident here subside into the resigned tone of ‘At all times …there are not destinations apart from this’
  • The poem’s structure aids its construction of meaning, as the first two stanzas simply examine similarities and differences – “There are similarities I notice:” “There are differences of course:” between the physical and emotional journeys, evaluating the ability of the imagination to adequately express an inner journey. Yet even as the composer lists differences, she continues the metaphor, referring to distraction as “A sentence crossing my path, sodden as a fallen log I’m sure I passed yesterday”.
  • The third stanza comes to a conclusion about the validity of an imaginative expression of this journey – “words here are as pointless /as calling out in a vacant wilderness”

5. Blood on the Tracks: Renay Walker

  • Imaginative journey is a manifestation of the cultural significance of the Journey concept
  • This is the basic argument of this text, which puts forward a number of examples of imaginative journeys or imaginative representations of journey to support its assertion in the first paragraph that the road metaphor is widely significant to humanity. These examples include the Wizard of Oz, La Strada, Mad Max, Ulysses Gaze and The Lord of the Rings. Particularly effective is the juxtaposition of Homer’s Odyssey with Kubric’s 2001:A Space Odyssey which simply communicates the scope of the journey’s cultural significance.
  • This first paragraph explores various elements of the road metaphor through the language of the journey concept. Words such as “cuts across” “intersect” “movement” “freedom of motion” “parallel” and “signpost” not only directly express the idea presented, but combine to build a system of ‘journey’ imagery intended to inspire interest in the concept.
  • The significance of imagination to journey is introduced with the list of fictional titles mentioned above, and the assertion that “it (journey) has found its way into genres as varied as the musical, western, film noir and science fiction”
  • This article/review examines the power of the imagination in conceptualising, depicting and sharing journeys, in this case through a metaphor with many layers of meaning – the road. The deeply human nature of this metaphor is communicated in the texts title – ‘Blood on the tracks’
  • “The road metaphor has become so embedded in an understanding of ourselves that is has even paved the way for its own film genre”
  • “We encounter our travellers heading for the borders of their identity” –continuation of texts own use of journey metaphor

6. Journey over land and sea: - Smithsonian Library

  • Imaginative journeys are inspired by and inspire physical journeys
  • This text suggests this through a discussion of early exploration of the physical world. The text outlines an exhibition at the Smithsonian Library that “documents the ever expanding world view of human kind” through a collection of texts, artefacts and specimens.
  • A cycle of exploration, narration, inspiration and more exploration emerges that validates imaginative journeys as a way of synthesising and explaining fragmentary understandings of the unknown and encouraging a quest for greater knowledge.
  • This cycle is suggested in the first paragraph, which says of early explorers ‘their tales of discovery…compelled others to pursue the unknown farther from home’. This assertion is complemented by the two graphics, which show detail from early maps and illustrated guides. The fantastic imagery of monsters, storms, stars, suns and moons show the ‘author’s wonder for the unusual, whether real or imagined’, indicating how experiences of physical travellers were interpreted in imaginative ways using icons of danger, magic, beauty and mystery.
  • These images also force the responder to question their own worldview, and how much of their reality is constructed from understandings gained from imaginative journeys.

7. Excerpt from: The town where time stands still – Shirley Geok-lin Lim

  • Imaginative Journeys may alter our lives and understandings.
  • This text explores the motives behind imaginative journeys, using a series of balanced sentences to compare action with reason. People, states the composer ‘Have threaded their baser motives of profit and pleasure with …the search for the genii loci”, and “seek an external geography that will act on their internal psychology”. This balancing of sentences roots the abstracted tone of the excerpt in a simple series of revelations that culminate in the phrase ‘blessed and altered’. These last words communicate a final, favourable impression of the journey and point to its inherent value.