Burden of the Over-Educated Man

History repeats itself.

Everything has been done before.

There are only seven original plotlines.

To the stymied scholar, these platitudes can be liberating — we need only look to the past to find our footing. To the aimless artist, they can be damning — we are forever caught in a washing machine on endless rinse cycle. And yet, as Beckett says: “I can’t go on, I’ll go on.”