The conversation always works out better in my head. When it comes to executing what I imagine to be a witty remark, the words decide to take a detour at the last minute and instead of saying what I want to say I end up saying something
like what I wanted to say.
"The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug." -Mark Twain
See the dilemma? With mere mortals this isn't an issue, well not that it shouldn't be but I can shrug off the disproving stare of a fellow steerage class yokel without a thought. Just as I'd imagine they're likely to forget the words no sooner than they've left my mouth and collided with their ear. I think most people aren't really listening to 80% of what I say anyway and that's fine since I don't talk to most people.
There are writers that I like, writers that I love and writers that make me wring me hands in despair, tear at my beard and wail things like: "I will
never be able to write like that!!!" Luckily, most of the last group are dead so I don't have to face the stomach turning experience of meeting them in public.
I'll pause so you can fix your hyperbole detector.
It's not jealousy, I don't think so anyway. Writing fiction to me, is a way to document your world view, a method of transforming your interior dialogue into something tangible. Taking an idea and giving it your own distinct voice. To be jealous of the way someone else perceives the world is a little insane don't ya think? Even with 6 Billion people covering the planet it's plain to see that differing degrees of perception are limited.
This is why I can read novels written hundreds of years ago set in places nowhere close to mine and relate to the characters and principles within. This is why music by Bach, Beethoven, Mozart etc. stands the test of time. Why Rodin's The Thinker isn't going to ever stop being a great piece of art. This is why the story of Romeo and Juliet has been retold a million times with a million different variations and will never stop being told until Forbidden Love is driven out of humanity's conscience.
The external shininess of the human experience might change but if you rip away all the I-Phones, interwebs, cable television and the like, have our hopes and dreams really changed that much from the days of people drawing pictures on the walls of caves? Isn't happiness forever the goal, no matter the definition of happiness to the person?
Occasionally I'll read a phrase, sentence, story, whatever and be reduced to a trembling wreck because someone will express an idea that I've been turning over an over in my head more or less since I could walk.
Then the beard tearing, hand wringing and self flagellation begins until I'm so numb with pain I can't remember what it was that upset me. Recently it's this line by Scarlett Thomas from The End of Mr Y.
"'Fact' is a word. Science itself is just a collection of words. I'm guessing that truth exists beyond language, and what we call 'reality.' It must do; well, if it exists at all, that is."
I'm in a constant crusade in this belief, that there really aren't any absolute truths contained within the human experience. We haven't reached a point where we're able to quantify them and even the ones that we assert as absolute we have no way of knowing where the truth actually lies.
Why? Because we're the ones coming up with the methods of discerning this truth and people, to a large extent are incomparably flawed. Why wouldn't our methods be as well?
Don't take it personal, humanity but you are and it's no jab either, it's just something you need to learn to accept.
When it comes to ideas, personal philosophy, innovation and the like, I'm of the opinion that there's only a finite amount of the stuff out there more or less recycled and reinterpreted since antiquity.
This isn't a negative by any means. Understanding that you may have reinvented a rounder wheel shouldn't come with stigma because of the lack of uniqueness attached to the idea. The only thing that matters in the end is whether or not the idea works and has validity outside of the "creator".
I propose that people need to take a step back from themselves and instead of worrying about their own creativity and how special they are, look at the world around you and see how you relate to it and it to you.
Instead of saying someone has a stupid idea because you don't believe it, try to understand why that person came to this conclusion and rationally explain your position. It can be done.
Lastly, before you condemn an idea at least have an actual understanding of why you are condemning it. Maybe I'm wrong for thinking this but I do believe just about every idea has merit. It may not to me but if it does to someone out there than who am I to question it on that scale?
All I can do is a agree or disagree with it and move on. I don't feel I'm in a position to tell people how to think about things, just as I don't want anyone ever telling me how to think.
That doesn't mean that I won't tell people that they should think. By all means think, all the time, NEVER STOP and if we reach different conclusions let's hash it out and maybe we'll both come away from it a little more learned even if our positions stay exactly the same.
