From Stan Hayward
The “small world theory” (4 December, p 24) is often used to teach
creativity. One of the lessons I give my students is to link up two seemingly
unrelated ideas in not more than six “associations”. For example “peanuts to
computers”. One approach might be peanuts-monkeys-organ grinders-Charles Babbage
(he tried to get them banned)-computers. A similar sequence might be
computers-Microsoft-Bill Gates-Bill Gates’s income-my income-peanuts.
This type of loose association is also a staple of humour, where one idea
shifts to another. Felix the Cat, the 1920s cartoon, was based upon a
series of visual puns, such as an umbrella acting like a parachute, which is
then upturned to become a boat, turning inside-out to become a tent, and so on.
The humour is based on the shapes being topologically equivalent. The shape
becomes meaningful within the context.
stan@hccat.demon.co.uk
