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Being American Makes Being Creative Pointless
Here's the problem, in a nutshell: Imagine you live in a country whose idea of "literature" is Where's Waldo books, and not just that, but a diluted variety where each page only has ten people and Waldo isn't really hidden at all. Now imagine you know that, somewhere across the ocean, are these bright and shining cultures who not only have much more challenging Where's Waldo books, but also actually make entirely different kinds of books, including ones without pictures.
Living in such a country, I would be inspired by the foreign lit, but I would be influenced by the stuff in my own country. So no matter how high-falutin' my ideas or what kind of innovations I thought I could bring to the table, I would in reality be creating nothing but just a slightly gussied-up Where's Waldo book. Or I could fuck convention and try for a full-on pastiche of foreign literature, but that there is the problem: its a pastiche, a third-rate parroting of some foreign grandmasters I happen to admire. What's the point if I'm not doing something that's original, or at least in some way expresses my individuality?
This is the problem with being an American who wants to create--you know that you're inherently at a disadvantage because you're born in a nation where people are miseducated, stupid, lazy, nationalistic, ignorant, have the emotional maturity of a fifteen-year-old and never really grow up. Even if you're fortunate enough to be not quite as bad off as some of your fellows though, you're still held back. Each time you read or watch something not from your own country, it strikes you just how superior it is, and how to communicates on levels you fucking didn't know exist, that you could never hope to touch. Your own attempt at drawing a comic book, then, is like a cat trying to speak English. Even if you manage it, its just a novelty, just the stupid monkey proving he can copy something he saw someone else do.
That being said, what's the point of bothering? Being American, nothing I make contributes to the world in a meaningful way--it is just me doing something for the sake of doing it. There's no idea, no philosophy, that I could make that wouldn't just be a juvenile version of something some German said last century.
At times, I feel like being an American means I ought to just give up. I know what you all will say. You'll say I'm just being a weeaboo, or else that I'm just in a bad mood, or maybe one of those cute "cool story bro" image macros. Or maybe you'll try to give me a pep talk about how there's hope after all, probably based on something you tell yourself at night to keep you going.
Bah. If we Americans had any sense, the whole country would commit mass suicide. But of course I was raised in this country and so I don't even have the courage to do that. Oh well, maybe I'll get into a fortuitous traffic accident or something.
Comments
-scrolls back up to see if this is in Wonderful Posts-
-it's not-
-D:-
Dantes, calm down. This is like some bad parody.
....Seriously?
Fucking seriously?
I'm one of the most creative people I know. I also have not spent a second of life on non-American soil.
And my creativity was running low that time.
"I'm one of the most creative people I know."
Sorry, but that's just asking for a snarky comment.
But if you ever saw a vast majority of my works...well, you can't say they aren't unique.
Bob: Stop thay shit right now. I spend a lot of work on these works, and I won't have you fucking insulting them.
Seriously. I couldn't describe one of these works if I tried, they're too ridiculous.