more impressive the other way
“It would be more impressive if it ran the other way” said Oscar Wilde when seeing Niagara Falls for the first time.
I like this idea of Oscar Wilde standing next to Niagara Falls, thinking that it’s “a lot of unnecessary water going the wrong way and then falling over unnecessary rock”
Why do I blog this unlike other people who analyze this statement in terms of places and wonder, this quote seems interesting to me as a sort of motto for a near future laboratory approach of observing the world. Looking at fringes, taking other perspectives, questioning situations… maybe there are indeed more pertinent structures than water flowing down on “unnecessary rocks”.
August 22nd, 2007 at 8:28 pm
That’s a great insight — I like this idea of thinking of something as operating in the reverse of its normal functions or behaviors as a way to think how things might be otherwise. Or to find a place for innovation. Even for the sake of the design challenge — this is good.
August 23rd, 2007 at 11:48 am
I like the upside-down way of looking at things. There are other out-of-the-box ways to see this, too: someone though of putting in turbines to harness the waterfalls to generate the electrical energy to power the town(s) around Niagara Falls (on the NY side, I think). To see the potential to improve the world in something that is “useless” or “only pretty” is a great way of seeing things, too.