That explains it
May. 2nd, 2013 01:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
avevale_intelligencer(A WRITER approaches a SCIENTIST. The WRITER is carrying a large crate.)
WRITER: I've finally worked out what it is that's been bugging me.
SCIENTIST: Good for you.
WRITER: You know you're always saying how beautiful and wondrous it is that the universe happened completely randomly, by accident? And that that impresses you so much more than the idea that it was all created by a god?
SCIENTIST: Mm-hm.
WRITER: Do you know what I hear when you say that? "Don't bother learning sentence structure and grammar. Don't bother learning to create complex characters and intricate plots and moving and poetic stories, because this--"
(He upends the crate, and empties hundreds of alphabet fridge magnets into a pile on the floor.)
WRITER: "--is more impressive to me than anything you could actually write."
(A beat.)
SCIENTIST: You know you're gonna have to pick all that up now, right?
WRITER: Why? This is conceptual art, man! I could sell this to Tate Modern!
SCIENTIST: Listen, let me know when you actually write a universe, okay?
(He wanders away shaking his head. The WRITER looks down at the pile of letters, then hunkers down and starts arranging them into words, muttering under his breath.)
WRITER: I've finally worked out what it is that's been bugging me.
SCIENTIST: Good for you.
WRITER: You know you're always saying how beautiful and wondrous it is that the universe happened completely randomly, by accident? And that that impresses you so much more than the idea that it was all created by a god?
SCIENTIST: Mm-hm.
WRITER: Do you know what I hear when you say that? "Don't bother learning sentence structure and grammar. Don't bother learning to create complex characters and intricate plots and moving and poetic stories, because this--"
(He upends the crate, and empties hundreds of alphabet fridge magnets into a pile on the floor.)
WRITER: "--is more impressive to me than anything you could actually write."
(A beat.)
SCIENTIST: You know you're gonna have to pick all that up now, right?
WRITER: Why? This is conceptual art, man! I could sell this to Tate Modern!
SCIENTIST: Listen, let me know when you actually write a universe, okay?
(He wanders away shaking his head. The WRITER looks down at the pile of letters, then hunkers down and starts arranging them into words, muttering under his breath.)
no subject
Date: 2013-05-02 04:16 pm (UTC)Though technically the scientist was not saying anything like the idea that the random pile of letters is more impressive than anything the writer could produce. He is saying that if when the writer dumped the crate out the letters formed an actual story it would be more impressive than anything the writer could produce. It's that the ordered result came from randomness which is impressive, not the randomness.
Though I do mentally picture Eeyore (Shepard's art, not Disney) being the writer sitting and arranging the letters...