In slow motion

In the book "Naar man mailer" (which literally could be translating to "When you're mailing", but that would alter the pun), the Danish author Svend Aage Madsen and the Danish journalist Flemming Chr. Nielsen publish a number of mails, they have exchanged over time. Here Madsen describes how inspiration can be a mischievous phenomenon (in my translation):

I have experienced getting a first-rate idea while watching a movie on the television. Such a clear and obvious one that there was no reason to write it down. And then afterwards ... alas. Then I get the urge to look through the movie again, if it's a recording, hoping that the idea will appear again in the same place. Which it of course won't, because you are now seeking it.

I know the problem. And not only when I get a good idea, and not just in front of the television; it can be anything that flies through the brain at any point in time, just to have disappeared, when I need to use it. A classic is when at home, I stumble upon something, I want to say to someone else in the house; then I become distracted and the thought is gone. Hereafter, I can force myself to meticulously go through the same routines that occupied me when the idea arose, right down to the tiniest details, meandering through the rooms in the same as I went before, and still I simply cannot succeed rediscovering the inspiration. Possibly because it's been a combination of things, and it is not that easy to restore all the prerequisites; possibly something as trivial as because I just noticed that there was something on the radio at the time that I simply did not see as important, eventhough it was.
There is only one thing to say: write it down, write it down, write it down. And in sufficient details to afterwards remove all doubt as to what the notes mean.
(Translated from I langsom gengivelse, originally published August 3rd, 2010)

On the topic of constructive waiting time

A lot of people are concerned about the fear of the blank page - about having the urge or need to write, but not be able to do so.
I feel privileged not to suffer from such anxiety, and I think I know why. I am well aware that inspiration is something that can not be forced, inspiration is something one has to wait for, and use the time waiting constructively.
If at the same time, one has a plethora of stuff on the reading list, this is a match almost too good to be true. For how to spend time better while looking for inspiration, than by seeking inspiration, for example by reading something one finds interesting?
One should not wait for inspiration with idle hands. On the other hand, inspiration should not be left waiting when it arrives.
It will obviously not always turn up in an opportune moment, but as a minimum, enough key words must be written down to enable rediscovery of the inspiration when time and quiet is available to get it translated into text.
(Translated from Noget om konstruktiv ventetid, originally published February 2nd, 2010)

Plagiarism and inspiration

There is a thing which has been on my mind for some time - the difference between plagiarism and inspiration: why is it that something will be categorized as plagiarism, while others slip through the eye of the needle and are recognized just to have been "inspired"?
When one subscribes to the opinion that not only have most things been said before; most have also been said in a better and clearer way before, then one must simultaneously accept that most of the things one can acheive, must be acheived through inspiration - very little comes from nothing. So the important thing must be to make sure that one has something to be inspired by.
Somewhere, I have seen the quote that you have to read thousands of books, before you can write one, and most likely, this is true, then you will have been exposed to sufficient amounts of information (and quite probably also information of divergent nature and content) to form and formulate your own opinion.
And when you have formed and formulated your own opinion, then you can always start looking back at the things you were inspired by and use these as references, make sure that quotes appear verbatim et cetera - and then, you have not leaned on any single source, not copied, not plagiarized.
(Translated from Plagiat og inspiration, originally published January 18, 2010)

On the topic of originals, copies and collages

While discussing authenticity, I came to think of a quote, which we Danes like to attribute to Søren Kierkegaard - symptomatically enough, I think it actually originates from the English poet Edward Young, who died about half a century before Kierkegaard's birth:

We are all born originals - why is it so many of us die copies?

For that question, I think I know a good answer: we die copies, because we have gathered inspiration from people, we have met over time, from whom we have let inspiration rub off. And the fascinating part is that hardly anyone - maybe not even in totalitarian regimes, eventhough, fortunately, my knowledge of said regimes is limited - die as exact copies of a certain other person. Rather, we die as collages of numerous other people, who then again themselves were collages of those people who inspired them.
Which is quite fortunate, I think. Otherwise, none of us could reach higher by standing on the shoulders of giants of the past.
(Translated from Noget om originaler, kopier og collager, originally published October 17, 2015)

On the topic of dreaming

This was not originally thought to be a post about quotes and their origin, but it ended up beginning like that anyway - as I dived into the quote:

If you can dream it, you can do it.

I found that it did not originate from Walt Disney personally, eventhough it is attributed to him by many people. It seems to be a quote by Tom Fitzgerald, who put the words together while working as  "imagineer" - a job I would love to have, dragged together from "imagination" and "engineering". It covers a position in design and development within Walt Disney Imagineering Research & Development, Inc. - but now I think I have started digressing...
The original point was that I do not necessarily believe in a one-to-one-relationship between what can be imagined and what can be done. On the other hand, I am pretty certain that another relationship exists - a relationship which can be described by

If you can't even dream it, how could you dream of doing it?

All that's left to say is: make sure to keep your dreams and your powers of imagination alive and well. Who knows? Something worth turning into reality, might come out of it.
(Translated from Noget om at drømme, originally published February 4, 2014)

A word of warning

This time of year, a word of warning might be appropriate. Very soon something will happen, as it used to in earlier years, but this year, a slightly (ever so slightly) larger crowd will wonder what's happening in the next month or so.
For the fourth year in a row, I have decided to accompany what is popularly known as "cucumber season" or "silly season" with a concept, I have chosen to name "cucumber blogging" - a line of blog posts on a common predefined topic. Just like Danish media use their summers on special topics made in a more or less strictly specified mold, why not do the same?
In that fashion, I spent the summer of 2013 on quotes, summer of 2014 on my most heavily used blog topics, and summer 2015 to work along tangents that might not otherwise have been given quite as much time.
Tomorrow, the Danish blog will see, what the summer of 2016 is to be spent on. For readers with better things to spend their time on, I foresee the end of the cucumber to be reached when August begins. Come August, I will promise to make an effort again. In the meantime, I might even consider preparing the effort a bit.
A special warning goes out, as this is the first summer since I decided to start translating certain posts. There might not be much translation for the next month or so - but August will come, almost before we notice.
(Translated from Et ord til advarsel)