I read once that the ancient Egyptians had fifty words for sand & the Eskimos had a hundred words for snow. I wish I had a thousand words for love, but all that comes to mind is the way you move against me while you sleep & there are no words for that.
BA
The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be either good or evil.
Hannah Arendt
One of the surest tests [of the superiority or inferiority of a poet] is the way in which a poet borrows. Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different. The good poet welds his theft into a whole of feeling which is unique, utterly different than that from which it is torn; the bad poet throws it into something which has no cohesion. A good poet will usually borrow from authors remote in time, or alien in language, or diverse in interest.
Eliot, T.S., “Philip Massinger,” The Sacred Wood, 1920
I feel like this goes for any artist, but also knowledge in general. Learn a lot, and use what you know to create new things. Build upon what exists, you don’t have to”reinvent the wheel” as they say to create something new.
Today, cultural discovery — how we find that next book to read, that next song to listen to, drink to drink, movie to watch, place to visit — it’s all up for grabs. With two contenders eyeing the spoils. First, the retail machine. People who bought this, also bought that. Culture as a web of SKUs. Next, the social signal. Reviews, ratings and likes. Culture as a web of opinion. In each camp, deep technology and huge user bases. Each pushing toward a kind of sameness. Similar purchases, similar likes, often similar categories — book to book, song to song, movie to movie.
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posted 20 November, 2011
by sailes - Reblogged from teachingliteracy
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