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Cadwell NOT Caldwell
I read that somewhere
[ 5 minute read ]
Inquisitive
There are references throughout this post that come from frequent use of the DuckDuckGo indexing and ranking pages for search terms (Release dates for films and character names, for example).
I always thought there was an unwritten rule that books, films and music; seemingly any creative piece, should never reference any other creative piece. I thought it was risky to do so. Perhaps, I thought it demonstrated a distinct lack of creativity and, indeed, the creative world obliquely gave me that idea. After all, creators have some understanding that merely mentioning artistic persons lends credence to their own work; it causes the recipient to momentarily re-experience their exposure to the mentioned artist. I think 'name-dropping' is the thing here. I believed this thread of a thought for a long while. I think the latter part is true, and I thought that it is only recent that we sometimes come across references to Star Wars or something similar. There is, of course, the long-standing meme (originating long before we even knew what a meme is) of the discovery in the film 'Jaws' (1975) when the Police Chief, Martin Brody, and the boat owner and marine biologist, realise that the boat they are on, is not really large enough for the job of dealing with the monster shark. 'We're gonna need a bigger boat', might be rehashed by a husband and wife team, with children in the modern world, to be 'We're gonna need a bigger car.' It could be, 'We're gonna need a bigger house', when guests come to stay.
Pedants might follow a strong belief that the actual words in 'Jaws' were, 'You're going to need a bigger boat'. Yet, I think I am right when I suggest that most of us don't remember Chief Brody saying, 'You're'. Instances such as this 'false memory' are considered by many to be occasions when 'The Mandela Effect' is apparent. One example of this is 'Sex in the City' is actually 'Sex and the City'. Well, I just don't know. I have seen most of the Star Trek spinoff productions and sometimes there are alternative timelines when none of the crew know of a different one when some of them were dead, or kind. At this point, we could start looking into multi-verses existing in the place of a single universe. However, back to my point of leaning heavily on someone else's creativity to enhance one's own offering by referencing their film, music, book, or intellectual property. I don't mean mentioning a steam engine automatically causes anyone to think of James Watt, or even Thomas Newcomen; it doesn't.
I was delighted to hear Ginger Rogers in the film 'The Major and The Minor' (1942) directly quote, the actress [actor], Greta Garbo in the 1932 film 'Grand Hotel'. Ginger Rogers as 'Su Su', in 'The Major and The Minor' is asked by train guards to show her ticket and they challenge her to prove she is of Swedish stock by demanding she speak Swedish, when she tells them she is a minor. Su Su responds with. 'I want to be alone.' Greta Garbo said this in 'Grand Hotel'. I presume Greta Garbo was well known to be Swedish; a Swedish actress, in 1942 America, when 'The Major and The Minor' was released.
Later, in the same film, 'The Major and The Minor', there is a reference to Veronica Lake, famous for her particular hairstyle. I think Veronica Lake is also referenced in a film I have seen; I seem to recall a woman sending a man away from her home to accept another man into her bedchamber, who was either posing as Veronica Lake or was supposed to be Veronica Lake.
Personally, I think referencing other artists and works of creativity adds credence to a scene or song lyrics. It is, of course, a short cut to evoke an emotion but I don't see anything wrong with that. Perhaps the problem lies in modern audiences having never been exposed to the original work and thereby being led to believe that that reference is not at all a reference to something that existed as creativity before. I, myself, have enjoyed cover versions of songs and never realised that they were not originals. No doubt, there are many songs I have heard, for which this is still true.
A real case in point for how any of us might quote or misquote a work of creativity is when I was explaining to my German friend while drinking coffee in a church back room: There were a few other people seated there.
'If I borrow money, I always return the money and include a small gift. I suppose I impose a penalty on myself for being foolish enough to place myself in such a position,' I told my friend. He nodded sagely as he pondered the effect of this.
Suddenly, a woman rose purposefully from her chair and as she passed me said, in a supercilious manner, 'Neither a borrower or lender be.' Instantly, because I know that what she said is only a portion of an idiom, a partial idiom, I wished I could finish it. I also suspected that, like me, she thought what she had said was an old wives tale, except she, I suspected thought it complete.
'...for loan oft loses both itself and friend, and borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.' Hamlet Act 1, Scene 3 (Shakespeare, of course).
If I had of known those words it would have been mean for me to say them to her to finish her words. Just as well I didn't know them, eh?
Sometimes, to the right people, I might say 'Pot Kettle Black', which, in my head, is shorthand for, 'That is like the kettle calling the pot black.' Both the kettle and the pot in years gone by, would have shared the same fire and been blackened by the poorly burning fuel. It is an idiom that expresses a view that someone is being hypocritical, or is criticising someone else while they do the same thing themself. (Suggesting they have feelings they do not actually have).
Another partial idiom is, 'The best laid plans of mice and men.' which finishes with, 'often go awry'; Robert Burns, 'To a Mouse' (1785). It is often, in our modern world, further shortened to, 'The best laid plans'.
However, the above version of Robert Burns' poem is hugely distorted from the original verse:
'The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men
Gang aft agley,
An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,
For promis'd joy!''
From: POETRY FOUNDATION - https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43816/to-a-mouse-56d222ab36e33
My interest in all of this (partial idioms - which I did not know was a thing before today) came from John Steinbeck's 1937 novella, 'Of Mice and Men', which incidentally, can be bought with a 'sparknotes' study guide. From John Steinbeck's novella, which was compulsory reading in my English lessons at school, to Shakespeare and the now open concept of referencing other creative works to lend credence to our own attempts. For me, it all started with my teachers, and is kept alive by my inquisitiveness.
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