"Nothing is Original" - Ship of Theseus
Now that I think about it, I may have wrote a similar post like this in the past... Ah, who cares?
Everyone these days says that nothing is original anymore, but what does that even mean? I don't mean that in a rhetorical "I'm going to discuss it now" way. I literally don't get what people mean by that because I see original things all the time. It depends on definition I supposed, and to the people who say nothing is original I think they might just be looking to hard at things.
If I was to hazard a guess at the thought process, the argument would be that all ideas for story have been done before, every iteration of those stories has been explored, and people are just taking them and reshaping them in different ways.
How is that different way not original then? I really wanted to add the "F" word in that sentence to get across how I'm saying it in my mind.
Sure, the elements might has similarities to other works: The love triangle, the vampire story, the daring action hero, but when taken and twisted, the end result (if done right) is original.
I brought this up "The Martian" before in a recent blog post, and I'm going to reference it again here (I really need to read the book, but I'm excited for the movie). There have been stories about going to Mars, and to a broader sense space exploration, before, and there have been one's about where the crew is isolated and have to survive, but not like this. The Martian takes those ideas and makes it original. It's evident in the trailers that we haven't seen anything of this sort before. You could spend all day breaking down the tropes (Like Cast Away but in space) and seeing what came before it, but it itself is original.
And if you aren't excited to see that movie, or read the book, then go suck a lemon.
If it wasn't apparent by the title, this reminds me of the "Ship of Theseus" thought experiment. To give it in a broad stroke, over the course of his journey, Theseus had to repair his ship, one by one replacing the old wood with new wood until all the old wood is gone. The question is whether something that has had every component changed is still the same object.
If we take away Theseus being the owner, and we're just talking about a random ship, I feel that once all the pieces have been replaced it's not the same ship anymore. The only reason why someone would call it the same ship is because of an attachment they had to the old ship. They don't want to let go, so they say it's the same, even though everything about it is different except the overall shape. When you look at the finer details you can see how different it is, but if you look at it from afar, oh yes there's the same shape of mast, the same bevel at the bow, and the same keel.
I think the real reason why people feel nothing is original is because of a perceived attachment to something in the past. We see in the new something akin to the old, and can't help but think on it, dwell on it, until all we see are those bits and pieces of the old, which doesn't allow us to appreciate the finer details which make the new original and special in it's own right.
Don't ever let someone tell you that what you're making is unoriginal. If you make the story your own, then regardless of what you take as inspiration it will show in the final product, and it will always be special no matter what anyone says.
Don't plagiarize though, that's not cool.
Everyone these days says that nothing is original anymore, but what does that even mean? I don't mean that in a rhetorical "I'm going to discuss it now" way. I literally don't get what people mean by that because I see original things all the time. It depends on definition I supposed, and to the people who say nothing is original I think they might just be looking to hard at things.
If I was to hazard a guess at the thought process, the argument would be that all ideas for story have been done before, every iteration of those stories has been explored, and people are just taking them and reshaping them in different ways.
How is that different way not original then? I really wanted to add the "F" word in that sentence to get across how I'm saying it in my mind.
Sure, the elements might has similarities to other works: The love triangle, the vampire story, the daring action hero, but when taken and twisted, the end result (if done right) is original.
I brought this up "The Martian" before in a recent blog post, and I'm going to reference it again here (I really need to read the book, but I'm excited for the movie). There have been stories about going to Mars, and to a broader sense space exploration, before, and there have been one's about where the crew is isolated and have to survive, but not like this. The Martian takes those ideas and makes it original. It's evident in the trailers that we haven't seen anything of this sort before. You could spend all day breaking down the tropes (Like Cast Away but in space) and seeing what came before it, but it itself is original.
And if you aren't excited to see that movie, or read the book, then go suck a lemon.
If it wasn't apparent by the title, this reminds me of the "Ship of Theseus" thought experiment. To give it in a broad stroke, over the course of his journey, Theseus had to repair his ship, one by one replacing the old wood with new wood until all the old wood is gone. The question is whether something that has had every component changed is still the same object.
If we take away Theseus being the owner, and we're just talking about a random ship, I feel that once all the pieces have been replaced it's not the same ship anymore. The only reason why someone would call it the same ship is because of an attachment they had to the old ship. They don't want to let go, so they say it's the same, even though everything about it is different except the overall shape. When you look at the finer details you can see how different it is, but if you look at it from afar, oh yes there's the same shape of mast, the same bevel at the bow, and the same keel.
I think the real reason why people feel nothing is original is because of a perceived attachment to something in the past. We see in the new something akin to the old, and can't help but think on it, dwell on it, until all we see are those bits and pieces of the old, which doesn't allow us to appreciate the finer details which make the new original and special in it's own right.
Don't ever let someone tell you that what you're making is unoriginal. If you make the story your own, then regardless of what you take as inspiration it will show in the final product, and it will always be special no matter what anyone says.
Don't plagiarize though, that's not cool.
No comments have been added yet.
