"I do not 'get' ideas; ideas get me"
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Davies flips the usual swagger about creativity on its head: the writer as hunter becomes the writer as hunted. The scare quotes around "get" are doing quiet, crucial work. They mock the consumerist, trophy-taking model of intellect - as if ideas were objects you shop for, collect, and display. By rejecting that verb, Davies casts ideation as something invasive and slightly dangerous, less like downloading a concept and more like being seized by one.
The subtext is a rebuke to the cult of the neatly managed mind. Modern talk about "having" ideas implies ownership, control, even productivity metrics. Davies insists on permeability: the self is not a sealed container but a porous instrument. It also hints at a moral stance. If ideas "get" you, you're accountable to them; you can't fully claim credit, and you can't pretend you were merely dabbling when an idea drags you toward its consequences. Inspiration becomes obligation.
Context matters: Davies wrote in a mid-century literary culture suspicious of both romantic mysticism and industrialized art. His line threads that needle. It doesn't glamorize the muse as magical rescue; it frames ideas as forces with agency that can disrupt comfort, identity, and routine. That aligns with Davies' fiction, where characters are often commandeered by obsession, myth, or hidden psychological scripts. The best ideas, in his world, aren't clever ornaments; they're possession. The wit lies in its grammatical simplicity - a clean reversal that smuggles in a whole philosophy of authorship: you don't mastermind your material so much as survive it, shape it, and hope it doesn't finish you first.
The subtext is a rebuke to the cult of the neatly managed mind. Modern talk about "having" ideas implies ownership, control, even productivity metrics. Davies insists on permeability: the self is not a sealed container but a porous instrument. It also hints at a moral stance. If ideas "get" you, you're accountable to them; you can't fully claim credit, and you can't pretend you were merely dabbling when an idea drags you toward its consequences. Inspiration becomes obligation.
Context matters: Davies wrote in a mid-century literary culture suspicious of both romantic mysticism and industrialized art. His line threads that needle. It doesn't glamorize the muse as magical rescue; it frames ideas as forces with agency that can disrupt comfort, identity, and routine. That aligns with Davies' fiction, where characters are often commandeered by obsession, myth, or hidden psychological scripts. The best ideas, in his world, aren't clever ornaments; they're possession. The wit lies in its grammatical simplicity - a clean reversal that smuggles in a whole philosophy of authorship: you don't mastermind your material so much as survive it, shape it, and hope it doesn't finish you first.
Quote Details
| Topic | Writing |
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