I remember reading of Terry Pratchett speaking of how ideas zing around the universe, and occasionally one clatters into your head. It’s an amusing image, but I’m not sure if he was entirely joking.
Two writers I admire greatly are Satish Kumar and Thich Naht Hahn. And I’ve read both describe in their way how they believe they have never had an original thought. I’ve mused for many hours on that: original work without an original thought…hmmm.
This matters to me because in my writing and poetry I often experience what Terry describes – I’m in the middle of something, and then words, a phrase, a rhythm appears. I have to write it down without thinking too deeply about it. I’m doing exactly that right now. A minute ago I was preparing breakfast.
But where do these things come from? And are they really mine?
I recall that early medieval European artists did not sign their creative work. Some say it was because the work was collective, often done by guilds. As one writer put it; ‘How could a collective “sign” a cathedral?’ (though the likes of stonemasons would often carve a unique symbol – ‘leave their mark’ – in a place that would be hidden when their work was finally installed. That way a supervising person would know they’ve been productive and could sort any quality issues). Others say this lack of signature was because the artist did not see it as theirs – it was God’s hand that was really at work; they just happened to be the body God spoke through. Then with the Renaissance artists realised becoming a ‘name’ meant lots of commissions and income and…the rest is history.
As AI begins to make it easy to track through the whole of recorded human creation, I wonder if the time of saying, ‘That’s mine,’ is a blip in time. Just like musicians asking, ‘Can I be sure this is the first time anyone has put these notes together this way?’ I sense that whatever we write, there will have been one of the billions of humans around us and before us who have said or done something very similar. Maybe that’s saddening. Maybe that’s releasing. It is another example of how we are all connected.
I’m certainly aware of being influenced and inspired. And I’m increasingly aware of how I, indeed we all, can be influenced without being conscious of it.
Perhaps I’m slowly moving to the place of Satish Kumar and Thich Naht Hahn and no doubt others – in recognising that I too am not having original ideas. But as ideas zinging around the universe clatter into my head I can still offer something in original form that has use to someone.