Originality is something you find 'outside' of yourself.
Hello! This is one of the people behind YOKU STUDIO.
Usually, I write articles conveying the philosophy of YOKU STUDIO or summaries and commentaries on books, but this time, I would like to write something a bit more essay-like.
The theme is"originality".
"Originality."
Don't we tend to have complicated feelings about this word?
In today's world, where diversity is emphasized, there is an increasing demand to pursue one's own identity and to demonstrate individuality to succeed.
On the other hand, information is overflowing everywhere, and because you can somehow create something that 'looks the part' just by gathering it all up, I feel that the hurdle for having your own original sensibilities and ways of thinking, or for creating unique works, has become quite high.
Moreover, despite the emphasis on 'originality,' schools and society don't teach us how to find it.
That is precisely whyI suspect there are quite a lot of people who are worried, asking, 'What on earth is my originality?'I think.
In the fields of self-help and spirituality, it is often said that if you realize your 'true self' through meditation or healing, your 'originality' will naturally become visible, but I personally don't really believe that... haha.
The reason is thatin my experience, 'originality' is not something that can be seen just by facing your 'inside.' Rather, I feel it is something that can only be formed by looking at your 'outside.'because of that.
- Being swayed by 'originality'...
As I have mentioned in my articles several times already, I work at a university as a literature researcher.
Unlike researchers in the sciences who pour their hearts into proving objective facts, for researchers in the humanities (especially in fields like literature that deal with issues related to human imagination rather than social events), the degree of originality in their findings is an important evaluation criterion.
In other words, presenting an interesting perspective that has not been pointed out in previous research is what is important in research.
That is precisely why, in the past, I think I was strongly focused on producing research results that were uniquely my own and belonged to no one else—in other words, having 'originality' as a researcher.
However, the more I tried to create something original, the more painful it became... and I often ended up stuck in a rut.
I would get too hung up on the methods I had used until then, and new ideas would stop coming to me.
Or, I would become so conscious of the differences between my work and research already conducted by others that I would lose sight of what I actually wanted to say.
Looking back now, I think the cause was that I was trying to look for 'originality' within myself.
・'Originality' lies beyond trial and error
To begin with, I don't think 'originality' is something we have possessed unchanged since the moment we were born.
The prototypes of 'originality' range from the level of personal tastes and preferences, such as likes/dislikes or strengths/weaknesses, to the level of one's own coherent opinions and philosophies...
These were never things we were aware of from the start, but rather things we gradually discovered through trial and error in our daily lives, weren't they?
Please try to remember your childhood.
For example, as a child, I loved books and music, but I was terrible at ball games and athletics. Haha.
And even within books, I liked fantasy and mystery, and I felt that if it were a work in those genres, I could read it and lose track of time, or that even with music, I could enjoy practicing the piano for long hours; I feel like those tendencies were already there when I was in kindergarten or elementary school.
But that must have been a tendency or strength of mine that I gradually came to understand as a child, by trying various things in front of me without prejudice (since a newborn baby shouldn't be able to 'have prejudices' in the first place...) and accepting them with my own sense.
After all, if a newborn baby knew 'I like this!' or 'I'm bad at this💦' in advance, it would be a little scary, wouldn't it...
Thinking about it that way, couldn't we say that 'originality' as individuality or personality is something that can only be discovered through interaction with the environment?
When we become adults, as our past experiences increase, we tend to try to act within the scope of our recognition that 'I am this kind of person!'
We tend to try to reduce the effort of repeating trial and error as much as possible.
However, 'originality' that relies only on past experiences becomes rigid and ends up not fitting the 'here and now' self and the surrounding environment.
There is a limit to searching for 'originality' within one's 'inside'..
・If you are worried about 'originality,' start by taking action
To return to the example of my own research mentioned earlier...
The words I would like to say to my past self, who was desperate to demonstrate my own 'originality,' are, 'Before worrying about such things, just take action!' (laughs)
After all, 'originality' can only be seen by facing the outside world.
For now, without thinking about anything unnecessary, try focusing on reading the works you are researching. Or, follow your curiosity and look through books related to your research, as well as those that don't seem related. Try exchanging opinions with people around you, in a way that feels like an extension of casual conversation.
I believe that the process of carefully picking up the sense of self that vaguely emerges while seriously trying such things, and organizing it into an easy-to-understand form of expression (such as writing or artwork), is the only path to creating 'originality' is what I think now.
Because of my profession, I have many opportunities to interact with university students, and I often meet students who are worried that they 'might not have any originality.'
I think that a generation that has been able to gather a lot of information immediately by operating a smartphone or PC since they were old enough to understand things is particularly prone to worries about 'originality,' but...
Instead of 'collecting information that you think is necessary for yourself,' isn't the source of 'originality' to be found in valuing your intuition or curiosity, taking some time to face objects in the outside world (whether they are real people, novels, manga, movies, anime, music, etc.), and feeling the movements of your own heart within that?
Conversely, for those who have strong confidence in their own 'originality' and believe in the characteristics and personality of their existence as something solid, I would like to recommend that they once again face the outside world through the 'here and now' self and experience trial and error anew.
'Originality' is not something that remains constant throughout one's life; it is something that becomes visible by constantly facing the outside world and confirming the sensations of one's 'here and now' self.
Thinking of it this way, you can affirm your current self as someone with room to grow, and you should be able to discover the unique interest in each moment of your life.
'Originality' is found 'outside' of yourself, not 'inside'.
If you stand on this premise and define your life's journey as an insatiable quest for discovering 'originality,' won't your daily life start to look much more special and precious than it did before?
*Thank you as always for your likes and follows!
I would also be very happy if you felt free to leave a comment.*
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