Orginality
“Orginality:
Many students block their imaginations because they’re
affair of being unoriginal. They believe they know exactly what originality is,
just as a critics are always sure they can recognise things that are
avant-garde.
We have a concept of originality based on things that
already exist. I’m told that avant-garde theatre groups in Japan ate just like
those in the West – well of course, r how would they know what they were?
Anyone can run an avant-garde theatre group; you just get the actors to lie
naked in a heap or outstare the audience, or move in extreme slow motion, or
whatever the fashion is…
The <artist> has to realise that the more obvious he
is , the more original he appears. I constantly point out how much the audience
like someone who is direct, how they always laugh with pleasure at the real
‘obvious’ idea. Ordinary people asked to improvise will search for some
‘original’ idea because they want to be thought clever… No two people are
exactly alike, you more obvious <you > are the <yourself> you
appear to be.
An artist who is inspired is being obvious. He’s not making
any decisions, he’s not weighing one idea against another he is accepting his
first thoughts. How else could Dostoyevsky have dictated one novel in the
morning and one in the afternoon for three weeks in order to fulfil his
contracts?”