More blurred lines between fact and fiction:
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
The Parallel World in Panels
Jordan Johnson
One of the most prominent forms of sci-fi media to address the idea of parallel worlds is the comic book medium. Parallel worlds are a regular part of many comic book mythologies; often used as a tool with which to order the infinite number of narratives that occur in the context of the universe created. The topography created by the comic book form lends itself to the description of a space and manner in which parallel narratives interact.
Although the parallel world performs many functions in the context of the comic book narrative, most commonly it is interpreted literally and is depicted as a space in which aspects of the narrative (fictional histories) are re-written or re-interpreted.
The idea of the “multiverse”, (a term coined by psychologist William James in 1825) is also a popular convention of many super hero comic universes. Usually described as a space that functions outside of, but contains and connects a string of dimensions that are a part of the narrative of that universe as a whole. The DC comic universe provides a good example of this space, which is represented by “The Bleed”, a liminal area outside of space and time that serves as a buffer between the various worlds, as well as acting as a connecting vein through which travel between realities is possible.
Monday, October 4, 2010
Parallel World in Sound?
What is a "Parallel World"? How does it relate through sound? Maybe even a Panorama created with sound. With the help of a friend, I explored improvisation, both of us at the piano, which we recorded first, and then both of us vocalizing twice, creating the sound of four voices.
Art by aadrianmusic
Art by aadrianmusic
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Imagined Realities in The Country of the Blind
H.G. Wells must have heard the saying the grass is greener on the other side more than a few times in his life as he takes this idiom and runs with it. He creates a greener space in the parallel worlds of “The Country of the Blind.” Whether romanticizing about the world of the blind or that outside, Wells’ protagonist Nunez allows his imagination to distort reality and create a paradisiacal fantasy that can never be attained.
H.G. Wells introduces this tale with an unstable narrator who immediately admits “the rest of this story… is lost to me.”[1] The narrator establishes a temporal and physical lower world that is “somewhere over there”[2]. This is a story of an Other World with over a dozen versions altering and editing the facts. It is also one with unreliable citizens who revise reality to suit their collective condition of blindness. From the beginning, H.G. Wells is hinting to the reader that everything read, seen, or heard should not be trusted. Or rather, various versions of one narrative can exist.
These are tempting fictions that contain the possibility of a better life. The country of the blind is a paradise “with sweet water…slopes of rich brown soil…and great hanging forests of pine” [3] where Nunez can be king. The outside world is freedom where he can escape servitude.
It is only when Nunez enters these worlds that his absurd fantasies reveal themselves to be false. Despite various attempts, Nunez is never fully able to fit in with the blind citizens. He is punished for his difference and bullied into an irreversible surgical procedure. When he finally escapes to the outside of the valley wall, he becomes paralyzed with thoughts of the “Unexpected” and ultimately returns to the blind. Paradise is not so kind and freedom not so empowering.
By the end of the tale Nunez is again creating a fiction of the Other World. He imagines the outside world to have “stirring beauty, a glory of day…and a place of palaces and fountains...”[4]. However, this paradise is never reached. H.G. Wells ends the story in a state of suspension, where Nunez is laying under the vast sky in a space between worlds. The story will change the moment he enters this outside world. Reality will revise his narrative, adding to the multiple versions that already exist “somewhere over there.”
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