Imaginative works such as novels, plays, films, fairy tales, and legends present a more accurate and meaningful picture of human experience than do factual accounts. Because the creators of fiction shape and focus reality rather than report on it literally, their creations have a more lasting significance.
Do imaginative works hold more lasting significance than factual accounts, for the reasons the speaker cites? To some extent the speaker overstates fictions comparative significance. On balance, however, I tend to agree with the speaker. By recounting various dimensions of the human experience, a fictional work can add meaning to and appreciation of the times in which the work is set. Even where a fictional work amounts to pure fantasy, with no historical context, it can still hold more lasting significance than a factual account. Examples from literature and film serve to illustrate these points.
I concede that most fictional works rely on historical settings for plot, thematic, and character development. By informing us about underlying political, economic, and social conditions, factual accounts provide a frame of reference needed to understand and appredate imaginative works. Fact is the basis for fiction, and fiction is no substitute for fact. I would also concede that factual accounts are more accurate than fictional ones--insofar as they are more objective. But this does not mean that factual accounts provide a more meaningful picture of the human experience. To the contrary, only imaginative works can bring an historical period alive by way of creative tools such as imagery and point of view. And, only imaginative works can provide meaning to historical events--through the use of devices such as symbolism and metaphor.
Several examples from literature serve to illustrate this point. Twains novels afford us a sense of how 19th-Century Missouri would have appeared through the eyes of 10-year old boys. Melvilles Billy Budd gives the reader certain insights into what travel on the high seas might have been like in earlier centuries, through the eyes of a crewman. And the epic poems Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight provide glimpses of the relationships between warriors and their kings in medieval times. Bare facts about these historical eras are easily forgettable, whereas creative stories and portrayals such as the ones mentioned above can be quite memorable indeed. In other words, what truly lasts are our impressions of what life must have been like in certain places, at certain times, and under certain conditions. Only imaginative works can provide such lasting impressions.
Examples of important films underscore the point that creative accounts of the human experience hold more lasting significance than bare factual accounts. Consider four of our most memorable and influential films: Citizen Kane, Schindkr5 LaSt, The Wizard of O~ and Star Wars. Did Welles fictional portrayal of publisher William Randolph Hearst or Spielbergs fictional portrayal of a Jewish sympathizer during the holocaust provide a more meaningful picture of human experience than a history textbook? Did these accounts help give shape and focus to reality more so than newsreels alone could? If so, will these works hold more lasting significance than bare factual accounts of the same persons and events? I think anyone who has seen these films would answer all three questions affirmatively. Or consider The Wizard of O~ and Star Wars. Both films, and the novels from which they were adapted, are pure fantasy. Yet both teem with symbolism and metaphor relating to lifes journey, the human spirit, and our hopes, dreams and ambitions--in short, the human experience. Therein lies the reason for their lasting significance.
In sum, without prior factual accounts fictional works set in historical periods lose much of their meaning. Yet only through the exercise of artistic license can we convey human experience in all its dimensions, and thereby fully understand and appreciate life in other times and places. And it is human experience, and not bare facts and figures, that endures in our minds and souls.
体坛英语资讯:Madrid Clasico postponed due to unrest in Catalan region
学会笃信生活的魔力
丝绸之路与欧亚经济联盟对接
“非行政许可审批”成历史
人类命运共同体里的中国担当
告别北京首座“摩天轮”
高校“学匪”根源探究
庆安官场被“链式举报”
国际英语资讯:AIIB membership complements Irelands development programs: minister
中国的“大众富裕阶层”
文化部严查农村“脱衣舞表演”
国际英语资讯:UN urges for patience on South Sudan parties to implement outstanding issues
商界大佬眼中的“互联网+”
“公民网络电子身份标识”签发
国内英语资讯:Chinese premier meets intl institutions leaders on world economy
国际英语资讯:BRI ideal platform to tackle emerging intl, regional challenges: experts
总理访拉美推动“产能走出去”
打造生态环境的“生命共同体”
国际英语资讯:EPP congress adopts climate policies
前国际足联高官承认“受贿”
《牛津词典》公布2019年度词汇:“气候紧急状态”
国内英语资讯:China, U.S. trade teams to maintain close communication: MOC
“抗日神剧”还能有多雷
无奈的“万能居委会”
“导盲犬”可乘坐北京地铁
Oppo旗下的Realme手机席卷印度,声势惊人
体坛英语资讯:ANALYSIS: Four things to look out for in Spains matchday 9
沙特阿美,全世界最能赚钱的公司要上市了
体坛英语资讯:Preview: Man Utd vs Liverpool the highlight of fascinating and tense Premier League weekend
女司机“变道”遭暴打
| 不限 |
| 英语教案 |
| 英语课件 |
| 英语试题 |
| 不限 |
| 不限 |
| 上册 |
| 下册 |
| 不限 |