Certain readers resented me when
they could no longer recognize their territory.
— Jacques Derrida
French philosopher Jacques Derrida, the most influential thinker of the past fifty years, twice failed his university entrance exams.
On his first attempt, he turned in a blank sheet of paper.
On his second, he turned in essays the graders called "unintelligible."
Above one of Derrida's essays, the grader wrote, "You seem to be constantly on the verge of something interesting but, somewhat, you always fail to explain it clearly."
Above another, the grader wrote, "An exercise in virtuosity, with undeniable intelligence, but with no particular relation to the history of philosophy."
As it turned out, Derrida's writing never became any easier to comprehend.
Whatever the audience's reaction, you might do better just to be yourself.
DID YOU KNOW? Judy Garland was cast as Annie Oakley in the 1950 film Annie Get Your Gun, but was fired (as was director Busby Berkeley) two months into production.
