Book Review: The Imagination, Five-Act-Structures, and ‘The Divine’

The Five Chinese Elements: wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. (Africa Studio/Shutterstock)

It was the scientist Albert Einstein who remarked that “Imagination is more important than knowledge”; the importance of this comment is manifold. For starters, it is counter-intuitive, because we tend to view science as some sort of compendium of knowledge and facts rather than being an imaginative construct. Therefore, that the generally considered-to-be greatest scientist of the last 200 years or so points us somewhere other than to knowledge is highly significant.

Einstein also observed that “The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science.” The imagination, of course, is mysterious; unlike knowledge and facts it is difficult to see where it comes from, how it functions, and how we (that is, human beings) can control it.

Knowledge goes into encyclopedias, but where do we store imagination? Keep in mind that i-magi-nation has “magi” in the word—a clue perhaps that it is uniquely stored or operating in humans. And from magi we get magic, a real mystery! Doesn’t the imagination seem like magic when it truly creates what was unthinkable before?

How we can more effectively summon the imagination, arouse it, deploy it, and use it for our greater good? And, we need to keep in mind that it is not just in the sciences and the arts that imagination comes into play. It permeates every aspect of our life—even business. As newspaper editor W.J. Cameron noted, “Money never starts an idea; it’s an idea that starts the money.” Where do ideas come from? The imagination.

Your Magical Creator Within

It is good news when I tell you, then, that a new book, “The Divine,” subtitled “Unlocking the Magical Creator Within” has just been published. It describes itself as an “enchiridion” (that is, a handbook) that aims to unlock the blockages that stop writers from channeling true, divine inspiration. To put it another way, it enables them to access their real imaginations as opposed to the dry-as-dust materials that our reason and logic throw up.

But before describing the contents of this amazingly useful book, I have to come clean and declare an interest: The author, Joseph Sale, is my youngest son. There, I’ve said it. But I owe it to loyal Epoch Times readers to attempt to be unbiased notwithstanding this connection.

The book is in four parts: “Channeling the Divine,” “The Five-Act Structure,” “Essays From the Mind-Vault,” and “Other Essays.” This last part is perhaps the least important since it consists of articles published on various sites and at different times. That said, there are fascinating insights on topics ranging from Spenser’s poetry to S.C. Mendes’s novels to contemporary science fiction and fantasy films. (I love, by the way, his wonderful distinction between the two: “The difference between the science fiction and fantasy is arguably that one looks forward with anxiety and one looks back with hope.”)

Sophocles, Shakespeare, and the Chinese Five Elements

The Five Chinese Elements: wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. (Africa Studio)

The meat of book is in the first two parts. Let me now, then, for purposes of space, restrict myself to commenting on part two: “The Five-Act Structure.” This is a really brilliant section, and it’s worth acquiring the book for this alone. Starting with the discovery by the ancient Greeks, such as Sophocles, of a play’s five-act structure (and of course most famously used by Shakespeare 2,000 years later), Sale charts how this way of structuring writing is almost built into the human mind and into reality itself. He connects it to the Chinese Five Elements of wood, fire, earth, metal and water, which in Traditional Chinese Medicine extends even further into the five flavors of salty, spicy, sour, sweet, and bitter, for example.

The ancient Chinese system, it turns out, also parallels the Kabbalistic system, and even the psychological model of the five stages of grief, outlined by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross in her 1969 book, “On Death and Dying.” Her stages are denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance; and these in turn link to the five stages of mystical awakening identified by the writer Aletheia Luna: awakening, purgation, illumination, dark night of the soul, and finally union.

What Sale goes on to do, having established the deep rootedness of these models in the human psyche, is to show how to use them in one’s own writing to create structure and also to stimulate imaginative creativity. He does this through providing pertinent questions— which stimulate and intrigue the mind—and a wealth of illustrative material.

Anyone seeking to improve his writing skills—including me, his dad!—would benefit from reading this relatively short, but fascinating enchiridion. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.

‘The Divine: Unlocking the Magical Creator Within’ Joseph Sale Independently published, Aug. 10, 2022 Paperback: 182 pages