by Terry 15 Replies latest jw friends
I remember someone once said that, if we're lucky, in our 80 -/+ years of life, we might experience a total of 5 minutes of truly original thinking; call it epiphany, intuition, revelation...whatever. And usually, those episodes occur before we're 30.
After that, what remains is that we live by far the majority of our lives thinking that we're being original, acting like we're original, fantasizing about being original...and denying that we're just plain old typical.
Craig
Artists are always trying to be original. There is a whole school of thought that believes only the art of small children and elephants is pure. I think some of the results of this forced "originality" are plainly stupid. Like basketballs floated in a tank of water, the famous Canadian Red Stripe, squished rats, or the Rotting Meat Statue.
I prefer to build on what has been learned before about perspective, colour, line, and composition. A painting with Big Little and Small objects helps the eye along. Some artist along the way figured that out, and I am grateful I don't have to figure that out all over again.
Well consider this: If you look at what has been done thusfar and just do something different from all that has been done previously, is that original? Isn't it in fact based on all of the things done previously, only you're trying to do something different? For that matter the attempt to produce something original is hardly a new thing is it?
Yet at the same time you can experience a fresh new feeling with something you've done before, if you're not hanging on to your memory of it from the past. Have you ever gone somewhere and noticed something you've never noticed before, but it is something that's always been there? Or maybe something as simple as a refreshing drink, waking up from a good night's rest? I don't mention this just to point to the enjoyable subjective experience, but there is something to be said for taking a fresh look at the same thing. This is more likely to happen when there is a love for life as opposed to particular things in life.
To put it another way, can you be without the love of your favorites, just for a second? It just might be that something new happens then, in the midst of all the same old things.
Or if you want to go there, just what is the essence of those things? After all you have favorites in a lot of different things, music, food, whatever. Is it a lot of different essences, or is there one essence? Is that something you take on or is it something you already have in common?
I find it amusing that in our manic technological advancement we "revert" to old terms. I "scrolled" down to read this post, what is that anyway? The term is definitely not original, although the technology is.
There is a simliar statement by Goethe: We are shaped and fashioned by what we love. I guess even he lacked originality!
Terry: Do you find a correlation with societal "originality" (or the lack thereof) with the scientific theory that the universe is constant, recycling the same energy into various forms?
Ezekiel3 says:Terry: Do you find a correlation with societal "originality" (or the lack thereof) with the scientific theory that the universe is constant, recycling the same energy into various forms?
Hmmmmm. I can't quite get my pea-sized brain around that to answer you; to tell the truth.
I do think everything is reused (as to parts). That is why time travel is impossible. The you of today is composed of parts of yesterday. For you to show up somewhere (anywhere) in the past would mean the very same atoms would be there twice.
The future consists of recycled parts from all the yesterdays which preceded it.
I personally think something is original when I suddenly look at things in a way I had not before. A work of art can do this; stop you dead cold and make you re-examine your boundries.
An original line in a book; a piece of music--anything that takes me where I have not been is original (at least to me). Even an old joke can be original told in a new way.
Why did the chicken cross the road?
Answer: To avoid the accordian festival.
