Bookworm

By Omer Barkay

Have you ever sat down with a book or a Tv remote and looked around you half an hour later only to realize you aren’t a shaggy-haired wizard or haven’t just plane-crashed on a deserted island? Yeah. Entertainment does that to you sometimes, especially when you’re the one creating it. My brain works sort of like a courtroom, where an event, idea, or person is the suspect and I’m the victim, but I’m also the judge. That’s why when I read, I can relax and put myself on jury duty; when I write, I can be the whole courtroom! And everything outside of it, from the government to a philosophical idea. That puts me directly in my comfort zone, and all the way to the other side of the universe, all at once. There are times I get to think a lot before I write, times I get to read before I think, and times I get to write about something totally original, all ideas coming from the courtroom.

Meg Murry is not a very accomplished child. She’s getting low marks in school (despite her genius parents and brother) and is constantly finding new ways to scare the bejeezus out of herself. Before the metaphorical fantasy part of the story begins, she’s particularly paranoid about a bedsheet-stealing tramp that may be wandering in the thunderstorm above her attic room. I could feel connected with this story not because of my own experiences folding up time and fighting powers of dictator- resembling floating brains, but by the sheer essence of strength between the characters and the magnificent embodiments of greater powers that make me turn the page. This kind of hinting at real-world ideas with fantasy and spiritual fiction makes enjoying and thinking about a story so peaceful yet wild, especially with AWrinkleinTime. I got to be a philosopher, extracting hints from the story and thinking about how this affects our world. I got to be a citizen, walking into the court and enjoying viewing the suspect of trust and weakness itself. But most importantly, I got to be myself. Not Me In An Awkward Situation, not Me In A Fight, just myself, and every thought racing through my mind. It was a surprisingly warm day in early December, and I’d just gotten into the crossover. The park our afternoon was spent in was getting smaller and smaller, and the minutes on the estimated driving time seemed to get larger. I was bored, but I had a trick up my sleeve; I would close my eyes and point my head out the window! No,notasexcitingasyou’dthoughtit’d be?Well,it’sabouttogetwaymoreaction-packed!I rested my hands on the sides of the chair and turned up the temperature. Stillnotintrigued?Well,howaboutthisnextpart?I stood up and walked around. I sat in the grass. Looking up at the calm sky, I saw a little boy in front of me, sitting in a somewhat shady spot. I tried to interact with him, but he went right through me. I decided there was nothing I could do but sit and watch, and watch I did. I slowly picked up that Ichose what the boy, and his female acquaintance, did. And that’s how I wrote Willow Gardens.What?How’dIgofromsleepinginthecartowritinga story?All the power of imagination, creativity, and a love for literature.

I felt comfortable sitting in the calm grass, but I knew there was tension lurking behind every corner, yet I enjoyed every bit of conflict.

I felt a hurricane forming around me, taking me somewhere else yet not moving at all, and just like that, I was sitting at my desk, typing out the outline (which I’m still working on.) I was Jamie,I was the nature, I was WillowGardens.Other than in books, literature is in all sorts of forms. Movies and TV have scripts and descriptive frames. Conversations have diverse dialogue and emotion. Even doing things like sleeping contains so many interactions and subconscious thoughts. I’m sure a nightmare would immediately go on a bestseller list.

Many of my own creations and actions come from dreams. I end up thinking about the pages I could fill with my nightly experiences, and do so. This is why I am who I am, my experiences summed up into 20-minute movies. One time I used a dream as a motivation was when I was only 5 years old. A nightmare told in the form of a scroll/comic strip had scared the daylights out of me and made me remark about things like how interesting it actually was later on. I won’t go into detail of my five-year old mind’s creations, but It got me thinking about how I could turn it into a story.

P)I)N)G was written last year, and I got my inspiration from a dream I had remembered.

Overall, I believe that like science, literature is all around you, and that you could get lost in the twists and turns it can take you through. I have been surrounded by my passion my whole life, and hope you can take the time to find a story in youreveryday shenanigans.