Is there such a thing as an original thought?
How does perspective skew our opinions? Or peers? Or community?
Our experiences?
How does perspective skew our opinions? Or peers? Or community?
Our experiences?
Every hour we are faced with potentially critical decisions or moments where we must use creativity and imagination to be successful. We are forces of thinking and intelligence, but we never take the time to truly analyze the roots of these thoughts. Are we really the masters of our minds? Or is there something else governing our choices?
For many, spirituality defines their existence prompts their every move, but where do those attachments to God originate? The classic character Odysseus from Homer's The Odyssey uses his faith in the ancient Greek gods to help him be quick-witted in near death situations. Seeing these actions as his own gives Odysseus an inflated sense of pride and confidence. This novel depicts the intangible concept of how little control we have over our own minds in a tangible way. The Gods not only instruct Odysseus about what actions to take in every stage of his journey, but they also plant ideas in the minds of him and his peers about their situations.
If we apply 'this Odyssey concept', of external interference in our minds to classic or modern works of literature or film, we suddenly find ourselves deeply immersed in the heaviness of our adulterous sub-conscience. Who really calls the shots in our lives? Do we ever make decisions simply because we want to? The eerie concept infiltrates our lives from all sides-- almost every work of literature, many movies (Inception, anyone?) and love songs are flecked with its traces.
So the question remains,
For many, spirituality defines their existence prompts their every move, but where do those attachments to God originate? The classic character Odysseus from Homer's The Odyssey uses his faith in the ancient Greek gods to help him be quick-witted in near death situations. Seeing these actions as his own gives Odysseus an inflated sense of pride and confidence. This novel depicts the intangible concept of how little control we have over our own minds in a tangible way. The Gods not only instruct Odysseus about what actions to take in every stage of his journey, but they also plant ideas in the minds of him and his peers about their situations.
If we apply 'this Odyssey concept', of external interference in our minds to classic or modern works of literature or film, we suddenly find ourselves deeply immersed in the heaviness of our adulterous sub-conscience. Who really calls the shots in our lives? Do we ever make decisions simply because we want to? The eerie concept infiltrates our lives from all sides-- almost every work of literature, many movies (Inception, anyone?) and love songs are flecked with its traces.
So the question remains,
Who is truly the master of our minds?
An interesting angle, "who is the master of our minds". The writer/philosopher Albert Camus claimed that, at most, a writer has only a few "real ideas" in her/his lifetime but writes about these in different ways, under different guises.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that your exploration must entail a definition or re-defining of the term "original". Genius, although often associated with originality, often builds off of what has been done/thought. Shakespeare's genius lay not in his original inception of storyline but in the telling (wordplay, complex semantics).
Does the heart have something to do with "originality"?