This is it. My journey with Haroun has come to a close. To wrap up all the goofy characters, motifs and references in a big, shiny bow, my allusion group was prompted to make a project.
Brainstorm!
http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/expanding-brain
The goal of said project was to portray our point of view when reading the story – allusions – to the rest of the class. When my group gathered together, we began the creative process like anyone else: by taking up space and breathing air. There were no light bulbs on day one, but that is quite all right; sometimes it is healthy to let a problem simmer on the back burner of the brain.
At first, thinking of a clever medium to explain the many convoluted references in “Haroun and the Sea of Stories” seemed a daunting task. But after a weekend break, our brains cooked up a perfect idea. On day two of the project, my group realized that instead of trying to simplify Rushdie’s sea of allusions, we could embrace it.
We finally agreed on a design with strings, pins and pictures. Imagine one of those murder mystery bulletin boards shown in detective movies, but plastered onto the wall of a high school classroom instead of a police office. The idea worked well; it looks complicated from a distance, but when observed closely, one begins to understand the many simple connections that make up the big picture.
The Process
Work was steady and the project was finished after a few class periods. First, we delved deeper into our lens, scavenging the book (and mainly the internet) for stories intertwined with HATSOS. I was surprised by some of our finds. One interesting nugget we discovered was the link between Mudra and Batman. Both are a Dark Knight of sorts, both fight for justice in a dark city, and both are considerably poor verbal communicators. You wouldn’t have caught that one in the first read-through, eh?
After finding a surplus of allusions, we got to work on the bulletin board. We danced through this part of the project; one member of the group would be sending images to the library printer, while another member would be dashing to retrieve them, while another would be cutting out pictures, while another would be pinning them up, and another would be jotting down explanations in Sharpie. This was when we really got into the flow of things.
The final product was just what I expected. Going off of my teacher’s rubric, I would give our group a solid 85%.
The system of strings and pins provided the message of complexity that we were going for; most people see allusions as simple references or shout-outs, but our project showed that they all join together to form a complex web that serves as the very foundation of any story. To be fair, the web ended up a bit shoddy due to our time constraints, which loses us a few points. So in conclusion, our final project was no work of art, but it reflected our outlook of the story well and provided the viewers with our unique insight.
http://battleofthebits.org/disk/battle/00001947/OHC01762%20.txt
The projects of the other groups were on a similar level. Both the satire and allegory groups produced some basic Prezis that were not original but provided clear definitions and helpful examples, like Will Ferrell’s satirical impression of George Bush. The mono myth group on the other hand was a bit more creative, using a board game as an analogy to take us through the many stages of the Hero’s Journey.
All in all, our class did well putting everything together. A for effort!
What is the Point of Telling Stories That Aren’t Even True?
This question has festered in my head since day one, and I think I finally have an answer. From the angle of allusions, fictional stories provide a world of escape.
Millions of stories have been communicated through hundreds of mediums, from paintings to video games. Most allusions are not simply plopped on top of a finished story; they are deeply embedded into every page, powered by our subconscious story-telling instincts. No story is completely original. To make one new story requires a web of old stories that build upon one another until they blend into a great sea.
Every story flows through this ocean, an ocean that has become so vast and deep that it has become a world in itself. This world revolves around ours. Its waves crash upon our shores and soak into our soil. This world is bound together by the strong force that is allusion. Allusions control the ebb and flow of every story – the calm, the rough, the wind and the storms.
https://thelma1.deviantart.com/art/Rainbow-Ocean-24693999
Allusions bind all stories into one magical place that you and I can visit just as much as Haroun. The world serves as an escape from reality that can feel just as real sometimes. It drives our motivations and fuels our imaginations. This world is what makes us human.
So what is the point of stories that aren’t even true? That’s what.
– Third-Eyed Robot
Third-Eyed Robot 