37 pages • 1 hour read
Richard BachIllusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1977A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Authorial Context: Richard Bach and Aviation
American writer Richard Bach (b. 1936) is best known for his novels that encapsulate his unique philosophies of living beyond limits. His best-selling novel, Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1970), had many themes similar to Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah (1977), such as living for happiness instead of productivity, realization of the self, and true, uninhibited freedom. Bach’s writings always involve aviation in some form: In his novels, he employs aviation as a metaphor to explore concepts such as personal development, liberty, and the pursuit of the impossible.
Bach became a pilot at age 17. He served in the US Navy Reserve, then became a fighter pilot for the New Jersey Air National Guard. Finally, he became a barnstormer, or stunt flyer. Bach draws on his aviation experience to give characters traits associated with flight, such as bravery and risk-taking. He writes fiction, but his works have autobiographical aspects. For instance, the protagonist of Illusions is named Richard. In addition to containing autobiographical elements, his novels frequently feature protagonists who are drawn to aviation, reflecting his belief in its capacity to surpass limitations and uncover profound truths.
The symbolism of aviation in Bach’s works extends beyond the physical act to convey optimism about humanity’s infinite potential and the willingness to embrace uncertainty. His aviation-focused plots also contain underlying themes of self-discovery and the journey to experience the divine.
Bach has six children with his first wife, who was also a pilot and a writer. He married and divorced two more times. In 2012, Bach crashed his plane in Washington and sustained serious injuries. After he recovered, he was inspired to write a fourth part to his novel Jonathan Livingston Seagull, which was originally a three-part novel. In 2014, he wrote a sequel to Illusions, Illusions II: The Adventures of a Reluctant Student, in which the character Donald Shimoda visits the real-life Richard Bach in the hospital during his recovery from his plane crash.
Genre Context: Allegory and Fabulism
In Illusions, technology works in tandem with magic to create a hybrid genre of allegory and fabulism. Fabulism is similar to magical realism in that the narrative is grounded in the recognizable world but contains magical, surreal, or fantastical elements. These elements are not out of place in the novel’s world but are experienced as normal by its characters. Fabulism does not have the political overtones of magical realism, which is primarily used by Latinx authors or others commenting on their culture’s political reality.
Illusions straddles the line between allegory and fabulism because Richard is aware that Don’s flying techniques and other miracles should be impossible. As a messiah allegory, the novel is meant to teach lessons about the nature of reality, rather than its events having inherent meaning. Don’s impossible flying is an allegory for his ability to live beyond reality’s limitations. The novel’s use of technology to demonstrate this binds allegory and fabulism together to emphasize these thematic aspects of the plot.
Instead of flying without a plane, Don manipulates the technology of the time to inconspicuously perform miracles. In Chapter 5, Richard realizes that Don’s airplane defies the laws of physics and runs continuously without gas. Don often syncs his powers with technological advancement, which lends his feats believability to their onlookers. Here, flight is an allegory for spirituality. In Chapter 2, Richard claims that in order for humans to conceive of aerodynamics, they had to accept the possibility of flight, which had been considered impossible. This insinuates that technological advancements align with Don’s spiritual teachings, since a person must look beyond their perceived limitations to understand that anything is possible.
Just as technology facilitates the plot’s magical aspects, it also facilitates the characters’ need to say what they know. Don appears on Jeff Sykes’s radio show to deliver his message, but this is ultimately ineffective because the public cannot experience his miracles firsthand. Without the spectacle, they reject his message. Richard uses the more terrestrial technology of the written word to convey what he has learned. Juxtaposing these two forms reinforces that magic and wisdom can exist in the everyday world, showing the blend of allegory and fabulism in the novel’s world.
