am i content as the creator?
Somewhere well beyond the pearly gates. Birds chirping in the ambient.
God sits down and opens His laptop. He takes a big, deep sigh, then pauses and thinks to Himself. Because of His status, we get not just a voiceover but a voiceofGodover—erm, a Voiceover of God. It is very pronounced, booming and echoing with emphasis:
“What is my nature? Who am I, really? Why do they refer to me as Him? What is a Him, after all?”
His large hands hover over the keyboard on some Monta Ellis shit. A voice squeaks in from below:
“You are Him, Sir.”
A winged imp creature, like a mix between a gopher and a small child hovers by God’s ankles. Its doting eyes are large and affectionate, and its fur is like golden silk. It is a fraction of the size of God. God responds, but now with His actual Voice of God, coming from His mouth:
“How did you hear that?”
“Well, you’re God. All of us up here can hear Your voice, even when You’re deep in thought.”
“Fuck”
“Oh my, God! We can hear that too, Ya know!”
God glares at the small creature.
“Leave me be for now. I am trying to write.”
The winged creature flies downward into the cloud flooring—POOF!—disappearing from view.
God rubs His chin, thinking hard. The Voiceover of God returns:
“So I guess I am Him, huh? The—uh—The Almighty. Feels weird to say that sometimes.”
He begins typing into the laptop, while The Voiceover begins reciting the words out loud as He goes:
“They… call… me… the…. Almighty...”
He keeps going.
“But…
today…
I…
don’t…
feel…
all…
that…
mighty…”
He stops for moment. He looks at the text written out on screen:
They call me The Almihgty, byt today I don’t feel a;; that mighty
The Voiceover pops back in:
“Damn, that shit kinda go hard.”
The Voiceover chuckles once. And then He, God, chuckles with His actual voice. And then again a little bit louder until He’s laughing hysterically. The heavens begin rumbling, and things start knocking over. Thunderbolts form. He stabilizes himself, then continues typing. Everything settles. In comes the Voiceover of God again, reciting:
“You… would… think… this… job is… easy… but… it… can get… hard… sometimes. And… I feel like… they… don’t… appreciate… what I be… cooking… up… sometimes…”
A separate, secondary Voiceover of God, more measured in tone, with a little less reverb and echo, pops in:
“Wait, that’s too many sometimes.”
He then deletes the second ‘sometimes’. The First Voiceover chimes back:
“It’s okay if you make typos, brother. Just keep going”
The Second Voiceover responds:
“Ok, fine. Whatever you say.”
He keeps typing. This time, the typing is much swifter and faster. He’s hitting a stride. The First Voiceover picks us back up, parroting the progression:
“They… call me… the… creator… for a reason. I… am… like that. They are… not… me. They… never will….be. I… do this… for… real. And… If you can’t… respect that… your… whole… perspective…. is…. wack.”
God smiles at the text. He’s rolling now.
Secondary Voiceover, still more measured:
“You stole that from Jay-Z, but that’s okay. Just keep going.”
First Voiceover, even more thunderous than before:
“Great artists steal! We are all connected.”
Secondary Voiceover:
“But you are the main creator, are you not? You created Jay-Z, so it’s not the same. You should be able to come up with another Jay-Z. Instead of just… copying Jay-Z.”
First:
“Well who’s to say that it’s not technically my lyric? I created all things, which therefore create all things.”
Second:
“Well, hold on. Just because you create something doesn’t give you rights over what they then create. That’s insane.”
God begins googling. The First Voiceover handles the investigation as he types:
“Fair… Use… regarding… creation… of humans… and all living things…”
God presses enter. Several links pop up. First Voiceover continues:
“From Vox: Fair Use is the hottest topic on the internet. Does it protect everything or nothing? We ask experts—
—Click!”
God clicks the link. He skims the article.
Second Voiceover:
“Well, this is from 6 years ago. Can’t really apply that to your situation.”
First Voiceover:
“Look. It says here that: Fair Use can be defined as repurposing something for non-profit or educational purposes. When fair use comes into play is using a work in a limited capacity to educate and inform, to critique and review. We can talk and teach about the work and hold them up for examples—
—That’s what I’m trying to do, aren’t I not?”
Second Voiceover:
“I don’t know! Are you going to publish this?”
First Voiceover:
“I didn’t get that far, obviously. I’m just spitballing. Where would I publish it?”
Second Voiceover:
“I don’t fuckin’ know. But that matters a lot.”
They go back and forth:
“But that’s what I’m saying! I created all things, so I technically published everything I’ve ever put my mind to. Everything I do falls under this.”
“Well, that’s being a little full of yourself. Not everything was a hit.”
“Doesn’t have to catch on. Just has to be something I put real thought into.”
“You can’t be serious. Is this conversation a creation then?”
“Could be.”
The little winged imp fairy thing pops up through the cloud floor again, this time holding a small tripod and ring light set up. It clears its throat, but God cuts it off:
“No. Not now. Go away. We’re trying to figure something out.”
The imp thing turns on a dime back towards the cloud flooring. Before fully leaving, it stops and turns back around, mustering the courage to say something:
“Ummm—”
God, thunderously:
“Do you disobey me??”
“Sorry, God. I don’t mean to. I just think—uh—for the record I think this is a riveting discussion. We all agree down below. You… Both… make such great points.”
God stops and raises a single eyebrow. The imp thing continues:
“We were talking down below and we think you might want to record this back and forth. It could be a way of opening people up to your process. Had you ever thought of that?”
God, out loud:
“Hmmmmmm.”
First Voiceover returns:
“It would definitely fall under fair use to record a conversation about nature of fair use of all living beings.”
Second Voiceover:
“I mean, yeah.”
First Voiceover:
“And no one would have any way to dispute it. They would see the discussion coming straight from the source. We could say just about anything and it would fly.”
Second Voiceover:
“I mean, I think we should steer the discussion a little bit.”
First Voiceover:
“Right! Of course. Definitely. But I mean like, once we find a direction... it’s pretty much anything goes.”
Second Voiceover:
“Sure.”
On the corner of God’s humongous desk, a light turns on: the imp thing has turned on the ring light. Up until this point, God’s head has been tilted up: His gaze upward and pensive and His hand rubbing His chin… but at this moment we see only His eyes shift down towards the small camera set up. It’s an unnatural pose, for sure. The imp presses record: a red light comes on. The imp gestures for God and His Voiceovers to continue. God’s eyes dart back to an upward position. The Secondary Voiceover starts it off:
“So… you were saying something about fair use…. or… "
The First Voiceover:
“Right, right. Well, how can I… you know, fair use… if I’m the creator of all creators.
Like, what is creation? You know? What does it mean?
What about the guy who created fair use? Is he not my creation?”
Secondary Voiceover:
“Ummm. Yeah, true. Those are great questions. Questions we’re going to get to the bottom in this… you know. This conversation.”
First Voiceover:
“Just thinkin about Jay-Z, you know. Great lyricist, right?”
The imp thing interjects again:
“Uh, sorry. Guys ummm… it’s not really flowing. You know, the way it was before.”
God, from his actual voice:
“Yeah. I felt that, too.”
Imp:
“Maybe we just… take it again? From the top?”
God:
“Yeah, yeah for sure. Umm. Lemme think… where should we start?”
“Just jump into it. We’re recording. And we can edit this, so.”
“Yes! Of course! Editing. The power of editing.”
“Yup. So: just let it flow.”
“Yeah, yeah. You’re right. Are you good on sound?”
“Um, I think so. Your voice is kinda coming from all directions so it’s hard to know where to put the mic—”
“I get it. I get it. Okay. Yeah, yeah. I got you. Alright here we go. I’ma go for it.”
The red light is still on. God takes a deep breath. He returns to the upwardly thinking pose. Then, in His regular voice:
“HAHAHA… HA. Yoooo you know what’s crazy, bro?”
The imp thing rolls its eyes:
“Cut!”