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On Imagination
"It is impossible for me to write about the imagination; it is like asking a fish to describe the sea," Mary Ruefle announces at the start of her essay. With wit and intellectual abandon, Ruefle draws inspiration from Wittgenstein, Shakespeare, Jesus, Steve Jobs, Johnny Cash, and Emily Dickinson to explore her subject. The chapbook features original interior illustrations.
Mary Ruefle is the author of numerous volumes of poetry and prose, including Madness, Rack, and Honey: Collected Lectures, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism, and Selected Poems, winner of the William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America.
Mary Ruefle is the author of numerous volumes of poetry and prose, including Madness, Rack, and Honey: Collected Lectures, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism, and Selected Poems, winner of the William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America.
32 pages, Paperback
First published July 25, 2017
14 people are currently reading
636 people want to read
About the author
Mary Ruefle
46 books434 followersMary Ruefle is an American poet and essayist. The daughter of a military officer, Ruefle was born outside Pittsburgh in 1952, but spent her early life traveling around the U.S. and Europe. She graduated from Bennington College in 1974 with a degree in Literature.
Ruefle's work has been widely published in literary journals. She has received a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, a Whiting Writer's Award, a Guggenheim fellowship, and an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Ruefle currently lives in New England. She teaches in the MFA in Writing program at Vermont College and is visiting faculty with the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop.
For more information on this author, go to:
http://www.wavepoetry.com/authors/50-...
Ruefle's work has been widely published in literary journals. She has received a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, a Whiting Writer's Award, a Guggenheim fellowship, and an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Ruefle currently lives in New England. She teaches in the MFA in Writing program at Vermont College and is visiting faculty with the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop.
For more information on this author, go to:
http://www.wavepoetry.com/authors/50-...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 82 reviews
November 6, 2022
As Mary herself would likely say, better to use it than read about it.
April 4, 2017
“A man taught art at a university. When he came home after work his daughter asked him what he did that day. He said, ‘I taught people how to draw.’ And she said, ‘People forget how to draw?’ Artists are just people who have not forgotten how to draw, by which I mean create. But don’t be taken in; they have forgotten a great many other things. Sometimes they forget they are no longer eight years old. This is why artists are of a troublesome nature.”
December 13, 2023
I imagine that I love Mary Ruefle, and it’s true. I do love her. I love her imagination. I have no opinion on the goat.
August 26, 2018
This chapbook contains one essay, Mary Ruelfe's "On Imagination", it's 32 pages, and half them are illustrated. So those looking for a lot for the money spent on a book, probably shouldn't buy this one. That being said, I think it is a beautiful chapbook.
The essay is interesting, and thought provoking, and I'm probably going to read it again. Imagination is one of those things that may to some sound simple to define, but is a little more illusive than that. Mary Ruelfe does a good job here at bringing out the various ways imagination can work, and how it is to work with it. In my view, it is definitely worth the read.
The essay is interesting, and thought provoking, and I'm probably going to read it again. Imagination is one of those things that may to some sound simple to define, but is a little more illusive than that. Mary Ruelfe does a good job here at bringing out the various ways imagination can work, and how it is to work with it. In my view, it is definitely worth the read.
January 14, 2018
I love Mary Ruefle's brain. Every time I read something of hers, I feel as though I am more myself, or closer to being that person I want to be. I'm not sure how to explain it, otherwise. "On Imagination" is a fabulous short essay that explores Ruefle's (and other writers) thoughts on what we call the imagination. It is accompanied by lovely illustrations by Kristen Radtke. Definitely recommend picking this up.
June 25, 2020
“All I can tell you is that at long last I am myself and free, even if isolated, and I am happy when I want to be and sad when I feel like it, and about the only thing that troubles me is knowing how many people on earth do not have that privilege, some for external reasons and some for internal ones, and to these I bow and for these I pray.”
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November 1, 2020delightful!
February 25, 2018
Estoy muy feliz por haber encontrado (dos veces, además) a Mary Ruefle. Qué grande este libro tan chiquito. Qué ganas de abrazar a la cabra en el ático. 🌿🐐
January 2, 2023
starting my year off right with one of my favorites, mary ruefle, who never fails to shift how i think about the world in small but enormously significant ways.
"the imagination has its own life and its own autonomy, the imagination is not what you play with, the imagination plays with you. it has the power to both create and destroy, in form and deform.
imagination, deep in each of us, can give us what we need and want, that which we dream of, the reality of love and communion, help in our tired loneliness. haven’t you heard it said that one has to imagine the possibility of such dreams before they can become a reality, that one has to have dreamt of them?"
"the imagination has its own life and its own autonomy, the imagination is not what you play with, the imagination plays with you. it has the power to both create and destroy, in form and deform.
imagination, deep in each of us, can give us what we need and want, that which we dream of, the reality of love and communion, help in our tired loneliness. haven’t you heard it said that one has to imagine the possibility of such dreams before they can become a reality, that one has to have dreamt of them?"
April 22, 2020
Bello 🌱🐐
June 18, 2023
I like mistakes and goats, too.
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August 1, 2021“When I was a child I thought—imagined—that my parents did not love me because of all the terrible things they said and did to me. I was not yet experienced enough to imagine you could love someone and still do terrible things to them for reasons having nothing to do with your feelings for them. I could not then imagine having compassion for the people who did terrible things.
I still, in many circumstances, cannot. But I know my parents loved me, despite the terrible things, and this has been a great leap forward.”
I still, in many circumstances, cannot. But I know my parents loved me, despite the terrible things, and this has been a great leap forward.”
March 14, 2021
Hermoso.
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December 24, 2021"The evolution of our languages—the different languages of the human species—was a great act of imagination that continued enacting itself over a very long period of time and is still enacting itself. At some point in this continuum, when one spoke or wrote the word “tree,” the one listening or reading (which is a form of listening) had to see the image of a tree in their mind. Anything involving an image in the head is an act of imagination. We think in both images and words, and since words are imaginary enactments (the word “tree” is not a tree), thinking and imagining are one."
"Imagination, deep in each of us, can give us what we need and want, that which we dream of, the reality of love and communion, help in our tired loneliness. Haven’t you heard it said that one has to imagine the possibility of such dreams before they can become a reality, that one has to have dreamt of them?"
"The imagination is more like the moon than the sun because it is dependent on another thing and exists in no pure state by itself [the way the light of the moon is the reflected light of the sun, and has no light of its own]. It needs an openness to whatever is there at the moment and to not reject whatever is there because of any formulaic concept from out of the past. You can colonize a reader the way you can colonize a country. The imagination is not a privileged act; everyone engages in it. The imagination allows me to give a credence and an integrity to any existence outside of myself. Let us say I dream of deer in an enchanted forest and write a poem inspired by them. I don’t own the deer. They granted me their presence in the dream. I like to think of it as ‘spooky behavior over long distances,’ which is how scientists describe those electrons that respond to each other though far apart. Spooky behavior over long distances, that’s it. You can feel its presence."
"Imagination, deep in each of us, can give us what we need and want, that which we dream of, the reality of love and communion, help in our tired loneliness. Haven’t you heard it said that one has to imagine the possibility of such dreams before they can become a reality, that one has to have dreamt of them?"
"The imagination is more like the moon than the sun because it is dependent on another thing and exists in no pure state by itself [the way the light of the moon is the reflected light of the sun, and has no light of its own]. It needs an openness to whatever is there at the moment and to not reject whatever is there because of any formulaic concept from out of the past. You can colonize a reader the way you can colonize a country. The imagination is not a privileged act; everyone engages in it. The imagination allows me to give a credence and an integrity to any existence outside of myself. Let us say I dream of deer in an enchanted forest and write a poem inspired by them. I don’t own the deer. They granted me their presence in the dream. I like to think of it as ‘spooky behavior over long distances,’ which is how scientists describe those electrons that respond to each other though far apart. Spooky behavior over long distances, that’s it. You can feel its presence."
August 11, 2022
«Para mí es imposible escribir sobre la imaginación; es como pedirle a un pez que describa el mar.
He vivido por tanto tiempo con mi imaginación, y en mi imaginación, que no me acuerdo de un tiempo en la tierra sin ella. Es mi daimon, si existiera alguno. ‘El daimon es una especie de mellizo que merodea junto a ti, y es más vívido algunas veces cuando las cosas son duras, y te empuja a la vida que aceptaste vivir antes de caer en la amnesia del nacimiento y de olvidar todo el asunto’».
SOBRE LA IMAGINACIÓN de Mary Ruefle
He vivido por tanto tiempo con mi imaginación, y en mi imaginación, que no me acuerdo de un tiempo en la tierra sin ella. Es mi daimon, si existiera alguno. ‘El daimon es una especie de mellizo que merodea junto a ti, y es más vívido algunas veces cuando las cosas son duras, y te empuja a la vida que aceptaste vivir antes de caer en la amnesia del nacimiento y de olvidar todo el asunto’».
SOBRE LA IMAGINACIÓN de Mary Ruefle
November 16, 2017
A lovely little book that is large on image and poetic spirit. A book to reread often when the world becomes too little engaged in imagination and its possibilities.
March 12, 2018
breathtaking work.
April 13, 2021
thought provoking. i would like to read more of her work
December 14, 2017
Oh my goodness. I loved this.
January 22, 2018
The price of whimsy
If you can imagine paying for 100 or so words, quotes, or goats, buy this flash essay, and read it in your attic.
If you can imagine paying for 100 or so words, quotes, or goats, buy this flash essay, and read it in your attic.
September 17, 2017
I was a little resentful of paying $9.99 for a 30 page pamphlet (which is fully illustrated, so 15 pages of text), but it's Mary Ruefle. So I bought it, and I was right to.
April 1, 2018
“The imagination has its own life and its own autonomy, the imagination is not what you play with, the imagination plays with you. It has the power to both create and destroy, to both inform and deform.”
This essay on imagination is gold. So many amazingly bizarre and perfect analogies that put into words the beauty and power of imagination. Mary Ruefle proves that imagination and thinking go hand-in-hand, despite the fact that many people who would consider themselves to be the logical, “thinker” types would not consider themselves to also be creative or imaginative. But sometimes, an overactive imagination could be proof of even thinking too much. We are the people who relive every conversation of our day and imagine what everyone must be thinking of us. We are the people who hear a loud noise coming from outside of our house and decide it must be a monster or terrorist dead set on destroying us. It’s true that our imagination will play with us more often than we play with it. It’s also true that most of our worries, fears, anxieties, and insecurities likely stem from our imaginations getting the better of us. It is a beautiful, dangerous, wonderful thing.
This essay on imagination is gold. So many amazingly bizarre and perfect analogies that put into words the beauty and power of imagination. Mary Ruefle proves that imagination and thinking go hand-in-hand, despite the fact that many people who would consider themselves to be the logical, “thinker” types would not consider themselves to also be creative or imaginative. But sometimes, an overactive imagination could be proof of even thinking too much. We are the people who relive every conversation of our day and imagine what everyone must be thinking of us. We are the people who hear a loud noise coming from outside of our house and decide it must be a monster or terrorist dead set on destroying us. It’s true that our imagination will play with us more often than we play with it. It’s also true that most of our worries, fears, anxieties, and insecurities likely stem from our imaginations getting the better of us. It is a beautiful, dangerous, wonderful thing.
July 29, 2018
When she talked about the goat, there was only a picture of the grass it ate and I feared and assumed I would reach the end without her drawing it. Of course, I was free to imagine the goat on my own but while reading, I forgot I was allowed to do so. In fact, I admit that even while fearing and assuming and forgetting, I did actually imagine that goat but didn't allow myself to know it. In the end, she did draw us a goat and I was relieved and gave her 4 stars.
May 16, 2021
a nice short essay about (you guessed it) imagination
"Imagination, deep in each of us, can give us what we need and want, that which we dream of, the reality of love and communion, help in our tired loneliness. Haven’t you heard it said that one has to imagine the possibility of such dreams before they can become a reality, that one has to have dreamt of them?"
"Imagination, deep in each of us, can give us what we need and want, that which we dream of, the reality of love and communion, help in our tired loneliness. Haven’t you heard it said that one has to imagine the possibility of such dreams before they can become a reality, that one has to have dreamt of them?"
May 17, 2024
Muy bueno, lo recomiendo. La imaginación no idealizada sino en su amplitud. No me gusta que borre del todo la diferencia entre pensar e imaginar, y entre los enemigos imaginarios y los enemigos reales, pero creo que son detalles, y que vale mucho la pena revisar este precioso folleto.
July 20, 2017
Mary is astonishing as always
August 8, 2017
i raise a glass to the goat in the attic.
June 12, 2018
Brilliant. Funny. Thought provoking. Sassy. Amazing. Read it. Consume it. Immerse yourself.
January 13, 2021
Pura belleza
December 28, 2021
Lo ameeeeee , cortito y bacán . Me dieron ganas de hablar con ella de la vida juju
Displaying 1 - 30 of 82 reviews