Creativity and Culture.
Why are our cultures boundaries so rigidly defined? Many people seem to have this (wrong) idea about their place within the creative culture, an unspoken assumption about their relationship as simply consumers to be filled with the product that the producers offer to us as entertainment. Culture is not simply monologue, to be spoon fed to us by the television, magazines or our favorite blog, but really a dialogue, in which we ingest the thoughts and ideas of others, which are then reinterpreted by ourselves, and finally redistributed to those around us. Culture is a complex web of give and receive, with thousands of people feeding off and working with the mass of ideas and voices that exist within our lives.
When Thorou wrote ‘Walden’, it wasn’t as if his ideas came to him out of thin air by magic, while he sat in isolation in a cabin by a lake for years. No, he was only a product of his influences, which were healthy portions of Eastern philosophy and classical European literature. The ideas he gave us were a synthesis of everything he read and thought to be truth.
The point I’m trying to make is to not be afraid to step on your idols toes. The idea of creativity is not to reinvent the wheel with every single sentence, but to contribute, and participate in the constantly evolving cultural dialogue taking place. Who cares if your idea is not 100% your own creation, the important part is that in some way you modify it, you change it, and offer your own interpretation that in some way reflects what you feel to be the most accurate, the most real, and the most truth filled interpretation of reality as you can.
