inspiration is not photocopying

there is a difference between liking somebody’s room and moving into it while they’re at work. #

I’ve calmed down about Saturday and I think I can explain why this bothers me without sounding like I believe I invented pink. Inspiration is normal. Everybody gets ideas from everybody. I see somebody wearing something and think I want a version of that. I see a site with a clever menu and think about how mine works. Music travels like that, fashion travels like that, language travels like that. Nobody creates themselves in a sealed laboratory. But there is a point where the number and specificity of similarities make the whole thing feel less like inspiration and more like somebody tracing.

I am not claiming ownership of pink backgrounds, lowercase titles or the Italian language. I am saying that when sidebar headings start appearing in the same order, phrases feel extremely familiar, graphics have similar crops, profile answers accumulate and a nickname connected to my actual boyfriend appears too, the republic of coincidence starts having border problems. She denies it. Fine. That’s her position. Mine is that the similarities were too specific for me to see as accidental. People reading both can decide what they think. I’m not spending the summer prosecuting a weblog.

Also, several people have messaged me saying they noticed things before I said anything, which at least confirms I haven’t hallucinated an entire visual vocabulary after too much dial up.

Now I am bored of it.

This weekend I want music, not screenshots.

Remember me, Eclipse.