Blogging Clone
Friday, July 14th, 2006
Quote him,
Quote her,
Quote me
if thou must prefer.
Strew thy pages
in another’s tongue,
plastering posts
in reused moth-eaten dung.
Might as well spell
“unoriginal” as thy title,
for thine entries
seem like a parrot recital.
Not one novel idea
or thought of thy own,
just another wannabe me
blogging clone.
Strong words mr travis j morgan.
Just for the sake of argument I’m going to defend the reproduction of another’s words. It’s a demonstration of respect. It’s an attempt to share with other’s words that have touched you and you think other’s may benefit from. Sometimes someone else just said it better than you and why mess with that?
In many cultures it is seen as the done thing to reproduce word for word another’s work, the Western concept of plagarism is utterly alien. The Western obssession with originality and the constant need for new words and ideas does not preoccupy all cultures as it does for most of those in the English speaking world. I guess the aim instead is to reproduce the right words, to show you’ve read the right people. One becomes great by reproduction of the masters not by a constant quest for originality and newness. There’s a need to learn from other’s who have come before, rather than disregard them in an attempt to be novel.
Hope that makes sense, not necessarily 100% what I personally think.
On an unrelated point, I’m wondering why you use antiquated forms such os ‘thou’, ’strew’, ‘thine’ etc.?
Heeeeeehe. I knew this poem may start a fire. Keep in mind this is not a personal attack on anyone in particular…just an artistic expression. Kamsin, I’m glad this poem touched you and provoked you to defend the way of recycling words. Believe me, I know better… the poem is written like so, to create a emotional impact on the readers. So far, so good! Thanks for participating Kamsin. As far as the antiquated form, I just wanted to give the poem some more flavor.
why … i think i need people like morgan to express my thoughts cos am not the expressable kinds. sometimes its nice to hear what u think from somebody else’s mouth(even better in a poetic way)
I figured you were probably trying to provoke Travis! Unfortunately, I can’t resist an argument! So go on defend yourself! Tell me why the poem’s p.o.v. is valid! I’m only half-serious, btw, it’s a shame this inter-web thingy doesn’t have tone of voice!
it’s p.o.v. is valid cos
1)its poetic sense brings out happiness
2)its theme brings out the truth
3)it will make morgan acquire more friendly enemies (ha ha ha …)
4)its creating the butterfly effect(chaos theory)
now kamsin am not sounding angry when i commented that way… neither do i provoke or side morgan…. to compensate for the tone bit have this smiley kamsin ;-)
Guilty! As charged. I confess my own laziness sometimes gets the best of me. I can’t help it. I would rather post up a quick quote than leave the page forever blank.
Then again, just this morning out of the blue I wrote a brand new poem to my newest grandchild – Mary Frances- on the spur of the moment in about 5 minutes. (I know, I couldn’t believe it myself). ;)
Very good, Travis. I know you were not pickin on anyone but it is true none the less. I am amazed and envy your own prolific output. Keep it up
Thank you to everyone for your thoughts and relations to this poem.
Travis, it’s my first time here, I came via 9rules and I really like your site.
What could I possibly say that has never been said before? Granted, this particular order of words may be unique but the sentiments expressed here in my comment and in your poem are echoes from the past…
Unlike current work in the development of artificial intelligence for example, human beings (for the moment) have to learn from the bottom-up and not the top-down, so we spend years learning about the experience and knowledge of ancestors (distant and near) and applying those ideas and thoughts in relationship to our current situations.
The point is that repetition is not necessarily a bad thing, in fact it is the inevitable result of human behavioural patterns and linguistic restrictions.The brain has far more potential for expression than the languages we use to translate its activity…just think of what happens when you dream.
The poets and writers, and artists in general that we hold in high-esteem are those who have been able to push the boundaries of such restrictions, to dare enter territory outside the usual modus operandi.
Andrew, thank you for visiting! I feel that what you state in your comment is true. I wrote this poem for the “in-your-face” impact, and don’t necessarily stand by its content. However, there are two sides to the argument, and both can be justified. Hope to see you around again!
Well, I can cope with this poem, Travis, but I fill in the variables in a different way. Replace blog with clothing or gadgets and you get a picture of my life… I always try to find something original to wear or to have or just simply to do with my life and there are always those copycats who take my idea and just replace my name with theirs. Not because they want to be like this or that, but because I saw something fun to have or said something fun to do …
Very frustrating …
Bert, I’m glad you got something from this poem that you could relate to. Though it’s too bad you could relate to it. LOL.
I’m going to argue both sides! :) We learn much from others’ work. That’s how we’re able to effective “embrace and extend” an idea. From a blogging perspective, I can’t read everything out there that I might be interested in. I have no choice but to be highly selective. Therefore, if somebody I’m choosing to read regularly sees something that he or she thinks is good and (re)posts it, I’m thankful! This kind of networking helps me cope with the amount of information out there.
On the other hand, it’s very easy to fall into the trap of continual learning without critically thinking about, and extending, the ideas. I know, I’ve been there. :) This translates to blogging too. It’s much harder to come up with original material, or original analyses or ideas based on regurgitated material.
Like just about everything, the best way is the middle path. Learn Learn Learn (and repost if it’s good! Many of your readers might not have seen it before). But also take the time to Think Think Think!
I forgot to add that that was one of the primary purposes for me starting up my blog. I easily fall into the Learn Learn Learn mode. But blogging forces me to regularly analyze what I’m studying, observe things around me, and find novel approaches or teachings or means of expressing known teachings that others might find interesting and that extend my own knowledge.
Oh, now you’re stirring up the pot :P I think that sometimes blogs that simply copy content and do nothing else are annoying, simply because they are intellectually lazy. Why start a blog, only to copy? On the other hand I think that copying work from time to time is perfectly fine, it is complimentary and quite frankly sometimes some one just puts a perspective into words better than the blog owner could, and so they let someone else do the “speaking” for them.
Either way, I typically don’t care, so long as I don’t get spammed ;)
Anok’s last blog post..Revolution, It’s The Patriotic Thing To Do.