OSS # 114: News
Sometimes it really is tiring hearing the news about the same things - crime, poverty, war, calamities etc. And people always have the same reactions - dread, empathy, apathy etc. If you like reading the news maybe you'll know that it's good to sometimes give it a rest. If you don't like reading the news let's use another image.
Tell a friend you had your heart broken and just like that, you'll get an attempt to be consoled. Tell the friend the same story this time using a different guy and the friend may dish out some wise saying. Tell the story a third time or a fourth or more but don't expect the friend to react the same way.
Remember the TV ad with the wife recording her nagging on tape so she can just play back her reaction to his husband's late night drinking spree? It's just like that. The repetition has reached a point of boredom.
After the boredom we find a new way to say things. The same lines said by two different person can give two different meanings. The same concept delivered the in two different ways can have a contrasting effect.
In 2004, Gwen Stefani recorded a song "Rich Girl" which was an adaptation of "If I Were a Rich Man" - a song from the musical "Fiddler on the Roof" (Try to watch that). Though the song sounds somewhat alike you'll know that each has a different character. Piolo Pascual and Gary Valenciano had each a version of the song "Kailangan Kita". It's the same song rendered by two different singers. After hearing both you can't help ask who did it better?
And who did it better? We usually judge a performance (or a written work) based on a performance (or written work) we have previously seen. Someone told me that every story has already been told. The only difference is in the style of telling. But our style of telling a story is usually influenced by (or a reaction to) the story we have read before.
Let's take this style of comic strip for example. This is nothing new. I was inspired by Action Figure Diary. News flash: I'm not original.
Comments
1.because history never repeat itself, it just never ends..
2. i believe nothing is really original, because all of our origins and mother nature itself, is good in conservation, replication and recycling..
what we called evolution (in universe and nature) is known as creativy to us men
A story or a song done by two or more different people has totally different effect on the reader/listener. It all depends on how the writer/singer fully understands what he is telling/singing. Did I make sense?
Halimbawa, broken hearted ka. Sinabi mo ito sa 2 mong kaibigan. Pareho sila ng payo. Pero somehow madidistinguish mo sa kanila kung sino lang yung "nagpapayo" at "nakakaunawa".
Ganon din sa isang story or awitin. Nagiiba ito depende sa pangunawa nung nagsusulat/umaawit.
Haaay, ano na naman ba mga pinagsasabi ko dito. Hehehe =)
Parang contradicting yung statement one and two. Recycling is a form of repetition di ba?
tagabukid
apathy and complacency really puts us at risk.
mr scheez
no ba? may point ka naman. :)
I remember this interview of Will Smith at the Ellen show, and he said the same thing about problems. I guess this has a positive twist because Smith said there are no new problems and that some person, somewhere, some time ago has gone through that and all you have to do is learn all you can because surely someone has written it down.
I never knew action figure diary. When I got to your blog the first time, I was like, wow! this is cute. And when I started reading your strips I said again wow! this person's incredibly witty and funny.
love yah and your dolls!
emailed you back. :)