An Idea Versus the Representation of an Idea

     The idea that seemed so bright when it was leaping and darting and fluttering through my mind looked dull and dead when I’d caught it and pinned it to my paper. In writing it out, I had changed it. In my mind, still an idea, it had been ragged and confused, but interesting. When I wrote it out, I tried to impose on it the kind of orderly reasoning I found in my encyclopedia. The idea as I wrote it on paper made more sense, but it only made sense. It wasn’t an idea now, but the representation of an idea. It didn’t fly, didn’t flutter by, didn’t catch the eye as I thought it would.