Sophie's response to Cartoon Physics, Parts 1 & 2

In "Cartoon Physics, part 1" I think Flynn uses imagery specific to children, linking it to ideas such as imagination, innocence and ignorance, basically what it is to be a child. In the very first part of the poem he tells us a ten-year-old "shouldn't know that the universe is ever-expanding, inexorably pushing into the vacuum...." using language that a ten-year-old would not understand, helping to make his point. "Cartoon Physics,"however, is used as a means to show how the world of a child works -- in cartoons we see things happen that would not realistically go without negative outcomes. But as a child there is a security in imagining oneself a hero, or making the decisions we don't truely have the power to make -- "...at which point the bridge will give, who will swim to safety..." and all this is a comfort to a child. The last piece, "She will learn that if a man runs off the edge of a cliff he will not fall until he notices his mistake," I think says something about the line between cartoon physics and reality. While he notices his mistake, he still falls, and reality doesn't always allow time for that kind of realization. You only get to be young for so long and a ten-year-old isn't going to dwell on ugly truths, but will learn in due time.

"Cartoon Physics, part 2" takes a much more serious, and certainly darker tone. In this poem Flynn talks of death, specifically his mother, and using cartoon physics as a way to show his mourning. For example, in pt. 1 the idea of sketching a door only you can enter is fun, even comical if someone else were to try to enter it. In pt. 2 however, the door is used to show a desire to be able to actually have that door, and to not only go through it, but have his mother go through it too, to have her back. The word choice shows the change in tone & age and in understanding of cartoon physics in relation to reality. For example, "I want her to come with me, like in a dream of being dead...." and "This desire can be a cage...." Both of these lines show sadness and understanding that what he desires is not possible. It also shows contrast between the way he talks about ignorance and innocence and imagination in pt. 1 -- you no longer able to be the hero, or choose where the bridge gives in, or who will swim to safety, as much as you may want to. The imaginative element is based in the desire for his mother's return to life, and with the knowledge that it will never happen now, far past ten years old, cartoon physics is not the same of reality's.