"You're my obsession"

[wolven7]

"Who do you want me to be
To make you sleep with me?"

mech_angel got it stuck in my head; blame her.

I've been thinking a lot, lately, about the idea "Don't pretend to be something you're not." It's weird, to say that to people. Pretention, putting on airs, shit like that. Honestly, how the fuck else are you supposed to learn? In the words of Leo McGarry, from the West Wing, "Fake it, till you Make It."

mech_angel just said that, three seconds before anything I was typing indicated that I was going to use that phrase, but just after i thought it, to type it.

But it's true. You have to put yourself in that mindset, you have to be something you're not, if only for that smallest of moments, before you Become that thing.

The key -- the Real way of it-- is that you don't pretend to be something you don't honestly want to become. Emulation and immitation are the life-blood of all creativity.

I've been reading a lot of Alan Moore, and Brian Bendis, recently, so... Yeah.

Time to work.

Ta.

Comments

[momentai.livejournal.com]

what alan moore have you been reading?

[wolven.livejournal.com]

It's an interview book: "Alan Moore Spells it Out."

Language, magic, writing, art, creativity, life. Alan Moore.

[raoin.livejournal.com]

so perhaps it should not be "be yourself" but "be true to yourself"?

[wolven.livejournal.com]

Precisely. It becomes a matter of personal integrity, rather than some kind of misguided attempt at keeping your personality static.

[not-hothead-yet.livejournal.com]

then there's the question of "what's the difference between pretending to be someone and actually being someone?"

I mean, when I told my dad I was bi, he got upset and said "No you're not! You just think you are!"

and I'm thinking, what the fuck is the difference? If I think I am someone, then isn't that at least a step towards actually being that someone?

[wolven.livejournal.com]

I would say that you're precisely correct. I don't necessarily have to Think I'm something, in order to become it, but If I think it, i'm likely to become it, eventually.

Yep, very much so.

[unknownbinaries.livejournal.com]

True intent tends to change things simply by association...And it all also comes back to being brutally, totally honest with yourself. Pretense, because you think you're something you're not...gets a stabbity.

And this is so an excuse not to get ready for work, right now.

[wolven.livejournal.com]

Exactly. As long as it's in the process of becoming something true to yourself (integrity), then it's fine.

And you've got a lot of those, don't you? ^_^