The release of a new Pixar animated feature—to me as welcome an event as the appearance of the daffodils in the front yard, and for much the same reason—set me to thinking recently about how much the essence of the imagination is latent in the word “animation.” The imagination animates the world. It sees all the objects of the world as alive, and not only alive but sentient. Nowadays, only children are allowed to believe that sort of thing. We have nasty words like “anthropomorphism” to judge those guilty, as some think, of the narcissistic imposition of human traits upon the non-human world. But in 1871, E. B. Tylor, in his influential book
March 25, 2022
March 25, 2022
March 25, 2022
The release of a new Pixar animated feature—to me as welcome an event as the appearance of the daffodils in the front yard, and for much the same reason—set me to thinking recently about how much the essence of the imagination is latent in the word “animation.” The imagination animates the world. It sees all the objects of the world as alive, and not only alive but sentient. Nowadays, only children are allowed to believe that sort of thing. We have nasty words like “anthropomorphism” to judge those guilty, as some think, of the narcissistic imposition of human traits upon the non-human world. But in 1871, E. B. Tylor, in his influential book