Saturday 24 September 2011

“The opposite of creativity is cynicism”

Esa Saarinen, Finnish philosopher said this - probably in Finnish. Vastakohta luovuus kyynisyyttä - in case you're interested. 

(I wonder if Google Translate plays dreadful tricks and 'Vastakohta luovuus kyynisyyttä' actually means 'Your mother has the face of a hamster run over by a dustbin lorry' - which Google Translate claims to be 'Äitisi on edessä hamsterin ajaa haltuunsa kaatopaikka kuorma.' I'll never know...unless...)

Mercifully, there was no picture of a hamster run over by a dustbin lorry on Google Images. I did check. This will have to do.

 Back to the idea that the opposite of creativity is cynicism.

Wrong!

To me that's like saying 'the opposite of happy is tulip' or 'the opposite of enormous is strawberry jelly.'

I was thinking about cynicism in the following context...I've written a (very creative) screenplay called 'The colour of her scream' for which funding is not forthcoming. In order to give it more exposure, I'm entering it into some contests. I just heard it got through the first stage of the British Short Screenplay Contest.

At one time, I would have been shouting that from the roof tops. Now my attitude is 'Oh yeah. Along with the hundreds of others. I suppose that means it's properly formatted and the reader got out of bed the right side.' 


Cynicism is the opposite of being disappointed.

Creativity is the opposite of...atrophy? Or, as Esa Saarinen might say 'Luovuus on vastakohta ... atrofia?'

Possibly. That's if you're not cynical about Google Translate.

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