Everyone indulges in some form of escapism in their lives. Escapism, as defined by the Oxford dictionary is: “the avoidance of reality by absorption of the mind in entertainment or in an imaginative situation or activity” this can be anything from as simple and innocent as reading a story or watching a movie to potentially lethal as taking mood-altering drugs like heroin. The author discussed in this essay; Adam Phillips in his essay Houdini’s Box: The Art of Escape, tries to illustrate and depict the use of escapism by the well-known personalities like the magician Harry Houdini and Ferenczi. Escapism can lead to many advanced stages like cyclical behavior e.g. addiction or a need to escape through the use of drugs, or metamorphosis where deeds are carried out by a subject thinking they are someone else.
Adam Phillips, uses the methods employed by Erik Weisz – the son of a failed rabbi who finds himself boycotted and estranged from the American Jewish community settled after an exodus from Europe during 1880s, to show, how through the use of escapism, Erik Weisz adopts another persona in hopes of becoming sought after and accepted by the local society. Erik changes his name to Harry Houdini and takes up and masters the art of magic, which is a complete deviation from his original background to surpass the ways in which his “culture closed him out [and] the way his past was always shadowing him” (Phillips 490). It could be seen, by the risk and danger associated with his acts of death defying magical performances that a man has a clear potential to stretch the limits and go unto any lengths to escape a negative past and impersonate a socially ‘wanted’ character. Houdini becomes universally acclaimed as a professional escape artist. This form of escapism, caused by social pressure and prejudice leads Houdini to adopt a motto: “Perform other people or they will perform you, prejudge you” Houdini tries to get away from his past and adopts a new identity.
This form of escapism can be found in many different subjects. The movie “Requiem for a dream” portrays the life of an elderly lady who has lost the entire luster and flamboyancy of youth and leads a solitary life confined to the daily monotonous rigors of everyday life. Her most prized possession is the ‘red dress’ which she greatly prized during the time of her youth. It is this object that she believes serves as a channel to self-adornment and beautification which to her, represents social acceptance. She refuses to acknowledge the toll time has taken on her, thus rendering her body out of shape for that particular garment. It is this urge for social recognition, as also seen in the case of Houdini that drives humans wildly fanatical and presses them to their limits. The dress and the hope of someday fitting in that dress gives her a reason and purpose to subsistence, after consulting a doctor who puts her on a course of addictive psychostimulant amphetamines, she notices a newfound effervescence about her in conjunction with weight loss which enables her to fit in the dress. Auditory hallucinations resulting from chronic amphetamine use causes her to imagine her being called up on a game show with her as the highlight and the audience wildly cheering for her. This example perfectly demonstrates the use of drugs as a method of escaping into an unattainable reality. Persistent amphetamine use also results in a cyclical behavior by the lady as each time she hallucinates, she is given a fresh new purpose to live and every moment spent sober becomes a moment of pain and torture.
Although Houdini finds escapism and a new personality by persevering and working hard towards his goal, it is not uncommon for some people to take the easy way out or are forced into doing so by irreversible changes in mental or physical form as evidence by the example above. In his essay, Phillips reveals this form of escapism by illustrating:
That there must be some things that no creature can elude –whether they be laws (natural or moral), desires (variously deemed moral or immoral), or biological limits (the need to breathe, eat and die)—and that they must be discovered, recognized and observed are integral to our sense of ourselves and the ways in which we question who we are. When a constraint can be described as something else…we change our pace in the world. (Phillips 495)
These realistic reassurances; be it through a hallucination or through magic create; in both cases, an illusion of realism. As seen in the old lady’s example, by escaping she transforms herself into something she is not, but craves to be. Drug induced hallucinations become a mode of reassuring the body that it really is the highlight of the show and the center of the social attention in the old lady’s case while Houdini reassures the audience of his miraculous feats by using magical illusion as the modus operandi, in both cases one can notice a similar result: communal appreciation and prominence.
A similar case can be seen in the world of multiplayer gaming facilitated through the internet. Online role playing games like Blizzard Corporation’s World of Warcraft™ create, through the use of programming and animation software, an illusionary fantastic world away from reality in which human players immerse themselves into to become some kind of a fantastical being or a ‘hero’ and the environment manipulates them in a way that makes the players think that the existence of that surreal world is wholly or partially dependent upon them. Subjects tend to use this form of escapism if reality is too monotonous and mundane or if they are socially not well accepted. The game’s mechanics are designed in a way that social acceptance is favored if not mandatory. Each player creates a ‘class’ of a hero and the game requires teamwork and partial contribution by each of these classes if they are to achieve the ultimate goal.
As an ex-player of the franchise myself, I can assert that I did use this form of escapism and metamorphosis to get away from social differences in the days of my childhood. Overwhelmed by the language barrier and the fear of being boycotted, I resorted to this game as a means to communicate and make a difference to another world where I wouldn’t be prejudged by race, charisma or my fluency in a language. Limiting myself to primal needs, I could spend well over eight to twelve hours continuously staring at my computer screen. The soothing comfort of being needed and respected created an ‘addiction’ or a cyclical pattern in my behavior that reality failed to provide. Constant immersion into this dreamlike world slowly started to affect my academic performance and my attention span as every moment I spent in reality, were the moments I spent to calculate my next move in the game and how to rectify my mistakes. It was after strong self and parental disciplinary measures that I managed to ‘wean’ myself off this state of alternate reality and return to the actual world. After enduring torturous withdrawal for the first few months, I eventually discovered my place in the world and stopped escaping the inevitable.
As illustrated by Phillip’s essay and my personal examples, it is only clear that escapism results from fear or ones identity, social boycott or trying to escape the inescapable consequences brought about by the passage of time. There are different forms of escapism and they are often facilitated to ones needs in different manners. But, as we also saw, escapism is only temporary and very quickly leads to often times detrimental cyclic behavior. As evidenced by these examples, it is clear that the only way to escape, escapism is to turn about and face the challenges and the rigors of reality no matter how bitter.
