racketboy.com

http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2012/10/f ... yneux/all/

I found this to be a fascinating article in reading about how Peter Molyneux has been somewhat inspired by the Twitter account that parodies him.

I read something from musician Brian Eno awhile back that claimed that he never minded that people so often claimed he was pretentious, and even saw it as a bit of a backhanded compliment. He pointed out that the word "pretentious" is rooted in the word "pretend." Basically, one is pretending to be something of greater importance than they actually are. Eno believed that even if he fell short of his aspirations or looked the fool, it was important to him to attempt greatness and to try something different that would set him apart from the rest and possibly be of the grand importance he pretended for it to be.

I think something similar can be said of Molyneux's grandiose visions and I was reminded of Eno when Molyneux said of people telling him to temper his unrealistic dreams for his ongoing projects, "I don’t want to believe less in something".

I found the actual quote from Brian Eno after I posted this thread:

‘I decided to turn the word “pretentious” into a compliment. The common assumption is that there are “real” people and there are others who are pretending to be something they’re not. There is also an assumption that there’s something morally wrong with pretending. My assumptions about culture as a place where you can take psychological risks without incurring physical penalties make me think that pretending is the most important thing we do. It’s the way we make our thought experiments, find out what it would be like to be otherwise.’

From Brian Eno's autobiographical "A Year with Swollen Appendices" (1996)