I have found this happening often. Our worldview or our truth is heavily borrowed from others thoughts, writings, movies etc. Many times unconsciously of course. We find the same expressions, the same language, the mixing up of events and achievements, people fighting to death over a perception that they feel is true and original when all else indicates otherwise - it is fantastic to see how clouded we can get with our perceptions of the truth.
For example you relate an idea or an incident to someone and he or she might at some point use the same to build an incident himself and completely forget the source. So deeply does he believes that it is his own thought. Storylines, works of art, ideas all have a way of getting into people's minds and at some point the truth gets clouded. It can happen on a small level or it could happen at a big level. And I am referring here to the ones that happen unitentionally (the intentional ones are straight plagiarism for which I have no respect anyway).
As a case in point, I have had many people tell me with great authority of certain things I did, certain achievements of mine (some very fine ones too) and regaling many listeners with the stories about what 'we all did'. I know for true that many of them are not true - like getting a century in a game I did not bat in, getting eight wickets, beating up someone, impressing some beautiful woman or some stuff like that. When I protest the narrator of these stories tells me to shut up. I might have forgotten the truth but he has not. And he proceeds. What chance do I have here.
With great stories, movies, music and ideas that resonate at some deeper level it is therefore easier to believe that what we create sometime might appear original. But in truth it has been inspired by something somewhere. Most thought out there is mediocre. Some rise above the level of mediocrity because of honesty. Rarely we find the creative genius who completely trashes structures and creates new rules. What chance do we, those in the middle, have of creating anything new unless we are in the realm of genius? We can only relate parts of our life that we can remember and at best we can do an honest job of reporting it. To come up with pure fiction, a pure piece of imagination, it would need amazing concentration and clarity of an idea.
It makes sense as the great quote goes - We create nothing. We merely plagiarise nature.
For example you relate an idea or an incident to someone and he or she might at some point use the same to build an incident himself and completely forget the source. So deeply does he believes that it is his own thought. Storylines, works of art, ideas all have a way of getting into people's minds and at some point the truth gets clouded. It can happen on a small level or it could happen at a big level. And I am referring here to the ones that happen unitentionally (the intentional ones are straight plagiarism for which I have no respect anyway).
As a case in point, I have had many people tell me with great authority of certain things I did, certain achievements of mine (some very fine ones too) and regaling many listeners with the stories about what 'we all did'. I know for true that many of them are not true - like getting a century in a game I did not bat in, getting eight wickets, beating up someone, impressing some beautiful woman or some stuff like that. When I protest the narrator of these stories tells me to shut up. I might have forgotten the truth but he has not. And he proceeds. What chance do I have here.
With great stories, movies, music and ideas that resonate at some deeper level it is therefore easier to believe that what we create sometime might appear original. But in truth it has been inspired by something somewhere. Most thought out there is mediocre. Some rise above the level of mediocrity because of honesty. Rarely we find the creative genius who completely trashes structures and creates new rules. What chance do we, those in the middle, have of creating anything new unless we are in the realm of genius? We can only relate parts of our life that we can remember and at best we can do an honest job of reporting it. To come up with pure fiction, a pure piece of imagination, it would need amazing concentration and clarity of an idea.
It makes sense as the great quote goes - We create nothing. We merely plagiarise nature.
4 comments:
and nature does not complain...only humans do. Ha, ha.
Raja, That's true. All this IPR business always makes me wonder at how insecure and greedy people can get. Nothing is really original anyway so go on creating and discovering instead of focussing all you energies on patents and IPRs and suing and stuff. Like you said nature does not complain - there is far more to be learnt from nature and its behavior. And far more credit to be given to it. IPRs and patents only hint at a 'lack' attitude - that the person who found it does not back himself to do more original work. Funnily I was thinking of writing how nature is really the best inspiration for many things. I think I will now.
and nature does not complain...only humans do. Ha, ha.
There is an anecdote about some Americans visiting a Japanese electronics/car plant and amazed at them sharing their processes. When quizzed about potential plagiarism, they are supposed to have said, "But we would have innovated a lot more by then".
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