Plucked from Ideaspace

Neil Kleid's at it again (in fact, Big Pond is becoming one of my favorite comics columns). This time, he looks at the concept of Ideaspace:

A concept superwriter Alan Moore tossed out to an unsuspecting world. It’s one of those words that’s stuck with me through my career an observant and struggling writer, just like various coined by the aforementioned Ellis (“headguts”, “brainpowered” and “superfast”). The suggested intangible ether in which stories and observations are plucked from molecules, forged into matter and wrestled to the printed page. Ideaspace is where ideas live, breathe and one day, die. Anyone can access Ideaspace, as long as you’ve got a bit of intelligence, a lot of imagination and a pocketful of organizational sense. And often, in my experience as a writer, more than one creator has accessed many of these ideas at the same time.

I like Moore's take on this. It seems like a more fantastical representation of Jung's collective unconsciousness:

What’s in the collective unconscious? Psychological archetypes. This idea of psychological archetypes is among Jung’s most important contributions to Western thought. An ancient idea somewhat like Plato’s idea of Forms or “patterns” in the divine mind that determine the form material objects will take, the archetype is in all of us. The word “archetype” comes from the Greek “arche” meaning “first, and “type” meaning “imprint or pattern.” Psychological archetypes are thus first prints, or patterns that form the basic blueprint for major dynamic counterparts of the human personality. For Jung, archetypes pre-exist in the collective unconscious of humanity. They repeat themselves eternally in the psyches of human beings and they determine how we both perceive and behave. These patterns are inborn within us. They are part of our inheritance as human beings. They reside as energy within the collective unconscious and are part the psychological life of all peoples everywhere at all times. They are inside us and they are outside us. We can meet them by going inward to our dreams or fantasies. We can meet them by going outward to our myths, legends, literature and religions. The archetype can be a pattern, such as a kind of story. Or it can be a figure, such as a kind of character.

This also is where we must place the obligatory link for the "myth of the superhero set" to Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces, which is a fascinating book.

Later, Kleid asks, "What about you? Have you snatched an idea from the humming ether of Moore’s Ideaspace?"

Once. And boy, did I bitch about it when someone else beat me to it. Back in the mid-'90s, I was tangentally involved with the whole rave/club scene. While I promoted (well) and DJed (poorly), I had a typical dream: producing my own tracks (later, I would try, and realize that I'm talentless when it comes to doing that). But, at the time when "anthemy" tracks were king, I really, really wanted to take the Knight Rider theme and put it to a beat. I'd torture my little brother with bad voice music and table pounding ("ba-bump (thump) ba-bump (thump) ba-bump ba-bump ba-bump (thump), over and over again like Gary Oldman in Immortal Beloved humming the 9th Symphony theme). Someone in the techno scene may have already done it, but not to my knowledge. I felt fresh, even though I knew I'd never do anything with it.

What comes out within the year? Busta Rhyme's 1997 smash "Turn It Up," which relies heavily on the same sample.

In any case, go read Kleid's column (also, find interesting stuff from Alex DeCampi). There's good stuff to be found below the hideous ad for "Cindy Margolis is THE 10TH MUSE" (which makes sense, as both the character and the celebrity are known for their breasts), including Kleid's concept of the "Idea Store." I hope, when you click, you see a much better ad.