Intertextuality in high and popular culture

1. How does meaning in the texts derive from and depend on (your) prior knowledge
of the other texts?

2. Is it possible to create something that is genuinely original?

3. If understanding texts is dependent on prior knowledge of other texts, what does

this suggest about the claim made by some that we can ‘Google everything’ we do
not know?

Our prior knowledge helps us understand certain texts better and it is our basic
knowledge that can help us deal with these texts. It helps our brain make sense of new
things, ideas or experiences. Prior knowledge is needed the most when analysing
pictures that are parodies. Take for example the Simpsons picture we would not be able
to understand the picture if we did not activate our prior knowledge about American
gothic pictures. In the Charlie Brown picture parody of Mona Lisa, we all know that Mona
Lisa is counted as a beautiful woman who has a mysterious smile and in Charlie Brown’s
eyes, Lucy Van Pelt is the prettiest girl he ever met. Since he is in love with her but she
likes to bully and tease him, he may find her mysterious and wonders who she is in love
with. Meaning in these texts depends a lot from our old basic knowledge that we gained
and how we use it to evaluate and analyse these text type pictures.

Personally for me it is possible to create something authentically original is

possible but there will be some difficulties to face. In order to create something original,
we have to be imaginative and it is not easy to train our minds to be imaginative or to
think outside the box. Our minds tend to pick the safest way or path and it is hard to
conquer that.. Not only we have to be imaginative but we have to take some risks, such
as risking our freedom/time, risking of being judged by others who does not accept or
ideas. A lot of people use other person’s idea to make a parody or something of their
own. Which is why plagiarism is so common in these modern era.

We may not know as much as google does, but we are able to analyse and come
up with better understanding and explanation compared to google. I honestly think that
google does not know everything, in fact I am sure that there are a lot that google does
not know and it is just trying to make the best guess at the searches completed, but can't
guess precisely what it's all about. Like in the ancient times, people managed to build
cars, bombs, planes and technologies without the help of google. In our modern era, our
brain is used to answering questions we are not familiar with by looking it up in google,
but we do not know that by doing that we are training our brain to be dependent on
google. If we read thoroughly a question that we are not familiar about and using our prior
knowledge to analyse, evaluate and understand it by brain storming, I am one hundred
percent sure that we will no longer be needing google too much. Although I believe in
working smart rather than working hard but sometimes hard work is needed for a
satisfying result.