1 college comp 2 mr. reynolds 2/17/10

8/14/2019 1 College Comp 2 Mr. Reynolds 2/17/10

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College Comp 2

Mr. Reynolds

2/17/10

Don’t Nuke Your Imagination

I wake up in the middle of the night. I have no idea what time it

is. There’s a subtle, pink glow emitting from the night light in the

corner of my room, behind the mirror and beside the bookshelf. The

open door of my closet is casting a shadow that looks like the head of

a Doberman. As I roll from my right side to my left, I freeze. Dammit, I

remember. The evil clown.

I have no idea what possessed me to come up with him. I was

lying in bed one night, scared. I didn’t know what of, though, so I

started thinking about something to be scared of. Wow, was that

stupid.

He has flame orange hair that stands out in scraggily spikes. He

has large, black eyes with no distinct iris or pupil. His clothes looked

like someone made a jumpsuit out of an old ‘Twister’ mat. Large, red

shiny shoes, and to top it all off, a large, ugly knife dangles casually

from his right hand. Nothing aggressive ever happens, he just stands

there, just inside the doorway of my room. Once or twice he’s been at



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the foot of my bed, but still, nothing aggressive.

The evil clown is back. I shut my eyes, and start thinking about

puppies. It works for a few minutes, but I’m thinking with a split

screen: On the surface, happy puppies are playing. In the

background, though, there’s a monster mash. The girl from the

Exorcist crawling backwards down the stairs, John is wearing his pig

mask and crawling around the car in Saw 1, and the Paranormal

Activity demon is dragging Katie down the hall.

It’s times like these I almost wish my imagination had been

squandered a little better. Do all seventeen-year-old get too scared to

leave their bed at night? I wonder what my dad would say if he knew

how scared I got.

Years ago, my dad, mom, and I were in Target, waiting for my

mom to finish looking at the scented candles. We heard a loud roaring

noise from a few isles up. My dad and I left my mom to go take a look,

and we saw a little boy stomping and... roaring. He was wearing a

green shirt with a T-Rex on it, and his arms were pulled up to his hands

were up by his armpits, much like a T-Rex. He was shaking his head,

roaring, and walking slowly down the isle. Every time he took a step, a

loud ‘whoosh’ noise (made by the little boy) accompied it.

As my dad and I walked by to my mom, I said “Wow, kids sure

live in their own little world, huh?”

“Yep,” Dad replied. “And it’s a shame they ever leave it.”



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What gives a little boy the ability to become a T-Rex? Merriam-

Webster dictionary online states that the imagination is: the act or

power of forming a mental image of something not present to the

senses or never before wholly perceived in reality (Webster).

To me the imagination is the explanation of everything

around you. Someone imagined your clothes, the layout of the room

you’re in, the car you drove there in, and whatever material you’re

reading this on. I’ve heard people say ‘God created all things.’ If

anything, he gave us the imagination.

The imagination is what gives us the ability to dream, and from

dreaming the ability to create. Even the ability to plan and to foresee

problems with plans. Although one’s imagination may some times take

on a life of its own (evil clowns), without it, humans would have

nothing. We would be cave people. Would anyone have even thought

to put on clothes? Or that hitting something in the head hard enough

will kill it? If we had no imagination, would we have made it past year

1 B.C.?

The episode of South Park entitled ‘Imaginationland’ captures the

essence of the imitation perfectly. The boys (the four main characters:

Eric, Kyle, Stan and Kenny) are taken by Mr. Imagination to

Imaginationland. Once there, the boys see everything good that was

ever imagined: All the Disney characters, Ronald McDonald, Polly



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Pocket, Aslan the Lion, Santa… they’re all real and alive and have their

own community.

Shortly into the visit, Imagationland is suicide-bombed by the

bad side of the imagination: The Headless Horseman, Freddy Krueger,

Darth Maul, Cavity Creeps, Pinhead. The bad side has launched an all-

out war against the good side.

The boys rush home to alert someone to help the good side. The

Pentagon quickly gets on the case and use a Stargate (a portal that

allows you to visit another dimension, also imaginary) to try to make

contact with their imaginations, but ManBearPig (something from other

episodes, dreamt up by Al Gore) ends up getting through the gate.

After he runs rampant and kills a few people, the Pentagon decides

that the imagination is very dangerous and needs to be stopped. The

Pentagon decides to nuke their imaginations.

This starts a massive protest, and the question of ‘what is real?.

Part of the discussion is between Tom, one of the generals, Eric (one of

the boys) and a Stargate tech:

Eric: Look, maybe they're all part of the same thing--Santa and

Jesus and hell and leprechauns. Maybe they're all real in the

same way, right?

Tom: Santa Claus and leprechauns are imaginary, but Jesus and

hell are real.

Tech: Well then what about Buddha?



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Tom: Well, of course, he's imaginary.

Tech: Aw, see? Now, you're being intolerant, Tom. (IMDb)

In the heart-felt speech that South Park is well known for

wrapping up their episodes with, Kyle (one of ‘the boys’) says:

It's all real. Think about it. Haven't Luke Skywalker and Santa

Claus affected your lives more than most real people in this

room? I mean, whether Jesus is real or not, he--he's had a bigger

impact on the world than any of us have. And the same can be

said for Bugs Bunny and--and Superman and Harry Potter.

They've changed my life--changed the way I act on the earth.

Doesn't that make them kind of real? They might be imaginary

but, but they're more important than most of us here. And

they're all gonna be around here long after we're dead. So, in a

way, those things are more realer than any of us. (IMDb)

I think that is a brilliant way to look at the impact and importance

of one’s imagination. Our own thoughts and ideas and imagination

probably affect our mood and perception of the world just as much as

real people. In that way, our thoughts are more realer than anything.



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Work Cited

“Imagination.” Merriam-Webster On-Line Search. Merriam

Webster. 2010. Web. 15 Feb 2010.

IMDb. “’Imaginationland’ Quotes.” The Internet Movie Database.

2007. Web. 15 Feb 2010.

Westwood, Wild Willie. “The Guest Stars of ‘Imaginationland.’”

Feb 2010. 2007.

1 college comp 2 mr. reynolds 2/17/10

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