Matt’s Reviews > The Nature of Life > Status Update

In painting, in poetry and the literary arts in general, the balance between originality and tradition is a very uneasy one. If, in the work of an artist, we see clear references to the work of his predecessors, we are likely to dismiss him as derivative. In science, unless we see that a man knows and respects what his forerunners have produced, we are inclined to find him unconvincing and ignorant.