A new Superman movie is in the theaters. It would be hard to miss the fact, given the amount of free publicity. This is big news. The superhero represents one of our deepest fantasies, which makes it one of the most popular storylines in all fiction, especially cartoons and movies. In various guises, Superman comes closer to embodying the real American dream than any other mythical figure, and I can see the attraction. The forces of evil, mostly represented by wicked foreigners, are defeated not by civilized discussion and tedious negotiation but by a single powerful individual using brute force and magical superpowers, which is quicker and much more fun. Who wouldn’t want to be Superman?
I missed out on superheroes when I was young because I was living in the wrong culture at the wrong time. My comics featured a dull fellow called Dan Dare, who was more like the captain of the cricket team than a caped crusader. But we all need some drama in our lives, though not too much, and reading about the newest Superman reminded me of the ultimate non-Superman, who nevertheless had many adventures but without causing so much death and damage. The story, which you may or may not know, was called “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”. Like Superman, Walter Mitty has entered the realm of mythology, and his story is as universal as a love story. Not everybody knows it, but everybody lives it.
Walter Mitty was an invention of the great humorist James Thurber. Mitty first appeared in a short story in The New Yorker eighty years ago and instantly became a different kind of American hero. Walter was a mild-mannered man (like Clark Kent), apparently living a boring life in suburban Connecticut, but his real life was all in his daydreams. While doing the family shopping, Walter imagined that he was a famous surgeon, a fighter pilot, even a killer. His imaginary life was infinitely richer and more exciting than anything the suburbs had to offer.
There’s no mystery about why this short story became so popular. It has been reprinted many times and filmed at least twice, the last time in 2013 with Ben Stiller. Walter is all of us - apart from the tiny percentage of people who really do live exciting and important lives. What do we daydream about when we are shopping, taking out the garbage, or searching for things behind the sofa cushions? Superman never shops, takes out the garbage, or loses things behind the sofa cushions. Why not dream about being Superman or Wonder Woman - and carrying out missions that are much more interesting?
It is sad but true that everyday life is dull most of the time, and we spend a lot of energy trying to escape that fact. As the novelist, John Barth, joked: “Reality is a nice place to visit, but you wouldn’t want to live there.”
So, we don’t live there. We live very much in our dreams and imaginations, like Walter Mitty. Our fantasies tend to stay secret because they are embarrassing. If you really want to be a NASCAR driver or a fashion model or a vampire, it’s probably best not to mention it to anybody. But there’s no limit to where you can go or what you can do. As Sigmund Freud might have said, if anyone had been naïve enough to ask, it’s all in the mind.
