Of course, some would argue that there will always
be more to say. Technological and scientific breakthroughs will smash through
barriers of current intellectual capacity, expanding our knowledge, vocabulary
and topical discussions. William Shakespeare, for example, would not have
bragged to Ben Jonson about his recent high-score on Angry Birds, on his new
iPad 2, or moan to his wife that there’s a power-cut, preventing him from
writing his next Tweet. Still, these are hardly the most virtuous, stimulating
topics; perhaps all worthwhile subjects have been mined already for those ores
of wholesome knowledge.
Still, it is no easy task to write original content.
Even now, I am writing about a topic that has been written about and discussed
for several years. The best many can hope to achieve is repeating what others
have said, and reference it to avoid the minefields of plagiarism. Or, if one
is particularly astute, perhaps an ‘innovative’ combination of someone else’s
idea with your own could present something in a new light.
The Undergraduate is a hopelessly optimistic
character. Constantly buffeted by the theme of this post, the undergraduate’s
confidence in his intellect and originality makes it hard for him to accept
that he will very rarely come up with something original or worth-while. More
likely, he will, to use Virginia Woolf’s metaphor (the fact that I’m quoting, funnily,
proves my lack of originality), ‘oar his boat through the reflections [of the
river and then] they close again, completely, as if he had never been.’
My pointlessly pessimistic point is that one is
unlikely to ever be original. The multiplicity of great minds have already mastered the
main subjects of our time, and we can merely study and admire the expertly
formulated theories of the great thinkers of our time, such as Newton,
Shakespeare, Einstein, Watt, Plato and many others that I do not have the time
or knowledge to fittingly acknowledge.
Brilliant post. Very true thoughts on our lack of originality!
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