Tessa Hadley writes in the current London Review of Books (25 January 2007):
“The preparations for the magical act of imagining the past, the pre-absorption and the researches, are crucial, but not sufficient in themselves.”
It appears that we cannot look at, approach, a subject without the help of our imagination. What we have is the play of pre-absorption, researches and imagination whenever we attempt to enquire of the past, present or future.
There is something about the way our minds get to work on an experience; a sort of chewing it over between the jaws of memory and imagination–making it more pleasing and satisfying to ourselves and hopefully others.
ak