 Fantasy: November 17, 2021 Issue [#11077] |
This week: Transformation Edited by: Robert Waltz  
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In Hinduism, Shiva is a deity who represents transformation. Through destruction and restoration, Shiva reminds us that endings are beginnings, and that our world is constantly undergoing a cycle of birth, death and rebirth.
—Karen Salmansohn
The great solution to all human problems is individual inner transformation.
—Vernon Howard
Fairy tales are stories of triumph and transformation and true love, all things I fervently believe in.
—Kate Forsyth |
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Everything changes.
Well, everything real, anyway. In fantasy writing, we often deal with the unreal -- but even there, anything that doesn't change is boring. How do you know something is real? Because it's not eternal.
Change can be slow, as with the erosion of stone, or fast, like the melting of a snowflake. It can be directed, like the construction of a building, or random, as when salt dissolves in water.
And sometimes it's sudden and unexpected, like a car crash or a tornado.
Nature is all about transformation. The turning of a caterpillar into a chrysalis and thence into a butterfly is an overused metaphor, but other natural processes are equally fascinating - acorn into oak, tadpole into frog.
The alchemists of the middle ages sought to transform lead into gold. Their search was fruitless, of course, unless you take it allegorically, but their attempts led to a serious investigation into chemistry, and contributed to the beginnings of science, which itself has transformed the word -- for better and for worse, but change isn't about value judgements; it just is.
Your words change an empty page or blank screen into a story or poem, which in turn has the power to transform the reader. Stories are all about change, with plots and character development and persevering through conflict to emerge on the other side, transformed.
Some people make a distinction between creation and destruction, but those are actually the same thing: both transformation. Granted, you're either increasing or decreasing entropy on a local level, but whether something is considered to be created or destroyed depends more upon our own desires. When you cut up a tree for firewood, are you destroying the tree or creating firewood? When you burn the firewood, are you destroying the wood, or creating life-supporting heat? It's a matter of perspective.
Nothing can truly be created or destroyed, though; only transformed. And sometimes, you have the power to decide exactly how.
What will you change today? |
Some fantasy for your enjoyment:
| | Reverie [E] #1791754
Crossing the line between reality and fantasy - An Open Expressions Entry
by 🌕 HuntersMoon  |
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Last time, in "Trees" , I talked about trees.
Sadly, no one cared enough about the trees to write a comment. If you have any thoughts about transformation, any insights about change, or anything you wish wouldn't change, feel free to send a comment below.
So that's it for me for November -- see you next month! Until then,
DREAM ON!!!
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