The Nature of Imagination

Napoleon Hill, in his classic book of spiritual success, "Think and Get Rich", codified the imaginative process by dividing it into two distinct categories: Synthetic Imagination, and Creative Imagination. Following is Hill's description of the first category:

SYNTHETIC IMAGINATION:
Through this faculty one may arrange old concepts, ideas or plans into new combinations. This faculty creates nothing. It merely works with the material of experience, education and observation with which it is fed. It is the faculty used most by the inventor, with the exception of the "genius" who draws upon the creative imagination when they cannot solve a problem through synthetic imagination.

Synthetic imagination is probably the most common type of imagination used by writers and filmmakers. By their very nature, high-concept ideas and genre-benders draw from it, assembling plots, worlds and characters from pre-existing sources. Perhaps the best-known example of this is Star Wars, in which George Lucas combined elements from sources as diverse as:

2001: A Space Odyssey
Flash Gordon serials
E. E. Doc Smith's Lensman books
Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy
Frank Baum's The Wizard of Oz
John Ford's The Searchers
Akira Kurosawa's Hidden Fortress
Fritz Lang's Metropolis
Joseph Campbell's Hero With a Thousand Faces

We can even see the process of synthetic imagination at work in the art design in Star Wars; for instance, Darth Vader's mask and head-gear are clearly influenced by Samurai helmets. The very fusion of the ancient and the futuristic can be considered synthetic. (Other elements of Vader's costume may or may not have been drawn from the villains of Norman Jewison's Jesus Christ Superstar.)


We can also look at The Matrix as an example, wherein elements from Japanese animation, Hong Kong action films, and 1980s science fiction movies can all be discerned.

The other type of imagination is described by Hill as follows:

CREATIVE IMAGINATION:
Through the faculty of creative imagination, the finite mind of humankind has direct communication with Infinite Intelligence. It is the faculty through which "hunches" and "inspirations" are received. It is through this faculty that all basic or new ideas are developed.

This description reminds me of something Jim Henson once wrote:

"I don't know exactly where ideas come from, but when I'm working well ideas just appear. I've heard other people say similar things--so it's one of the ways I know there's help and guidance out there. It's just a matter of our figuring out how to receive the ideas or information that are waiting to be heard." (It's Not Easy Being Green, and Other Things to Consider, p. 16)

I can attest to what Henson says here; intense creative work definitely seems to be a mechanism for producing flashes of inspiration. To wit: once, while writing under deadline (a script that had to be completed in two weeks), I spent so many waking hours writing, that about halfway into this marathon session, I began dreaming scenes in my sleep (some of which were coherent enough to include in the draft).

David Lynch also states that meditation can be a way to foster the creative imagination:

"An idea is a thought. It's a thought that holds more than you think it does when you recieve it. But in that first moment there is a spark. In a comic strip, if someone gets an idea, a lightbulb goes on. It happens in an instant, just as in life...

"Ideas are like fish. If you want to catch little fish, you can stay in the shallow water. But if you want to catch the big fish, you've got to go deeper. Down deep, the fish are more powerful and more pure. They're huge and abstract. And they're very beautiful...Everything, anything that is a thing, comes up from the deepest level...The more your consciousness--your awareness--is expanded, the deeper you go toward this source, and the bigger the fish you can catch." (Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity, p. 1, 23)

For numerous examples showing how famous writers and filmmakers have utilized the creative imagination, see this previous post, The Germ of an Idea.

The True "Spine" of the Story

Above: Elia Kazan directing Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront

Screenwriting gurus Robert McKee and Linda Seger have made much of the concept known as the "spine" of the story in their seminars and writings, variously likening it to a simple logline, or in McKee's words, the critical "deep desire and effort by the protagonist to restore the balance of life."

The term and concept of the "spine," however, did not originate with either of those gurus, but with the legendary director Elia Kazan, known primarily for "A Streetcar Named Desire," "On the Waterfront," "Death of a Salesman," "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," and others.

Although Kazan was known for his skills as a director, not a writer, he defined the spine in a far better and more profound manner than those modern gurus have. To be fair, the concept may have not originated with him, but with his renowned mentors, Lee Strasberg and Harold Clurman, or with Konstantin Stanislavsky (known as the founder of the Method). Whatever the case, Kazan's voluminous notes, kept throughout the years, elucidate the concept in great detail, perhaps in a better and clearer manner than any who came before or after him. They have thankfully been transcribed and reprinted in the book Kazan on Directing (New York: Vintage Books, 2009).

To quote from his notes:

The [director's] first job is to find a "center" or "core" for the work and for the production. The more integrated this center is, the more integrated will be the production. Once it is established, the base direction has been made. All else devolves from this...

The study of the script should result in a simple formulation that sums up the play in one phrase, a phrase that will be a guide for everything the director does. He begins with the simple words: "For me, this play is about..." The phrase should delineate the essence of the action that transpires on the stage [or film], it should reflect what is happening, what the characters are doing. It must imply effort, progression, transition, MOVEMENT. The concept must suggest not only the events, but the [film's] mood and color, its emotional landscape and form. It is to serve as the key for the production, what will give it unity...

Kazan provides the following examples of spines from his and others' productions:

"Search for happiness among petty objects"
"Fight for achievement"
"To live with honor"

Some of my own spines for some popular Hollywood movies:

The Matrix - "Discover the true nature of reality"
Unforgiven - "Justify the use of violence"
Saving Private Ryan - "Find humanity in war"
The Exorcist - "Save innocence from darkest evil"
Spiderman 1, 2 & 3 - "Overcome the burdens of being a hero"
Titanic - "Fight for love against all human and natural forces"

In a future posting, we'll look at the spines of additional popular films and how that spine has informed the stories of those films.