Dear Dreamwidth:

[kaberett]

Creativity. What do you mean when you say it, or think when you come across the word?

This post brought to you by a conversation on a train.

Comments

[khronos_keeper]

Creativity-- such a fascinating word. With a very loaded history. I think one of my favorite things about it, is that it has only really recently (like within the past idk 300 years) started to be used for humans and their efforts.

Interestingly, it's almost exclusively been used to refer (in at least the English and French derivative word) to the works and acts of God-- as in, the original and only Creator sort of sense. And while I'm not religious, I find this to be wonderfully depictive and informative of the culture of the language.

Locally, I think writing. I think backdoors and trapdoors into human cognition that is only now being explored and discovered and wondered about, and I think, "How can I get there, how can I find that?"

I think of humans and their endless drive to understand and explain and make sense of the world around them, and their tireless quest to know, and in their knowing observe the world and create stories.

I think of gods and atoms, and realize that creativity is the nature of humans-- inasmuch as gods and science are human constructs to make sense of the world, sense-making narratives, devices to tell stories that shift and mature as humanity ages. That creativity is a concept we as a race use to explain our vast and sheer ignorance of the things that tower above us, and we seek to fill that void with our stories. We create the world with our stories.

Creativity is humanity.

(This ramble brought to you by: a grad student up past midnight, who has way too much on her mind.)