Raise your hands if you recognized that title. Keep your hands up if you have a kid who resembles Calvin in some small way. Why yes, there's a bit of Calvin in my son. Why do you ask? *wink*
Calvin and Hobbes has been one of my favorite comics since I was a kid. Calvin is someone who would make an excellent writer if he ever applied himself to learning what his parents and teachers have been trying to teach. That imagination is amazing. He goes from seeing himself as a giant T-rex to Stupendous Man to Spaceman Spiff. He believes that his stuffed tiger is real when no one else is around (who likes to pounce on him) and has an evil genius when it comes to snowmen. He can believe in reverse gravity, suddenly growing larger, and that he can build a duplicator machine to make copies of himself to do his work. And he comes up with new stories on the spot to explain why he didn't do his homework.
If he'd just do his homework right away, he could take the time he'd spent dithering to turn all those stories into a book. Makes you wonder how much of Calvin was in Bill Watterson as a kid, doesn't it? Hehe.
What sort of flights of fantasy did you take yourself when you were growing up and have you used any of them to kickstart your stories?
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4 comments:
Calvin is a favorite around this house! As for myself, I used to get in trouble at school all the time when I was a kid, for daydreaming. Interestingly, when I tried really, really hard to stop daydreaming (making up stories in my head) I had this horrible panicky feeling hit me. I quickly decided that I was just intended by the universe to be a daydreamer and I should go along with it. :D I still daydream, only now I put those daydreams in a text file. I guess the universe knew what it was doing!
I used to pretend every large cardboard box was a spaceship. I draw buttons and controls on the inside and everything.
Loved that. Great post, Jaleh. You got me reminiscing.
Jai
Way to make that daydreaming work for you, Jennifer. :D I did most of my daydreaming while I was reading. I could tune everything out while I was in one.
You'd probably be a blast to play spaceships with, Jai. We'd just need one of those refrigerator boxes now. Or better yet, a couple of them to make a really cool shuttle.
I was Calvin as a child. Every box was a transmogrifier (or the Millenium Falcon), every stick a sword.
And, like Calvin, I also once reduced my father's binoculars to a fine powder.
It was not a happy day.
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