Illusion & Reality

The Interplay of Fantasy and Reality in Society

By Markus Blomér

Alice in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There by Lewis Carol

• Alice wanders around an illusory and fantastic wonderland, seeing many things and events that can only be explained through heavy use of dream logic. Written very stream of consciousness and unknowing to where it is going, as if dreamlike.

• Themes– Adult vs. Child– Reality vs. Fantasy– Stream of Consciousness

Lesson Idea-How is Wonderland in some ways the view of adult

society through the eyes of a child?

Alice in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There by Lewis Carol

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya by Nagaru Tanigawa

• Summary: Normal student Kyon just wants to coast through high school. This abruptly ends when the student sitting behind him announces that “I have no use for ordinary humans, but if any of you are aliens, time travelers, espers, or sliders come see me.” Thus he meets the girl who is less like a middle school student, and more like an unstoppable force of nature, Haruhi Suzumiya.

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya by Nagaru Tanigawa

• Themes– Reality vs. Fantasy– Philosophy (What is real?)– Time Travel

Lesson Idea-How is Kyon the everyday observer to all the

strange happenings going on? How does this relate to the idea of dreams, as well as a portrayal of the everyday citizen?

Brave Story by Miyuki Miyabe

• Summary: A mix of coming-of-age and dreamlike, Brave Story tells the tale of Wataru’s flight from his despondent reality into the fantastic world of Vision, where if he finds five gems and venture to the so called Tower of Destiny, he will be granted a wish by the Goddess. The first part of the book details his learning and eventually flight from reality, the second part deals with his adventures in Vision.

Brave Story by Miyuki Miyabe

• Themes– Fantasy vs. Reality– Running Away (from Reality)– Family Relationships and Problems– Coming-of-Age

Lesson Idea-How is Wataru’s story a story of how his mind

changes, struggles, and matures over time? How is the environment a possible portrayal of himself?

Going Bovine by Libba Bray

• Summary: Cameron is an average student who wants to just cruise through high school on autopilot. This falls flat when he finds out he has contracted mad-cow disease, which is slow degeneration of the mind and brain, which eventually kills you. He ends up being recruited by a punk-rock angle Dulcie to do as follows: “You’ve got to find Dr. X, get him close to the wormhole before the whole planet goes up in flames. Before everything is obliterated.” Thus he embarks on the journey to find the illusive Dr. X, time travelling physicist, being aided by other oddities, all the while wondering if this is real or some construct his degrading brain is putting forth.

Going Bovine by Libba Bray

• Themes– Adolescence– Terminal Illness– Reality vs Fantasy– Unreliable Narrator

Lesson Idea-How big of an impact does our body have on our mind, and vice versa? Have

students select a specific illness, syndrome, or condition, have them write a short summary, then have them write a piece as if they were afflicted or becoming afflicted by that affliction. (Anything from losing a limb to going deaf to Alzheimer’s to schizophrenia)

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey

• Summary: “Chief” Bromden, our narrator, is an inmate in an insane asylum, watching the constant power struggles, between the rebellious McMurphy and the iron-fisted head nurse Ratched. McMurphy slowly begins to gather people on his side, allowing them to stand up for themselves. But considering they are in an insane asylum, this isn’t going to turn out very pretty or elegant in the end.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey

• Themes– Unreliable Narrator– Mental Illness– Prisons/Mental Asylums (Open vs Closed Worlds)– Reality vs Fantasy

Lesson Idea-Consider the fact that the author had experience working at

a mental hospital, and while working took psychoactive drugs. How does this affect your interpretation of the story? How would this effect the author’s perception when writing it?

Yume Nikki (Dream Diary)

• Summary: A shut-in, preteen girl named Madotsuki gets lost inside her dreams. No backstory, dialogue, or real plot given, just the player wandering around her dreamworld, being hopelessly lost, and allowing the player’s own subconscious to gnaw at them while the eerie worlds slowly effect the player’s psyche.

Yume Nikki (Dream Diary)

• Themes– Viewer/Student Interpretation– Textless Story– Lucid Dreaming– Fantasy vs Reality– Alternate Medium

Lesson Idea-Prompt: Write as if you were lucid in a dreamlike world.

What kinds of beings or places would you find? How does the state and inhabitants of a dream reflect the dreamer?

Synthesis Lessons

• After Alice in Wonderland & Yume Nikki: have the students describe the two dreamworld and how they could be analyzed to determine the mental health of the dreamer. Based on the dreamworld, who has the more stable mind? (In general, Alice in Wonderland is more surreal and whimsical, while Yume Nikki gives an intense feeling of being lost, alienated, and depressed)

• Brave Story & Going Bovine: How can trying to escape via fantasy be linked to the idea of mental illness? Why is it ok for children to escape into a daydream, but not adults? How does the breakdown of the body affect the mind?

Synthesis Lessons

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