Oh “Twilight Zone”! How do I love thee! Let me write a blog of one of my favorite episodes instead of counting the ways (because math is bad). Let me present “A World of His Own” about Mr. Gregory West, a playwright who gets very into his work and uses a dictation machine for recording his character development. In order to talk about how this episode relates to the personality of writers I am going to have to give BIG SPOILERS.
NO SERIOUSLY - SPOILERS AHEAD! I WARNED YOU!
Rod Serling fading away from reality (CBS owned image)
First off, this is a Richard Matheson episode so that might be partially why it is one of my favorites. It also features an adorable Asian elephant, but that’s not really important to this blog. Gregory West (Keenan Wynn) is having a comfortable and loving time with the sweet Mary (Mary . Then his wife, the stylish Victoria (Phyllis Kirk) see him and Mary cuddling on the couch only to storm into an office where only her husband exists. No Mary and no exit she could have sneaked out of.
What continues is a conversation about how writers dream up characters that are real to them; a conversation that turns out not to be practical not philosophical. “They [characters] become so strong, that sometimes they take over the whole story,” Gregory explains to his wife and adds that one of his earliest successful characters walked into the room one night when he was working. It turns out that when he describes a new person into his tape recorder, the fictional character comes to life in his office and gives him inspiration for his plays. Then, all he has to do to send them back into his imagination is cut the tape and burn it.
This is the origin story of Mary (and others in the episode as well), but he has difficultly getting his wife to believe this as she plans his commitment. And in the case of Mary, he has created a woman who fulfills his sentimental needs that his high fashioned wife neglects. Still, she has a mind of her own and questions her role in Gregory’s life as he keeps creating and destroying her.
Overall, this episode all about the imagination of a writer and how tempting imagination is over reality. More than that, it is an idea of using the power of imagination responsibly. Where Gregory could rewrite his life with every character he could ever want, he only uses it as a way to keep from being lonely. And yet, instead of finding a woman in the world he creates his partner to fit ideals he has learned through out his life. Most writers start this way. They start as children daydreaming about different lives surrounded by different people. And yet Matheson presents this idea in the form of a full grown man and established playwright. This adds a little humor to the scenario. It begs the questions of how many of us would spend time with our characters as flesh and blood instead of just the voices in our heads.
