Mike Etzkorn: "Dear Michi Trota: Travelling Abroad to Bring Back a Small Souvenir"

Dear Michi Trota:  Travelling Abroad to Bring Back a Small Souvenir

By

Mike Etzkorn

            I have vivid memories of those days in kindergarten when Mrs. Fennel went around the class asking what each of us wanted to be when we grew up. “A doctor!” “A lawyer!” “A firefighter!” My classmates all gave typical responses until it got to me. “Superman!” I said excitedly grinning from ear to ear. At the time I was quite obsessed with him, even going so far as to dress up ashim for my birthday. My teacher tried to explain to me that it had to be something I could do for a job, but I insisted that being Superman was a real job. I also inspired several other students to not be afraid to think outside of the box. “A dinosaur!” “A mermaid!” “Batman!” The responses got a bit out of hand, and the teacher must’ve had enough because we all went back to doing our art projects and playing with Mr. Potato Head.

            Today, I know that my dream of becoming Superman might not come anytime soon. As I’ve grown up, I think I’ve lost parts of my imagination and creativity as science, math, and history help to better explain the world around me. The one solace I’ve had that helps rejuvenate that lost childhood wonder is books with their ability to whisk me away to fantastical lands on even more fantastical journeys. As Emily Dickinson said, [url=http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/182908 ]“There is no Frigate like a Book/ To take us Lands away”[/url]. Everything I’ve read from Harry Potter to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy has instilled wonderment about what’s beyond  this mundane realm we inhabit. A part of my childhood-self clings onto this notion that there must be more to the world we live in.

            I’ve had the chance to enjoy a variety of speculative fiction in my studies of it this semester. Most recently, I’ve had the wonderful opportunity to read Peter Beagle’s The Last Unicorn. Beagle does an excellent job of immersing the reader in this fantastical, humorous environment. I found myself literally laughing out loud when Jack Jingly struggles to remember the camp’s password, and the guard assists him in remembering it. When Jack finally gets it right, the guard informs him that they changed the password to the sound giraffes make.

The story’s incredible humor helped keep me engaged as a reader.  At the same time, Beagle incorporates heavier themes of immortality and death. More specifically, the idea that if we could live forever, would there be any reason to accomplish goals quickly? Beagle also talks about identity, figuring out who you are and what you stand for. These themes raise complex questions which bring an added bonus to the book, on top of the escape it provides for its reader.  Peter Beagle’s The Last Unicorn excellently portrays how a book can deliver both an amazing journey for the reader, helping them escape the nuance of everyday life while still challenging them with themes that raise complex questions.

On the science fiction end of the spectrum, the book I found that accurately captured the essence of taking the reader on a journey while still challenging their perspective of the world was Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. Dick does an excellent job at world building with Mercerism and everyone’s obsession with animal-husbandry while still providing humorous passages like when Rick Deckard slips on a codpiece to protect himself. Besides these qualities, which I enjoy purely from a reading standpoint, the book also uses androids to challenge the reader to look at human identity and the dangers of technology. The android life, other than empathy, seems rather human, and Deckard and readers alike, are left with seeds of doubt within our mind as to what truly defines humanity.  

Rene Descartes in his Discourse on Method compares reading histories and fables to travelling. Reading science fiction & fantasy is like travelling, but not just to another country. The two genres have the ability to take the reader to another realm, planet, time period etc. (the possibilities are endless!). The great mark of a science fiction or fantasy novel is that it won’t just take you to this realm to escape reality, but like the typical protagonist of the story, you will leave with a souvenir of sorts, often in the form of complex questions which challenge the way you view the universe.