Where Do Ideas Come From?
From all that we see, hear, read, touch, smell and on and on...
Gather round the campfire children.
Let me tell a tale…
Do you remember Jack and the Beanstalk. The story has a long, long oral tradition. It was told round countless campfires and at town gatherings.
A scary story to entertain the crowds.
It was first written down in 1734.
Jack - as a character - bounces around and over and through lots of stories.
Jack the Giant Killer
Little Jack Horner
Jack over the candlestick
Jack and Jill
Jack Frost
Always a little bit of a trickster. Always a little over-confident. Always a little naive.
He’s been borrowed and adapted many, many times.
How about Gogmagog?
Gogmagog is the giant in Jack’s beanstalk story. He’s liberally borrowed from many stories in Irish and English folklore.
He’s ancient.
But he was born in the Bible.
Gog and Magog were warring nations.
and will come out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together for the war; the number of them is like the sand of the seashore.
Revelations 20:8
Cram the two nations together and you get a child eating, bone spitting, giant monster.
And the famous Gogmagog line:
Fee-fi-fo-fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman
It comes from Shakespeare’s King Lear.
Edgar says,
Child Rolande to the dark tower came,
Fie, foh, and fum, I smell the blood of a British man.
A simple child’s tale has roots in our long tradition of oral story telling, the Bible, and Shakespeare.
Shakespeare - borrowed from oral stories and history himself - may be the most adapted writer of all time…
Ran
She’s The Man
10 Things I Hate About You
Forbidden Planet
My Private Idaho
The King
The Lion King
And on and on…
The point is read, and view, and ingest as much content as possible. Then let the subconscious smash it all together.
You never know what might come out.
Think About it…
Since we’ve been talking about story tellers.
What’s gone and what’s past help Should be past grief.
William Shakespeare, The Winter’s Tale
AI Generated (bundleIQ) explanation of Shakespeare’s words…
We all experience loss and pain in life, but it is important to remember that we must move on from the things that are out of our control. Dwelling on the past will only bring us more sorrow. It is better to focus on what we can do now and make the most of every moment. Life is too short to waste time worrying about what has already happened; instead, let us embrace the present and look forward to a brighter future.
Not too bad.
Do It…
More football. Great games this weekend but it’s a little bittersweet since the NFL will soon be gone for another year. Here’s my picks (last weeks games I was 6 - 0):
Jaguars vs. Chiefs - Chiefs win but closer than expected
Giants vs. Eagles - Eagles big
Bengals vs. Bills - Bengals in the game of the weekend
Cowboys vs. 49ers - Cowboys
Enjoy your weekend.
Ciao.