What is original nowadays? We complain that there is no originality in poems, stories, television and such... but has everything been done already? Why do we complain about it? I believe that there are very few original ideas nowadays. What do you guys think?
There are certainly less original ideas around now, because more things have been tried. A lot of the stuff in stories, poems, TV and such is just a new spin on an old concept. Or sometimes not even that, just recycled crap. But I think there are original ideas out there, it just takes a bit more imagination that it might used to have done.
There are still original ideas out there other than just doing as Myst's posts suggests. It is just a matter of thinking well and truely outside the box and feeling the texture and blah blah blah you get the idea.
Originality is rare, and always has been. The same themes recur from the earliest myths to the newest speculative fiction. Even so, authors are driven to tell new stories, and readers continue to read them. Why do you re-read stories? You probably remember the plot, but there is still something that draws you back. To me, the attraction is the details, how the story is told along with what the connection is between the main story and the side elements. The reader brings an ever changing experiential base to the reading, so each time the reader finds new interpretations.
That is a very good point Cogito and you are right there. It all comes down to the writers interpretation of the story, poem, etc. No two pieces are ever the same!
to me i don't think the idea has to be original nessercerally, but the way in which the peice was written. like there are hundereds of stories and poems about witchs, but they are all different and original because of the way that they were wrote. if we all strive to have origional dieas then our ideas will become more and more farfetched and people will claim that they don't want to read that, it's too far fetched. so you cannot win with it. i say write about what you want, just make it your own. Heather
"Originality is nothing but judicious imitation" Unfortunately there is no such thing as 'real originality', it doesn't work that way. Texts are constructed based upon ideas that have been borrowed from that which already exists. Writers draw upon existing conventions and ideas established by previous texts, then they combine and manipulate these conventions and ideas to produce a new text. So technically they've just modified something and then reproduced it. It's interesting when someone describes something as 'overdone' or 'unoriginal', when really the text itself isn't really 'unoriginal' just the conventions and ideas used to produce it are familar, maybe overbearly so. I suppose it depends on your interpretation about what is 'original'. Original to me is a piece of writing that is created in a way that does not conform to standard conventions or ideas, or conversely, something that does possess familar ideas but is expressed in an unfamilar way. I suppose the negative thing about creating things with this sort of 'originality' is that often some people will not be able to understand what the text is about/why it's written that way, I suppose it's to do with how much the individual knows. It's difficult to really read something critically when you can't relate it to other texts, which essentially is the practice that helps you understand it. So really whether the absence of 'originality' is bad or not depends on the person, I myself would rather be able to understand a piece of writing easily than have to analyse it, probably because I'm lazy lol.
Eoz Eanj I would not go so far as to say there is no such thing as an original idea. It is true that all ideas arise from contributions and observations from a variety of sources; but there is, rarely, a spark that generates a uniquely new thought. For example, before a certain point in time, everyone believed that matter and energy were two distinct categories in the universe, and that each was at an unchanging level. But then, a few scientists, most notably Albert Einstein, discovered that they were in fact different states in the same category, and one could be converted to the other, while still preserving the same fixed total quantity. My background is in the physica sciences, so that is where my examples tend to come from, but I believe there are new ideas that arise in every field of thought. They are, however, extermely rare. Their origins are invariably tied to that which we call genius.
Cognito I do agree with your notion about the rarity of the spark that instigates a truely unique thought and I understand what you're trying to convey. Maybe I wasn't being clear enough? I was more referring to intertexuality. Perhaps I shouldn't have used the word 'real' as itself is ambiguous and didn't bring much clarity into what I was trying to say.
