JAMES THURBER....WHERE ARE YOU NOW?

Series of short stories...

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

 Through My Eyes....

By: Jacqueline E. Hughes


Yesterday I had the privilege of watching the new release of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty starring Ben Stiller, Kristin Wiig and Sean Penn. Today I will be searching everywhere for the 1947 version with Danny Kaye and Virginia Mayo......you know, just for comparison/research!?!

I have long been a fan of Mr. James Grover Thurber: Cartoonist, author, journalist and playwright. A man with many hats but, he may be best known for his publication of cartoons and short stories in The New Yorker magazine in the 1930's. Along with his witty humor that highlighted the eccentricities of ordinary people, I would call him and his work the forerunners of today's Blogger and Blog sites and can only imagine the amount of wit and humor we have missed out on due to his placement in history! Can you imagine his productivity on a computer?

NBC's 1969 sitcom entitled My World and Welcome to It was based on stories and things that go bump in the night....by James Thurber. We were simply 'glued to the set' each week and could never get enough of the wild imagination of the main character, John Monroe (William Windom), and his interaction with wife, Ellen (Joan Hotchkis), and precocious daughter, Lydia (Lisa Gerritsen), who at ten was more interested in world and historical affairs than playing with toys.

To best illustrate and explain these events to his daughter, John relied on his imagination. Being a cartoonist, he often utilized the use of animation (based on Thurber cartoons) in his explanations. It was much like witnessing a public 'frontal lobotomy' for the sake of extracting the complete depth of John's imagination and placing it on the 'little screen' rather than to relieve any signs of depression. Although, this extraction often resulted in marked personality changes.

Twenty years later Ally McBeal's use of cartoon fantasies promoted a similar technique that helped her describe her co-workers and acquaintances. Loved that show, too! I'm a sucker for cartoons and lots of humor! Who will ever forget the dancing diapered baby, right?

Returning to Walter Mitty for just a moment....

As a writer, I have every reason in the world to identify with, encourage and promote 'Walter Mitty,' as well as enthusiastically remind all of us that without mental creative ability (imagination) in our lives, the world, as we know it, would be severely restricted, if not non-existent. The mind is the incubator for all things imagined and, ultimately, produced.....good or evil; right or wrong! It would be like taking away all adjectives from our spoken and written existence. Would it be, let's say, interesting to stand alone...black...white, with absolutely no color in between them? A world without the visual joy or colorful interpretation of Claude Monet's Water Lilies or the lack of descriptive character and flourish in the words utilized by a favorite author in his/her novel? A city lacking the indisputable distinguishing landmarks offered by its architecture that allow us to identify it via a single photograph. Cameras......no; a world without photography? Absolutely preposterous!

All of the above simply would not exist without our imagination!

Yes, unfortunately, the bad does mirror the good and we experience war, hunger, poverty, hate and the 'green eyed' monster called jealousy.

In the nearly two hours of immersing myself within scene after scene of Walter Mitty, I was able to temporarily forget about the negative and concentrate on the rugged and isolated beauty of both Greenland and Iceland. I followed Walter Mitty on water, land and in the air on his quest to find the most important piece of the puzzle; the one piece that, when inserted into its proper slot, would allow him to understand the true simplicity of his journey. His mission: To discover himself!  To rediscover Joy and Love!  To be Happy! 

He did.....and, along the way, Walter Mitty learned to love himself and with his newfound knowledge he was better able to understand his raisin d'être...the reason for his existence. Through the use of humor and a common goal, James Thurber's published short story, The Secret World of Walter Mitty, in The New Yorker so many years ago, spawned an amazing variety of entertainment for the masses with 'imagination' conducting the symphony that builds and builds to the crescendo of personal enlightenment!

Thurber, born in Columbus, Ohio in 1894, attended University at Ohio State.......a 'Buckeye.' I will try not to hold that against him! He lived and worked in Paris, France, as a freelance writer and reporter until he was hired by The New Yorker in 1927 as an editor upon the recommendation of E .B. White (of Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little fame). Thurber eventually concentrated on writing humorous short stories and his many cartoons and both he and White are credited with establishing The New Yorker's sophisticated tone. Both served on the staff of the magazine, according to The Early Shapers of The New Yorker, until Thurber resigned in 1933 but, he continued to contribute to the magazine.

I totally became a huge fan of The New Yorker while attending Michigan State University working at the Pesticide Research Center on a Work Study program. The science field has never been 'my thing' so please don't ask me how I secured that job other than I was a warm body who always showed-up for work. Anyway, within the freezing grip of a blustery winter term, the girls in the lab would take shelter in the woman's lounge for breaks. Stacked high on the table there I soon discovered nirvana in the form of weekly copies of The New Yorker that dated back several months and would keep me happy and occupied for hours. Dr. Zabik, the head of our department, would always find me harboring a copy or two by my side as I went about performing my daily lab duties.

To see one's byline and short story printed in The New Yorker meant that you had attained your goal and then far exceeded it in the same breath, if being a published author was your dream and desire. From that astronomical height, there would be few if any rejections of a future book deal. And, monetary reward and fame were imminent.

Oh, James Thurber, where are you now?

That starry-eyed young woman with ambition and hope still exists today.  Okay....the package is a bit crumpled and wrinkled now but, oh!, the life experience she's tucked away for future reference is absolutely amazing!  The places she's travelled to and the people she's met, gotten to know and still calls.....friend, speaks volumes.  Mr. Thurber....that young woman has done pretty well for herself in this world so far.  The great thing is, she knows her journey isn't even close to being completed.  Got a ways to go, for sure.  Got a few more mountains to climb and the trail up to their peaks is lined with adventure and discovery.  But, all-in-all, it's looking bright and shiny from where she stands right now......

If I could speak with you face-to-face, Mr. Thurber, I would thank you for so many things: Making us laugh, giving us hope, translating that hope into Joy and Love and, for challenging us every step of the way....making us stronger and more worthy.



And, I would thank you for that enormous stack of The New Yorker magazines that helped me discover, as a freshman in college, just who and what I wished to become one day.    





E. B. White and James Thurber on staff at The New Yorker