Analysis of Bjorn Sortland’s

The portal which Bjorn Sortland uses to transport the responder into an imaginative journey is the book, “The story of a search for the story”. This causes Henry to embark on a physical journey to find the library. He finds a green cap on the way to the library which physically transports him into a different world full of knowledge and literary figures.

The story of the search for the story alludes to many famous authors, including Ernest Hemmingway and William Shakespeare, and famous fictional characters like Pippi Longstocking. This contributes to the fantastical nature of the story. They take Henry on a journey through the world of books, which highlights the journey that a responder takes when they experience a text. One of the characters in the book Isak Dinesen says “If you just let your imagination go, its easy to find the most fantastic stories” to show the imaginative journey that a composer must undertake in order to create a story.

The composer uses the text to convey his ideas on censorship and symbolises the censors as evil people that “are afraid of books they don’t understand.” He portrays them as captors of the imagination who prevent freedom of ideas. Salman Rushdie, one of the characters that Henry meets, says that without imagination “The world would lose it’s colour. Princesses, for example, would no longer be saved by princes. Love would disappear, and life would become so dull and grey that it would be unbearable.” This quote uses hyperbole to overstate the effects of imagination, yet it allows us to see the importance of imaginative journeys in daily life. Imaginative journeys offer an opportunity for the responder to escape from their own lives and into a fictitious world.

Throughout the book the written text is detailed and dominant, which is opposite to what one would expect from a picture book seemingly aimed at children. The allusion to famous characters and authors gives the impression of a more sophisticated and elite intended audience. To fully appreciate the meaning of the text, the responder should be familiar with literary figures; however