Unoriginal (1836 hits)
Category: NoneLabels: crap:non-fiction
Rating: 1.69 on 80 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Circe <fickle.muse.at.gmail.com> (View user info) at 2005-06-14 12:52:44 EDT
I would like to tell them the truth. But the truth is not something that's easily expressed in words. Too many people have used the same words over and over for shallow purpose and so there aren't any left that can make anyone see anything. We're all far too bitter and jaded to try and taste these words anew, to stop for a moment and read them or hear them or, fuck, even speak them as though we've never heard them before.
The last paragraph was a cliche. It was sincere but it was a cliche because those words have been said before.
The young do not understand cliche, because they've not read too many words. So we have children that can write "I went to the zoo and I had a lot of fun because I love going to the zoo" and to them it's pure and true and it's right and they've not read a million billion other words that sound just like them and so they do not know that they are being unoriginal. We should teach them fast, should instill in them a sense of hopeless desperation because they're never going to be original. Stop them even trying, before it's too late.
I would like to tell you the truth. I sit here and I watch my fingers on the black and white keys, and between my index fingers I can see rtyufghvbn, and I'm a very bad typist so I need to watch my fingers, and I want to tell you The Truth - see, capitals, capitals make a thing separate and important and that isn't original either - but the Truth needs to be couched in words and words, as we know, have been recycled a million times.
Does it make it easier to be bitter? I wonder, and I think it might be true, because I can read the words of others and while those words are true and meant and sincere, I can snicker at them because they're rote and cliched and everyone who ever tried to express pain and rage and loss and "I will fight" has used those exact same words. So we sneer and we laugh and we make our jokes about cliche, about stale, about talent, and leave the words there to rot and congratulate ourselves on our fashionable cynicism while the truth, The Truth, that lies behind and between those words goes unfelt and unnoticed and at least we don't have to try and feel anything. There's that.
Glory be to technology, and to cynicism, that it lets us slap a value on Truth and leave it a clever witty five word response.
I would like to tell you the truth, because you will not feel responsible for it the way everyone who can see me and touch me does. I would like to tell you the truth because it's the only way I know to lift it from my shoulders for a while without putting it on somebody else's.
I would like to tell you the truth. But I won't.
User Reviews
Submitted by rorrim (user info) at 2007-04-18 08:44:46 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Today's truth <==> Tommorow's lie...
I don't believe in 'pure' things.
Our today's peace was won in the last war we remember, the desert isn't just sand, and the sea isn't just water. OHHH, how we crave purity. Another lie we learned to believe...
The impurities, like a red rose in a green field, salt in sweet meals,that kinda thing...
And incoherrency is an art.
Submitted by Fey (user info) at 2007-04-18 08:04:46 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Caulaincourt (user info) at 2005-06-17 00:06:52 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by Circe (user info) at 2005-06-14 22:04:30 (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by TM (user info) at 2005-06-14 17:07:55 (#)
Ranking: 2
You know the tips for guys is coming up, but it will be too bitter to be funny.
__________
I believe I could do that without being bitter. As long as no-one beats me to it.
__________
It'd be really great if you did. Just want to say that. Good night :)
Submitted by TheSpook (user info) at 2005-06-16 11:51:11 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
meh
Some people spend WAAAAAYYY too much time on the computer.
Submitted by freebie (user info) at 2005-06-15 21:25:37 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
A minus two for you.
My clever witty five word response.
Submitted by cigarr (user info) at 2005-06-15 20:55:56 EDT (#)
Ranking: -1
No Comment
Submitted by lucid (user info) at 2005-06-15 15:49:45 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Thanks for the mindless babble?
Submitted by Soley_Trinity (user info) at 2005-06-15 12:54:55 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by taurusfh (user info) at 2005-06-15 12:53:11 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Danger_Ranger (user info) at 2005-06-15 10:01:37 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by Coyote (user info) at 2005-06-15 06:31:23 (#)
Ranking: 2
It's not that we sneer because we've heard the true, pure, and good things expressed so many times before-- we sneer because our own expressions of truth, purity, and good are all cut down by the gulf of understanding that inevitably separates even the closest lovers. We start out believing that it's possible to share a feeling, an emotion, an insight with all the force and nuance it has within our minds. Then language and expression and interpretation intervene, true communication is rendered impossible, and our initial, vulnerable attempts to establish something like it are shot down. After enough tries, we learn that it virtually always results in disappointment and failure, and we learn to cloak ourselves in irony and cynicism. Once we've learned that, it's only right and natural to look down on those who are still struggling with their naivete.
On the other hand, orginality for the sake of originality alone promotes unnecessary obscurantism and introduces one more barrier between the communication, be it written, spoken, musical, or pictorial, and the fundamental human truth it was presumably intended to convey.
On another hand again, my boy said "Da" today when I was changing his diaper, and that was almost enough to make up for his impression of Jackson Pollock using explosive yellow bowel movement as paint and my hand as canvas. Presumably that could be turned into an allegory of some kind, but it's lunch time.
------------------------------------------
Another plus 2 for the review. Kids saying "Da". Super stuff.
Submitted by MandaPanda (user info) at 2005-06-15 09:45:47 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
You have the best run-on sentences that I've ever read.
Seriously.
Submitted by thecaes (user info) at 2005-06-15 07:42:31 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by Circe (user info) at 2005-06-15 00:10:47 (#)
Ranking: 0
Danger, you get me by default. Send me gifts.
*******************************
* GASP *
Humph. I didn't want to be your internet boyfriend anyway.
Biatch.
Submitted by Natsukau (user info) at 2005-06-15 07:38:07 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Circe you are fucking amazing.
Submitted by Coyote (user info) at 2005-06-15 06:31:23 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
It's not that we sneer because we've heard the true, pure, and good things expressed so many times before-- we sneer because our own expressions of truth, purity, and good are all cut down by the gulf of understanding that inevitably separates even the closest lovers. We start out believing that it's possible to share a feeling, an emotion, an insight with all the force and nuance it has within our minds. Then language and expression and interpretation intervene, true communication is rendered impossible, and our initial, vulnerable attempts to establish something like it are shot down. After enough tries, we learn that it virtually always results in disappointment and failure, and we learn to cloak ourselves in irony and cynicism. Once we've learned that, it's only right and natural to look down on those who are still struggling with their naivete.
On the other hand, orginality for the sake of originality alone promotes unnecessary obscurantism and introduces one more barrier between the communication, be it written, spoken, musical, or pictorial, and the fundamental human truth it was presumably intended to convey.
On another hand again, my boy said "Da" today when I was changing his diaper, and that was almost enough to make up for his impression of Jackson Pollock using explosive yellow bowel movement as paint and my hand as canvas. Presumably that could be turned into an allegory of some kind, but it's lunch time.
Submitted by Danger_Ranger (user info) at 2005-06-15 01:42:23 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by Snark (user info) at 2005-06-15 01:33:49 (#)
Ranking: 2
The "Truth" is, you're incredible.
---------------------------------
Why thank you Snark.
Submitted by DanielH (user info) at 2005-06-15 01:37:26 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
So we sneer and we laugh and we make our jokes about cliche, about stale, about talent, and leave the words there to rot and congratulate ourselves on our fashionable cynicism while the truth, The Truth, that lies behind and between those words goes unfelt and unnoticed and at least we don't have to try and feel anything.
- - -
Well done. The cynicism that passes for sophistication these days is little more than intellectual impotence wrapped in pretense. But we live in a world predicated on lies, where appearances are all and truth is the one utterly dispensable element. +++
Submitted by Snark (user info) at 2005-06-15 01:33:49 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
The "Truth" is, you're incredible.
Submitted by Danger_Ranger (user info) at 2005-06-15 01:26:10 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
... and misspelt.
Submitted by Danger_Ranger (user info) at 2005-06-15 01:14:21 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I shall write her a poem and bestow upon her +2's. Jewellry is over-rated.
Submitted by Bigmike (user info) at 2005-06-15 00:44:21 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by Circe (user info) at 2005-06-15 00:10:47 (#)
Ranking: 0
But.... but.... *sigh*
Fine.
Danger, you get me by default.
Try not to sound so disappointed. I'm sure he's...................fine. Or at least maybe he's good for a bit of jewelry or what not.
Submitted by Danger_Ranger (user info) at 2005-06-15 00:27:02 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
WOOO-HOOOOOOOO! Ooooooooooh, SHIT, sorry Big Mike *dusts off Mikes lapels* - I hope I wasn't out of line with that... well, what ever I may have said that might make you want to smash me... *looks nervously over shoulder for Joedaddy*
Submitted by Circe (user info) at 2005-06-15 00:10:47 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
But.... but.... *sigh*
Fine.
Danger, you get me by default. Send me gifts.
Submitted by Danger_Ranger (user info) at 2005-06-15 00:06:18 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
*sobs*
Submitted by Danger_Ranger (user info) at 2005-06-15 00:05:28 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
.... now..
Submitted by Danger_Ranger (user info) at 2005-06-15 00:05:11 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I'M ALLOWED TO HAVE INTERNET GIRLFRIENDS!!!!!!!!!!!!
Submitted by Bigmike (user info) at 2005-06-14 23:59:44 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by Circe (user info) at 2005-06-14 23:45:10 (#)
Ranking: 0
BigMike, you know I'll be your girlfriend before, during and after any operation you want to have. Can I be your internet girlfriend, Mike? Can I? Because I can add it to my self image: "Mother, wife, daughter, sister, friend, booklover, uberaddict, redhead.... BigMike's girlfriend".
Please?
I'm not allowed to have internet girlfriends. Fantasies though, I think I am allowed those. :)
Submitted by Circe (user info) at 2005-06-14 23:45:10 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
BigMike, you know I'll be your girlfriend before, during and after any operation you want to have. Can I be your internet girlfriend, Mike? Can I? Because I can add it to my self image: "Mother, wife, daughter, sister, friend, booklover, uberaddict, redhead.... BigMike's girlfriend".
Please?
Danger - Supporting the destitute Dutchman would cramp my style, though.
thecaes - thanks.
Submitted by morontian (user info) at 2005-06-14 23:44:59 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Danger_Ranger (user info) at 2005-06-14 23:41:23 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Keeping the Goatse!!!!!?.... oh.
Submitted by Bigmike (user info) at 2005-06-14 23:37:53 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by rad1101 (user info) at 2005-06-14 18:37:05 (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by Bigmike (user info) at 2005-06-14 18:20:01 (#)
Ranking: 2
The truth is.....you like girls.
I'm going to have the operation, will you be my girlfriend?
================
you would be an ugly fucking girl.
Yes, and I'm thinking of keeping the goatee.
Submitted by thecaes (user info) at 2005-06-14 23:28:59 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Don't lose sight of the fact that just because something isn't original, it has no value.
And I find this post somewhat amusing in the sense that there is no one on this site who is better at taking 'common', 'boring', 'unoriginal' stories and life experiences and then presenting them in a completely impactful and original manner, than you, Circe.
Submitted by Danger_Ranger (user info) at 2005-06-14 22:29:07 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
That jar will send you destitute. Send the kid to boarding school, and swear like a motherfucker. Then start a jar for being Dutch - everytime somebody's Dutch, they have to pay. It'll cover the boarding school fees and you'll be a rich cunt, living a motherfucking lifestyle of a rich and famous. I know, it's brilliant.
Submitted by Circe (user info) at 2005-06-14 22:11:05 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Danger - Tell me about it. And I actually made an effort not to swear, too. The Boy gets to spend all the money I put in the swear jar. He bought an X-box game with it yesterday. We've only had the jar for two weeks.
Submitted by Danger_Ranger (user info) at 2005-06-14 22:03:43 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Still with the potty mouth, tut-tut.
Submitted by Captain_Cool (user info) at 2005-06-14 21:55:01 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Plus Two
Submitted by LadyPlural (user info) at 2005-06-14 20:02:22 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Oh no, sweetie. Are you ok?
(This was profound, and I think I will spend a few hours contemplating it)
Submitted by rad1101 (user info) at 2005-06-14 18:40:06 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
There is nothing new under the sun - the bible.
You obviously love words. - someone very smart told me that once.
Submitted by rad1101 (user info) at 2005-06-14 18:37:05 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by Bigmike (user info) at 2005-06-14 18:20:01 (#)
Ranking: 2
The truth is.....you like girls.
I'm going to have the operation, will you be my girlfriend?
================
you would be an ugly fucking girl.
Submitted by doctorj24 (user info) at 2005-06-14 18:34:22 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Now what about truth being relative? Relativity is king.
However, I don't think truth is.
Submitted by A-Daamage (user info) at 2005-06-14 18:32:23 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I know how you feel. I hate to hitwhore, but your post reminded me of something I was trying to express a while ago: http://www.ubersite.com/m/38798
I think that's as close to expressing the truth of all this as I can come.
Submitted by Bigmike (user info) at 2005-06-14 18:20:01 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
The truth is.....you like girls.
I'm going to have the operation, will you be my girlfriend?
Submitted by Berty (user info) at 2005-06-14 17:51:11 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
I would like to tell you the truth. But I won't.
----------------------------------------------------------
Good line. I've always felt that truth is painfully obvious, the only complexity is in it's phrasing. Articulating it in such a way as to be both believable and acceptable. Still, what do I know. I'm just a child.
I feel there was a lot left out, intentionally maybe, that really should have been included. You know how big a fan I am of pretemtious, gnomic comments but I've always felt that if one is going to talk to others about metaphysical concepts like originality and truth one has to use specific and detailed language. Otherwise we may as well just sit in a circle and say "let's think about truth" whilst lighting up a fatty boom batty.
Submitted by TM (user info) at 2005-06-14 17:31:47 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
Most things have been done before and therefore are, in a universal sense, unoriginal. Still, one of these posts could be the first time that the uneducated are brought upon a concept. Opening that mind would give the effort of writing some sort of value, albeit unoriginal. Simply put, however, we all strive to be unique, special, better and accepted as that. Most of the time, we simply lack the oddity to do so.
Submitted by jumpinjellyfish (user info) at 2005-06-14 17:25:01 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
wow
Submitted by MANICMOTHER (user info) at 2005-06-14 15:12:57 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
We really should chat, Circe.
Submitted by strwbryfanatic (user info) at 2005-06-14 14:59:14 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
No Comment
Submitted by iradney (user info) at 2005-06-14 14:50:55 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
stop making me think, dammit
Submitted by tinactin (user info) at 2005-06-14 14:37:55 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I tend to believe that there are no truly original ideas, but merely old ideas broken down and pieced together in new ways. Originality is overrated. I think execution is more important.
Submitted by zakalwe (user info) at 2005-06-14 14:22:45 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Who said the Truth has to be something we can express in words? Language is a human construct, and the Truth - pretty much by definition - is not.
Submitted by NOWorNEVER (user info) at 2005-06-14 14:19:56 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by ess-arr (user info) at 2005-06-14 14:14:15 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
i liked it, honestly.
Submitted by jgreening (user info) at 2005-06-14 13:58:33 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
It could be one of these chemicals here that makes him so smart. Lisa,
maybe you should try some of this.
-- Homer Simpson
Bart the Genius
Submitted by Teephphah (user info) at 2005-06-14 13:54:32 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Every time I use "Truth" around here (Captial T), I'm told that there's no such thing. Buncha relitavist savages around here.
Anyway, big +2 for a fellow seeker of the capital T.
Submitted by UrbaneMischief (user info) at 2005-06-14 13:49:42 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Ainkara (user info) at 2005-06-14 13:44:38 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I like you. *strokes your hair*
Submitted by girlintheworld (user info) at 2005-06-14 13:38:03 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Stin (user info) at 2005-06-14 13:37:45 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Hugs always darling.
Submitted by iddqd (user info) at 2005-06-14 13:35:42 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
"I went to the zoo and I had a lot of fun because I love going to the zoo" - there is nothing wrong with this statement, i dont think its cliche, i think its direct, economical and has symmetry. its nice.
and shit or get off the fucking pot.
Submitted by Vengance (user info) at 2005-06-14 13:27:30 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
clever witty five word response.
In all seriousness...who cares. Trying to distance yourself from everything around you will make you, in the end, no better off than where you started. If none of it matters, if there truly is no such thing as originality, then all we should really focus on is creating what makes us happy, regardless of the convoluted opinions of others that are, themselves, merely products of their own state of unoriginality.
There is no escaping it. But, really, why would you want to? Part of the beauty of life is discovering old things again as if for the first time. We have to see the world through the eyes of children to ever be free of it. Now THAT's cliche!
But it also happens to be correct.
Submitted by Chroniclysm (user info) at 2005-06-14 13:24:02 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I don't think I agree.
+2 because I don't want to formulate my reasons at the moment.
Submitted by satchel (user info) at 2005-06-14 13:18:22 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by badassmofo (user info) at 2005-06-14 13:17:45 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
thanks, I try not to be annoying.
I try to be a pretty positive person as in I like to change the rules to be beneficial to myself.
Selfish, yes, gonna give it up? Nope.
Submitted by morontian (user info) at 2005-06-14 13:14:42 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Thanks.
Submitted by Circe (user info) at 2005-06-14 13:14:22 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
badassmofo - I like that. That's actually pretty profound, in a non-annoying way - rare enough to stick in my head. Thanks.
Submitted by Circe (user info) at 2005-06-14 13:12:30 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Nah. I won't need to. You've now called me "Mummy" and therefore have a 75% chance, based on the odds so far, of being A) terminally ill, or B) dead.
Welcome to Uber, by the way.
Submitted by badassmofo (user info) at 2005-06-14 13:10:57 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Methinks 'original' is a subjective term.
Let's not get lost in original as a romantic term to mean the very first time it was ever done. Better yet we look at original to mean a new idea to me, a new expression of myself.
Better to feel like an original than be called original.
Submitted by morontian (user info) at 2005-06-14 13:10:45 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
sorry, fairly new. don't kill me.
Submitted by wookie (user info) at 2005-06-14 13:10:04 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
The Truth and the truth are both overrated.
Submitted by munkeypants (user info) at 2005-06-14 13:10:01 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Unlike most of you, I am not a nut.
-- Homer Simpson
Homer's Odyssey
Submitted by Circe (user info) at 2005-06-14 13:09:51 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Hence the depressing, rambling, meaningless posts, I guess.
Sorry about that.
Submitted by Circe (user info) at 2005-06-14 13:08:51 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Better be careful. Anyone who calls me Mummy doesn't have an awesome rate of survival.
Submitted by morontian (user info) at 2005-06-14 13:06:54 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Bad, Bad, Bad
Submitted by morontian (user info) at 2005-06-14 13:06:27 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Bad Mummy.
Submitted by Circe (user info) at 2005-06-14 13:05:08 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Thanks. I googled it.
Submitted by morontian (user info) at 2005-06-14 13:04:40 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
+ 2. Watch less tv.
Submitted by Circe (user info) at 2005-06-14 13:02:41 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Disclosure. I think.
Submitted by morontian (user info) at 2005-06-14 13:01:01 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Hint... Line read by Dennis Miller. First correct answer gets +2.
Submitted by JonnyX (user info) at 2005-06-14 12:59:47 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Baby, that's sweet of you to say that, but you should know by now, NOBODY comes _here_ looking for truth...just the opposite. shamone!
Submitted by morontian (user info) at 2005-06-14 12:57:54 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
"How do you think a cliche becomes a cliche?"...
What movie?
Submitted by c1ndy (user info) at 2005-06-14 12:55:08 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Awww tell us the truth Circe!