2 Responses to “Dateline North Pole”

1. Ash Says:
   December 14th, 2009 at 6:06 pm

   I’ve thought about this for a while now.

   I don’t think it’s so much the case that grown-ups don’t let themselves believe in magic, or that they intentionally close down their hearts, or staunchly refuse to hope.

   I think the problem is less in belief, and more in the suspension of disbelief. We notice inconsistencies and errors more readily. They feel more like dealbreakers than they do when you’re a kid, when the world seems inconsistent anyway. Somehow, when you get down to it, we want magic and fantasy that makes sense, that still seems plausible and possible to us, burdened as we are with decades of experience in the Real World.

   The REAL core of the issue, however, is that adults no longer get to imagine things. Having a vivid imagination, seeing multiple possibilities, some of them outlandish, can actually be a detriment for an adult: to imagine other ways the world can be is too painful a counterpoint to the way we actually have to make a living, day in, day out. And I think that’s why some people resent and belittle people who do creative things for a living, whatever they are — clearly, if they’re still willing and able to do something as unstable as IMAGINE, if they can’t settle down and accept the world as it is, they’re still immature.

   I think some of the best fantasy movies are those that try to acknowledge this issue — perhaps few better than Mary Poppins.

2. Darcy Ebo Says:
   March 26th, 2010 at 5:02 pm

   What really bothered me was reading that Jesse James said the marriage was a sham in order to justify his cheating to one of his other “women”.

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