Bill's Notes

Another key in Spengler's column is the idea of original versus derivative. Almost all of us derive our ideas from others ... real originality and creativity as Spengler defines it is something wholly different, something singular and a break from what came before.

While I'm a little more relaxed about the whole idea than Spengler, the important point I see that some works are such that had the person never been born, nothing like that ever would have occurred. "I'm lying in bed, just like Brian Wilson did." If Barenaked Ladies hadn't written it, it never would have been written. The world would be poorer for it. It's a silly example, but makes the point. As I said, I'm a little more relaxed about the whole thing. Otherwise, you end up as Spengler does ...

I also chill out about what's derivative. And that's because virtually everything we say and think is derivative; it comes from something else. And that's all right. We're in this together -- if you're that afraid of being derivative, the problem could be, as Spengler says, you're self-glorifying.

All that said, I still love modern art. I see something beautiful in cubism or surrealism, and even Jackson Pollock's action paintings. Some are startling and beautiful and expressive.

There are more things in heaven and on earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy ... to quote another guy named Bill.