The Great Tree of Possibilities
I was pondering the implication of the name "The Great Tree of Possibilities" again as I read my mother's Myst fanfiction Visitation.
You see, your average tree has a trunk from which all its branches spread. That trunk is essentially the visible starting point. Thus, the simile implies that all possibilites spring from one fact or one deed. What if that fact is based in more facts or that deed was caused by millions of others before it? When you reach the last of Tree's roots, what do you see? Those little tubers are in turn are in the soil. I think that soil is ultimately reality, truth.
I believe that even possibility must operate in firm fact.
As for how Ages come to be, I think that they probably come from the infinite mind of the Maker. Writers merely decribe places that either exist as possiblities or as fully functional worlds.
I don't know that the writers followed their own thinking to such a basic level.
ReplyDeleteBut if those who made the original analogy considered that every real tree must be rooted in Earth, then perhaps the soil is indeed what truth they possess. Fictions work best when they parallel what truly exists.
The basic disagreement between those who believed the worlds were made by the Art & those who ascribed the basic creation to the Maker were meant to reflect those who believe in a Creator here with those who do not. Your choice is not surprising given your beliefs. For the same reasons, I agree with you. :)
Visitation began as another one of those very vivid dream-visions I was given in that period. I could see a value in it even when I first began to share it. I hoped it would do that community good. For those who have ears to hear it may yet prove a blessing.
I'd like to claim some sort of profound inspiration for it, but that wouldn't explain why D'ni Dentistry was just as vivid (& came the same way). That story was positively silly!
Glad you enjoyed it, kiddo. ;-)
I will try to finish my Myst novel -
just for you
Love,
Mom