Why I love Magritte - All the people...

All the people was written before i got to learn about rene magritte. I do not know if I had before saw in any image the picture of a mermaid with a fish head and human legs. but it was not hard to imagine. Any defiant kid should have conjured up that image when they heard the answer to "what's a mermaid/merman?"

So, when I saw the picture collective invention (1934) by rene magritte, shown below, I wasn't surprised by the image per-se. But I was surprised at the remarkable similarity between the mood of the picture and the mood of my piece. As in it's so similar that people may conclude that I based the piece on the painting, but actually I hadn't done so, consciously at least. If he painted the picture after me, maybe they'll say that he based it on my piece. I think that's the disadvantage of being born later, and not in Europe/US/westerners' place, and in a time of over-population and etc...


Collective invention is a play on the concept of collective imagination. I couldn't find ready explanations of these concepts, but I think it sorta means that the concept, say the mermaid, is product of collective imagination, everyone imagines woman plus fish = mermaid. Collective invention is everyone invents it together? Gee, see the onlinedictionary.com definitions below. Anyone's got a definition in your textbooks please email me. Thanks.

i·mag·ine

v. i·mag·ined, i·mag·in·ing, i·mag·ines

v.tr.

1. To form a mental picture or image of.

2. To think; conjecture: I imagine you're right.

3. To have a notion of or about without adequate foundation; fancy: She imagines herself to be a true artist.

v.intr.

1. To employ the imagination.

2. To make a guess; conjecture.

in·vent

tr.v. in·vent·ed, in·vent·ing, in·vents

1. To produce or contrive (something previously unknown) by the use of ingenuity or imagination.

2. To make up; fabricate: invent a likely excuse.

Anyway, the original title "all the people" was from the lyrics of song park life by a british group called Blur that rings in my head every now and then cos i listened to it a lot when I was a teenager. (Actually, a recent commercial on tv uses the tune.) Anyway, it's a coincidence that "all the people" alludes to "collective".

So I think it's quite suitable that I change the title now to all the people invent. I debated about calling it all the people's invention. That sounds more concrete with less drama, so no. Calling it all the people imagine, will remind me of john lennon (also british)'s imagine all the people - world peace song. though I have my theory that imagination will bring about world peace and all... maybe that link is too far-fetched for this piece. Calling it all the people invent - will allude more directly to magritte's picture and thus, help to illuminate how to read the piece - in the surrealist fashion.

Thought very hard if I wanted to correct the punctuations on the piece, but decided not to, since some of the full stops are used as commas. and it shows the breaking down of the language quite authentically. All written with free association. I don't remember if I had made any edits, but I think minimal. For trivials' sake, I also spent about half an hour pacing around the house if I should change "type" to "write", but I didn't. Is this interesting for you to read at all? Didn't change the "either" too, cos i thought that was funny. Really like this piece, feel it's very original, consciously at least. Been called for it to be paragraphed properly, but i really don't know how to break it up further, maybe cos I like it that the text flows faster without paragraphs.

Just went also to read on London bridge if the water is indeed fresh water, turns at that River Thames is both salt and fresh-watered. Dunno how that works but what are the chances anyway. How ironic and apt to the piece then.

Albert! here refers to Albert Camus, whose the myth of sisyphus was promised to me to contain the argument against suicide. He's french though.