“I love spring! The flowers are blossoming, the air is so refreshing. Hey honey, I have an idea. Let’s go out to the park and take pictures of the trees.”
“What a good idea! I’ll get my hat.”
Do the people of Tokyo share one collective brain? Is that why so many of them are out on a Saturday afternoon taking pictures of the same tree? Sure, this tree is pretty, but doesn’t it spoil it to know that seventeen other people had that exact same thought and that every one of them is going to have a photo of it exactly like yours?
At another park in Tokyo there was a group of 15 Elvis impersonators taking turns thrusting their crotches and lip-synching to 50s rock songs. Across the lawn a group of punk kids was wearing funky outfits that were certainly different from what other Japanese wear, but also remarkably similar to one another. In another part of the park, a circle of angsty-looking teenagers sat playing moody folk songs on acoustic guitars.
Is this what happens when you surrender the illusion of your own originality? Maybe Americans are just entirely too individualistic. We put so much stock in being original, but what is really original anyway? Everything we think has probably been thought before. For the most part, that we are unique in any substantive way is a myth.
My roommate and I just adopted a cat. She’s orange and white and cute as hell. We named her Marmalade after considering Pumpkin, Matilda, and Sweet Pea. When we took her to the vet, a man in the waiting room said, “Oh, your cat is so cute. She looks just like my cat at home. What’s her name?”
“Marmalade,” my roommate said.
“Oh, we considered that one,” the man said, “but we named her Sweet Pea.”
Why should I be surprised? How many names spring to mind for a cute orange cat? The fact that thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of other people have given their orange cats the same name doesn’t make Marmalade any less cute. Maybe the people taking pictures of this tree feel the same way.
3 comments:
Originality is overrated anyway. I think it is Vonnegut who claims that we are all just plagiarizing the future. The closest us common folk can get to originality is a fantastic imitation that's even better than its predecessor.
Yeah, I understand exactly what are you saying.
Being original is so common that, originality has turn in to something everyone wants.
Since i live in Japan too... For me Japanese people are just a good example of what humanity is, almost in every aspects.
Their lack of originality (or at least their unwillingness to be a bit different), and their way to avoid what is not their idea of life (lifestyle).
Sooo true!
This is pretty funny, I don't know you except through Peregringa, but receiving comments is always good fun for me on my blog.
A couple of thoughts that I'd like to put down:
1. American's are taught - in fascinatingly fashion - that we can be/do anything! And that we're all different, but really how different can we be? There are only so many TV Shows and Radio programs we can listen to, right? As an undergrad I heard a professor say to another student who obstinately insisted she had created this work on her own, "Undergraduates have no original thought, everything they create comes from someone else." Which is an interesting testament to our "individualism" don't you think?
2. Your japanese comment reminds me of the show Heroes, i am one of those "individuals" that watches that show... "We are not special! We are Japanese!" - Ando to Hiro. I've heard this before, it seems to me the Japanese are not taught to be as individually oriented as we are. How interesting. I'l have to take the time to go visit...
Anyway, great blog, this was only my first read but I'll be back! Keep an eye out for me, and feel free to check out mine as well.
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