Originality is Dead?

[Tips_of_Fingers]

I think being original does not mean coming up with something never used before but as a new viewpoint or as a new plane of perception to already existing material.

Hm...thinking about it, I agree with you. All the essays I have to write at university are on topics that have been discussed to death (Shakespeare, Chaucer etc), but my own viewpoint on existing theories or criticisms makes it original?

Good stuff.

 

[KafkaOffTheBeach]

i went to see Black Swan tonight...not seen ANYTHING like that before

Try Perfect Blue by Satoshi Kon.
Very similar thematically, plus Darren Aronofski has said that he is going to do a live action version of it in the future.

I don't really want to get into this thread..........................and I had something relatively interesting written, but I'm, as the great man once said, too fucking tired to finish it.

 

[Kuhkren]

Humanity has existed for several thousand years, and during that time much fiction has been created. There are so many tropes that it is difficult to make something truly original, and even then there may be something obscure which undermines its supposed originality. I think what makes a difference is the expression of the tropes/ideas.

 

[Turbo_Destructor]

I think you have a pretty good point. I wouldn't say that originality is DEAD, but it certainly is hard to think of a story that no one has ever told before. And my philosophy is that it doesn't matter that much, as long as your version of the story is entertaining and engaging

 

[Tips_of_Fingers]

I don't really want to get into this thread..........................and I had something relatively interesting written, but I'm, as the great man once said, too fucking tired to finish it.

Remember us when you wake up! I'd be interested to see what you have to say.

I'm liking a lot of the replies people are coming up with. They're making a lot of sense.

 

[katsumoto03]

It's not dead, it's just somewhat hard to pull off in entertainment media. People don't want to put the extra effort in, so they don't.

 

[Frosty676]

I think being original does not mean coming up with something never used before but as a new viewpoint or as a new plane of perception to already existing material.

Hm...thinking about it, I agree with you. All the essays I have to write at university are on topics that have been discussed to death (Shakespeare, Chaucer etc), but my own viewpoint on existing theories or criticisms makes it original?

Good stuff.

Yep you pretty much nailed it.

 

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

Yes and no. There's a pretty popular theory, which I subscribe to, that there are only seven stories in the entire world anyway, and every story ever told is some variation on those themes, it's just that the variations are what makes them interesting. A story blanketly ripped off from another is not interesting, but even a story which rips off two separate stories entirely might have something to add.

True originality is kind of hard to define anyway. Is it original to say that two people can fall in love, get married and have a child? Even if you were the first person to ever write that story, what you were basing it on was real life, thus it isn't original, it's copied from life.

So either originality never existed

OR

Originality is given too much weight, when really anything which gives even the slightest twist on an old theme can be seen as original.

 

[Alluos]

Nothing hasn't been done before, but the quantity of combinations of what has been done, however, are still untapped.

 

[weirdsoup]

Originally isn't dead. It is, however, expensive.

The trouble is that the money-men (and money-women as I don't want to seem sexist) are hard people to convince to hand over their money. Just look at Dragon's Den. Those people are so tight-arsed with their cash that it's a wonder they are able to get out of their chairs.

They're more likely to green-light "Masked Slasherguy XXXIV" not because it's original but because it's cheap to make and will make back more than it'll cost. And the ad-men,(and women, you know what? I'm gonna stop that cos it's stupid) who are evil like all people in marketing, need to know what pigeon hole this film can be put into. If you can't put it in a distinct slot then they don't know how to advertise it, case in point Scott Pilgrim Vs The World, it hits so many different genres that they had no idea who should be targeted at and the film suffered at the box office.

Games are the same. Games are expensive to make and with such a diverse market place, game developers are unwilling to throw money at what could be a flop. Much safer to put out a clone of whatever is at the top of the charts and guarantee you'll make money.

 

[SteewpidZombie]

Originality isn't dead, it's just dunked into a vat of paint to change it's look, stuck on a stick and used as a cheap puppet that makes money.

 

[Inarticulate_Underachiever]

Originality is just undiscovered plagarism.

 

[C95J]

Originality isn't dead, and never will be, because people will keep thinking of new and different things.

 

[Jaime_Wolf]

A trite and borderline ridiculous notion based on popularity, desire to understand things in as topical and simple a manner as possible, and confirmation bias. To begin, this is a very popular notion. Add on top of that that it's pretty alluring because it allows one to feel a sense of understanding some aspect of the whole of creative work and then top it off with a healthy dose of arrogant "I understand how all of this works". Given that the majority of opinions probably won't diverge (since there will usually be only a few salient choices in any given situation and that any given idea can only be wholly original once, but is likely to be repeated many times), you get an enormous confirmation bias. In reality, there are new ideas, new opinions, new perspectives, and new pieces of information going around all the time.

More concretely, think of a recent event/discovery. Now ask yourself if people have opinions on that event/discovery. They do? Well that would reasonably constitute an original idea. Some ideas and opinions were simply unthinkable or incoherent before events or discoveries made them available. No one had an opinion on the protests in Egypt before the protests in Egypt (maybe they had opinions on potential protests, but not on the protests themselves). Nobody had opinions or thoughts regarding black holes before black holes were discovered. For originality to be dead, there would have to be no new events and no new discoveries, but events are happening and science marches onward.

Hell, if we want to get really low level, a healthy proportion of the sentences you utter every day are extremely unlikely to have ever been uttered before. Ever.

 

[EightGaugeHippo]

Its very hard nowadays to come up with anything original.
Most things that people think of, would have already been thought of some where down the line.
Any most truly new things are so weird and obscure that they just get ignored.

 

[Amphoteric]

Ever heard of current affairs?

Also it doesn't matter if the topic has been done 1000 times before if you make it interesting then it is fine.

 

[FuktLogik]

As time goes on, things get done over and over, usually because they work and sell. You can only get so inventive and still be interesting. Just because it's unique, doesn't mean it's useful. Originality is not dead, it just happens less frequently.

 

[cthulhumythos]

Having just had a discussion on another forum about original writing, I'd like to see what The Escapist's views are.

Here's the dealio:

Basically, I posted a few tongue-in-cheek "ranting" articles and asked for some feedback. One guy pretty much just said "Well, I haven't heard this before". His sarcasm was palpable (not least because of the inclusion of [/sarcasm]) and I just replied that nothing people write about anymore is original.

In my opinion, no matter what you write about, someone somewhere has also written on the same subject; that's what has happened because of the internet. My argument is that it's the style of the piece that makes it unique; you don't have to be completely original in your topic to be interesting or entertaining, it's the way in which the opinion is presented.

So what do you guys reckon? Am I just some plagiarising gimp or do I have a legitimate point?


TL;DR - It is almost impossible to write about a wholly original topic. What makes it original is the style in which it is written.

EDIT: I guess the plots of films, games and books could also be considered too, if y'all want.

originality is taking something already said and phrasing it in a different way.


so no. i don't think it's dead.

 

[floppylobster]

Nuance is where it's at. So you're right, the style means a lot. Much of the originality lies in the delivery. If someone has too broad a view of the world to spot the difference then they probably think all music is the same too.

Still, you have read between the lines on what they're saying as well. They're using a well-worn cliché to point out that they're not interested in your opinion and they disagree. Their style was used to further highlight their derision toward you (and no doubt caused their remark to sting you just that little bit more (enough to start this post)).

You clearly have a comfortable writing style and your voice comes through it. But I would add that writing is not just style. There's intention as well. That's something most people don't specifically read for but almost every reader can detect it or assumes they detect it (like the intention of the sarcastic poster - negative without being constructive). If your intentions are pure you can have a very successful career as a writer. And by pure I don't mean honest. I mean communicating without ego, purely for the sake of others. Perhaps there's something in your original pieces that warranted this sarcastic response? Perhaps your tongue was not firmly enough in cheek? Criticism can sometimes be useful for exposing weaknesses in your writing. The very fact a criticism bothers you may indicate you do not stand by the piece 100% yourself. Sometimes critics fail to get the point but even their misreading of your intentions is worth considering.