Some Cliches Are At Least True. This One Isn't

[poliphilo]

I hate that phrase "beyond imagination" (David Attenborough just used it in a trailer for his series about the wildlife of the poles.) Nothing is beyond imagination. I can imagine anything that exists and an infinite number of things that don't. You name it and I'll imagine it. 

Comments

[idahoswede.livejournal.com]

Yes, but think how many people you know of very limited imagination.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I suppose... but we're talking about imagination in the abstract here, not about particular individuals.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

The physicists tell us that there may be 11 dimensions: I do find that quite hard to imagine.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I thought someone might mention that...

I dunno, I can imagine 11 dimensions in the sense that I'm willing to entertain the idea. Does imagination have to include understanding?

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I can entertain the idea, but I can neither do the maths necessary to understand it intellectually, nor picture it in my mind. I suppose it depends what you want to include in "imagination".

Alternatively, could we say that the fact that you can't imagine something beyond your imagination is itself a limit on your imagination? A kind of inversion of Anselm's proof for the existence of God?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I picture it as an eleven tiered wedding cake- or a complex arrangement in perspex.

Things I can't imagine in their actuality I can imagine through symbols and metaphors.

[setsuled.livejournal.com]

Something I really loved about the Comic-Con exclusive trailer for Mirrormask Dave McKean put together, its title cards between footage said something like, "In a world . . . not beyond your imagination . . . because we think you're pretty clever." I think we'd see the cliche a lot less if filmmakers were given more control over the trailers for their films. The actual Mirrormask trailers were nowhere near as good.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I like that.

If someone has invented a world and put it up on the screen it's obviously not beyond the imagination.

[chiller.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but have you SEEN Frozen Planet? Because damn.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

'Fraid not. Wild life programmes are one of my blind spots-
though I'll devour anything about dinosaurs. Go figure....