The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-11-01
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
STIMULATING THE IMAGINATION

to induce all the writers and would
be writer's to test themselves is, of
course, another problem, as yet I'M
solved.
| In recent years there has appeared
a vast literature designed to show that
ianybody who is so inclined can turn
out fiction. The, result Of this teach
! ing has been that ma gazine offices are
| flooded with neat stories carefully put
| together by rule and carefully con-
forming to the psychology of reader
and editor, as the textbook advised.
| Thus scarcely a fiction writer in
| the country remains ignorant of the
! esta blished fact that editors abhor
blue ribbon bows on manuscript. 1t
| is widely understood that a rolled
manuscript would be coldly returned
unread. Also. few if any fiction manu-
| facturers are unaware that a happy
ending is as necessary to a story as
a snappy beginning. Editors, writer
/ is told, acquire the habit of reading
\ the first page and a last of a story.
apathy the interior of the manuscript
may be explored. Such beliefs have
become tradition among the vast
circle of fictioneers.
The creative faculty, being more
elusive has been passed over vaguely
assumed thai a certain amount of
| ina ghation goes with the desire to
create characters and plots Never
the less most of the fiction writer's
who never land simply lack a flexible
ina gination- They are encouraged by
! friends and by their own Judgments
to weave stories when they have no
inventive talents or when their i'm
aginations run along stereotyped lines.
1t must be admitted that OCCASION
ally fiction writers attain success in
spite of this defect A charming style,
a knack of writing from the humor-
lists viewpoint, may raise the most
hackneyed plot out of the ordinary.
or humor goes with an original and
ina ginative mind.
The problem of classifying imagi-
nation from a literary standpoint
attracted DR.. Edwin Slosson and DIR.
June Downey. DR.: Slosson is an edi-
tor, author, and teacher OF Journalism.
DR.. Downey is a writer and professor
of psychology at the University of
Wyoming. Using as subjects college
students, mainly those interested in
| creative writing, a variety of tests
were made.
Tests from the Agony Column.
For test material DIR. Slosson went
first of all to the personal column of
the London Times. The personal
column in this particular paper is
notable for its unusual messages, and
is popularity known as the agony
column" Lovers who cannot write
or get together exchange cryptic ca
dearments. Business firms send sig
nails in code. Mothers beg estranged
sons to return home. and people of
peculiar talents advertise here hop
ing that some reader may need Their
services
Most of the messages are only for
the person to whom they are ad-
dressed, and Che general reader must
guess at the meaning. Such n mes
sage as "Golliwog.-The gold is gone.
attempted burglary, or a business deal,
or it might be a lovers sentim entail
way of saying that a trouble-making
blonde had passed out of his life.
DR.. Downey tried a series of these
items on students asking them to
sonal and classified the results ac-
cording to grades of imagination. We
quote her divisions of imagination
here because it may be of interest to
the reader to classify his own creative
faculty.
The divisions are: Cd the inert
imagination; CD the stereotyped i'm
agination; CD the melodramatic
Imagination; C5) the particularizing
imagination; CD the ingenious or in
ventive ina gination.
The last class contains persons who
construct an unusual and interesting
situation from a hint such as the
personals give. They avoid the OBJ
vious conclusions which the stereo-
typed lima gination seizes upon. Their
imagination is stimulated easily. They
do not reject the plot germ in a
personal as trivial or meaningless, as
the inert nagina ton does.
The generaliZing type of magma
ton is not specific enough for fiction
and the results on paper are apt to
be distractions. This sort of imagi-
nation usually accompanies the scien-
tific turn of mind.
The particularizing Imagination, on
the other hand. is of real assistance
notes the little things that distinguish
people and situations has fiction ma
terial If he can use it skillfully.
When the fifth and sixth types are
combined the possessor has a prom
Using equipment for creating stories.
The Individual who regards him
self as lacking in lima gination may be
encouraged by the fact that this
faculty can to some extent be devel-
oped. In a recent book on the subject.
their experiments in training as well
as testing the creative ina gination.
They point out that certain famous
artists deliberately stimulated their
creative impulse by devices:
MANY of the minor eccentricities
of genius appear to be the outcome
of accidental discoveries of ways of
increasing brain activity. Rousseau
ana Sneney were given TO exposing
the barred head to the hottest of
midday suns; and Whitman wrote
much of his Leaves of Grass while
prone upon the white sands of Long
Island beach. with such a sun as only
seems to blaze there"
Music and Colors Stimulate.
DIR. Downey further points out that
Darwin found scientific reflections
stimulated by music. and that Wag-
ner's sense Of the dramatic was
heightened by the presence of rich
fabrics and colors-
Undoubtedly, different brains re-
spond to the stimulation of different
senses. DR.. Downey tried experiments
with combinations of odorS on
students. Music was similarly en-
ploYed to see whether themes would