Re: original vs. good

[Tim Nelson <tnelson@metrocast.net>]

At 07:22 PM 11/18/01 -0800, you wrote:
>You can't NOT be original.
>If you gave everyone in the world a red crayon and
>told them to draw a house each would be unique.
>Originality seems to be an obsession ( the age we live
>in?) when it's the easiest thing in the world! 

I dunno; in a perfect world that view might hold water, but in this case
it's skewed by the fact that there's already someone who's been drawing
houses with red crayons for many years. Even though he wasn't the first one
to do so, and really never claimed to be, he's developed such a notorious
public profile as a red crayon house artiste (often making authoritative
and possibly pedantic proclamations regarding 'proper' technique) that
others who likewise choose to sketch dwellings with sticks of crimson wax
are sometimes sorely tempted to peek over at his desk to see how it's
'supposed to be' done (or what brand of crayon he favors, or the angle at
which he holds his wrist while drawing). And those who DON'T overtly copy
his style, even those who'd never even heard of him, find that THEIR red
crayon house drawings are continually being compared and contrasted to/with
the more famous guy's, fairly/accurately or (more often) not, no matter how
'original' their approach.

-t-