• Promethiel@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    25
    ·
    3 months ago

    The phrase “there is nothing new under the sun” doesn’t mean there’s no originality left in the world. It means all stories resonate because of the human condition. Remixing the tropes is entirely the point of storytelling. The tropes are the substrate and how our brain likes patterns, not the patterns themselves. Enjoy what you enjoy and not what you’re told.

    • Karyoplasma@discuss.tchncs.de
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      10
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      3 months ago

      It’s from a passage in the bible (Ecclesiastes 1:9) and the passage is a rant about the futility of life. The phrase, in Latin, is “nihil sub sole novum”, so I’m pretty sure that’s where the word nihilism comes from.

      • Promethiel@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        8
        ·
        3 months ago

        That’s both fascinating, sad, and ironic etymology. My point still stands, I just now realize it’s also just a reframing against the original edge lord trend. There really isn’t anything new under the sun haha.

      • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        3 months ago

        I love how the Bible compliers had to alter the ending to change the meaning completely. They couldn’t just let the emo-like ramblings go without comment.

    • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      3 months ago

      No one reads that sentence in context. Here is the next sentence

      10 Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us.

      Which is simply not true no matter how you look at it. Every idea still had someone think of it first and all but a tiny fraction of our technology is pretty freaken new. The whole poem is just a whiny rant by a person with an insufferable large ego.