I remember
it well even all these years later. It was my first time to ride a dragon and
not only was it a dragon but it was the great bronze Mnementh. Seated firmly
behind F’lar I felt the initial surge as Mnementh sprang into the sky and then
we were higher than I had ever been in my life. I exhilarated in this new
freedom but little suspected that I too would become one of the Dragonriders of Pern.
Battling and
juggling we made our way across Magipoor, myself, Sleet, Carabella, the skandar
brothers and the rest learning new routines and new truths about ourselves as
we made our way towards Lord Valentines
Castle.
Having that
moon madness was frustrating but making the trip with Ross, Morrie, Art and
Doctor Donald Cargraves was a dream come true. Rocket Ship Galileo was the first true moon ship or so we thought.
Learning the
truth about The Star was devastating
but who am I to doubt Gods wisdom.
I grew to
maturity with Taran in my journey through the Chronicles of Prydain.
I never
expected to master the art of shape changing as Morgan and I unraveled the Riddle of Stars.
All these
things I have done. The possible and the impossible are how I spend my free
time and I look forward to the next challenge and the next adventure.
We are all
solitary creatures living in our own heads and nowhere else. No matter our
location or what we experience the information is processed and stored by our
brains as a memory. Now please understand that I can tell the difference
between an actual event and one that comes from the pages of a book but
nonetheless the emotions produced by these different sources are very similar.
I have been
to the moon which is an adventure that I will never have in real life but the
excitement I felt was real and it is a memory that I cherish and I have worked
magic at levels that stage magicians can only dream of. I have lost friends to
that which is evil and I have vanquished that evil. I have done so many things
that real life does not permit and I have had several lifetimes’ worth of love,
joy sorrow, guilt, shame, fear, ecstasy, despair, hope, achievement, triumph,
solitude, adventure and exuberance, none of which would have been possible
without a book.
It can
certainly be argued that motion pictures will produce similar memories and I
certainly do enjoy watching these but I think that movies limit the imagination
in that someone else has already made my decisions for me. In a book it is I
who creates the monster that frightens me not the special effects artists. When
I am told the heroine is beautiful it is my concept of beauty that I see in my
minds eye and the hero is patterned after the men that I admire. As a general
rule I don’t like movies made from books I have read in that it is jarring to
me to see the changes imposed by someone else’s interpretation of the content.
And so in closing, I wish you a good read in the worlds that you and your
favorite author collaborate in creating.
Sincerely yours
The rational anarchist
Comments