f enough people break the rules…
The rules are diluted into change.
It can be both good and bad.
It is why film is in a death spiral.
Publishing is a dumpster fire.
And art is celebrating mimicry.
The natural effect of everyone chasing the new hot thing is that it becomes a pool of mediocrity.
Classics stand out for a simple reason.
They weren’t trying to copy someone else…
and that automatically made them different.
I recently spoke with a lepidopterist (butterfly and moth specialist), and they explained the metamorphosis from a caterpillar to a butterfly.
Once cocooned, the caterpillar is broken down, and then built back up into the butterfly it becomes.
But once it starts to emerge from that cocoon, the wings have a limited time to unfurl before they set. It’s in this same period where they appear to struggle the most.
As an observer, it’s hard not to want to help them.
The truth is, if you help them, they will die.
They need that very struggle, that’s so hard to watch, to develop the strength to survive.
How is the struggle making you stronger?
Can you feel a transition coming?
Are you being broken down before you can be built back up?
We won’t all make it.
But if we are just trying to mimic what’s already it there and the only difference is who’s page it’s posted on…isn’t that a good thing?