Monday, November 05, 2007

Tabula Rasa

Tabula Rasa – from the Latin meaning ‘scraped tablet’ or clean slate.
I’ve been seeing this phrase a lot lately. It’s one of those things that pops up, like a message here and there. I did a little digging and discovered it’s a favorite title for science fiction and paranormal TV shows.

For instance:

Buffy the Vampire Slayer – Season 6 – Tabula Rasa, the Scooby Gang loses their memories thanks to Willow’s amnesia spell

LOST – Season 1 – Tabula Rasa, flashbacks of Kate’s pre-crash Bonnie sans Clyde existence

Stargate Atlantis – Season 4 – Tabula Rasa, staff members lose their memories courtesy of an alien virus [damn those alien viruses!]

There was even a Season 2 episode of the animated Justice League called Tabula Rasa.

It’s an interesting concept, the idea of a clean slate. Have you ever wished you could start over? Would you do if you had the chance to begin anew – maybe not as a baby, but as a young adult, or even a new writer. What would you do differently?

I don’t know if I would, but it’s certainly an interesting concept for a story.

****

Speaking of stories btw - I hit my goal of 200 pages on my ST paranormal WIP. Hopefully this one will tie into the world I created in Uncross my Heart. Two hundred or so pages to go, but hey, halfway done ain't bad.

4 comments:

Natasha Moore said...

Interesting post. It would be one thing if we could do things over knowing what we know now. Another to start all over again without that knowledge. Would we make the same mistakes again? I wonder...

Jennifer McKenzie said...

There's a composer that named one of his long pieces "Tabula Rasa". Arvo Part is one of my favorites.
I didn't know that's what that phrase meant. Nor that it was the name of episodes on Buffy and Stargate Atlantis.
Very interesting.

Anonymous said...

Congrats on making so much progress!

Shelli Stevens said...

Awesome on the 200 pages! Congrats :)

And I'd never heard of Tabula Rasa. Verrry interesting :)