SMAD. An Organ of Student Opinion. 1933. Volume 4. Number 4.

imagination Runs Riot when Fact Outdoes Fiction. — The Romance of Reality

imagination Runs Riot when Fact Outdoes Fiction.

The Romance of Reality.

What is it that catches your imagination and sets your fancy soaring?

Two airmen (Post and Gatty), racing against time, encircle the globe in eight days, and Jules Verne's story fades into the mundane; a batsman (Don Bradman) faces first-class bowling for hour on hour, until he has amassed the huge total of 452 not out. Shades of W. G.

A scientist (Professor Picard), undaunted by failure, twice ascends to a height of approximately ten miles above the earth, and gains invaluable knowledge of conditions in the strathosphere and of cosmic rays. What an adventure!

A lone voyageur (Alain Gerbault) sails a 30-foot yacht ("The Firecrest") across the seven seas, encircling the globe. A Viking of to-day!

We read of these achievements in science, sport, and travel, and the unique nature of these exploits leaves us wondering if the imaginative writers of today may not be on the right track after all.

We go out to play cricket, and the "mug" bowler of the other side skittles our stumps before we have even reached doubles. Or if we are a little better than the average we see perhaps once or so in a life-time those coveted three figures go up on the scoreboard opposite our name—and here we have a batsman who leaches 452 unbeaten, against "crack" bowlers.

We travel the sea in a 10,000 ton liner—a floating palace, which, under the whip of the sea, is tossed about like a cork. And yet a solitary voyageur conquers those very same seas in a cockle shell of a craft. We can can see him in strange ports, in out of the way places seeing strange things—and who better deserves the privilege?

These exploits, actually the News of our day, would have been scoffed at as the products of a lurid imagination had they been told thirty years ago. True, fact has left yesterday's fiction standing—and imagination runs riot.