Does originality exist anymore?

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Batesblogger
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Re: Does originality exist anymore?

Post by Batesblogger »

Maybe it isn't the ideas that need to be original. Maybe just the delivery. Just because someone else writes a poem about loss, doesn't mean my poem about loss will be the same. Just because most romances end happily ever after doesn't mean they all have to get there the same way.
Somewhere out there is a world we never knew existed.

Languages never spoken.
Colors that should not be.
Lives never opened.
Eyes that never see.

And then the page is turned, a universe created.

We are gods.
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Post by Avid SciFi Fan »

I think originality most certainly exists. I feel that everyone has their own special view on things and although similar in some respects they are unique in others. I doubt you would find two people telling the same story in the same way, so in that respect, there is originality.

You might argue that neither was original because they both used words on paper vs some other way of being original to tell the story. This seems too high of a level to be a practical to argument.
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Post by Skillian »

Good point BatesBlogger... voice and angle are very important.

And AvidSciFi Fan yeah originality due to individuality. Makes sense.

So new things may not be under discussion but new people give new meaning even if only to the same old things.
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Post by Himmelslicht »

It does, but the stakes are higher and higher everytime something original appears.

-- 15 Dec 2014, 14:32 --

It does, but the stakes are higher and higher everytime something original appears.
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Post by Anacoana »

I think there are thousands of chances at originality. Sure you might have things that sound kind of like other things, but that's only to be expected. A great example I like to give is Lewis Carroll's Alice In Wonderland. All over the world it's known and has spawned countless spin offs of it. Heck, I have four different mangas sitting on my shelf that are all spin offs of Alice In Wonderland. Why do I have four different ones? Because even though they all have inspiration from the same source material they're all completely and utterly different. It all depends on how you look at story ideas and spin them in different ways.
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Post by Skillian »

Great point Anacoana. I love every spin off of Alice and Wonderland too. Oh man. Same thing with a lot of Jane Austen's works. So we end up with originality by expansion. Which is very cool.

And Himmelslicht so true! I used to be in colorguard, and I never minded performing what someone told me to do. That was fun, and other than obvious mess-ups... I wasn't really being judged. But then when asked to do my own choreography... oh man. Way more nervous. No longer was I only being judged on keeping to a routine... not I was also being judged on my ability to create... to fit the music... to accommodate others... etc etc. It is a huge difference.

But maybe you meant more like.... we have to reach higher in order to achieve originality? Or that as more time passes the more material there is to compare new ideas too... more ways of dissecting and scrutinizing. Also super true. Originality is to be brave. Even being open about wanting to be original... and you're opening up to judgement.
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Post by Himmelslicht »

Yes, I mean both, Skillian.
The truth is that there is no such thing as "human creativity doesn't have limits", it DOES. We can only make new things from things we already know. No one can think of anything never done before without thinking of something that's already been done and exists.
Our brain is also severely tamed by how our sense respond to us; for example, we can't imagine a new color because our eyes can only see the visible spectrum of radiation, therefore, we can't see anything below the color red (infrarreds) or above the color purple (ultraviolet). The same happens with everything else around us. Nothing is ever created from scratch and creativity/originality is compromised from that point on.
I studied the theory of Arts in University and we talked about this subject every now and then and the conclusion we always came to was that originality still exists and will always exist, but the range of motion is getting tighter everytime someone invents something that hasn't been done before.
The more people on Earth, the harder it gets to be original.
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Post by Skillian »

Interesting! And slightly depressing.... but still very cool. haha

I can't wait for technology to break us into a whole new spectrum of reality again. Like electricity did... then the internet... etc. Eventually I wonder if glasses will exist that somehow allow us to see these colors we can't perceive. Maybe one day there will be apps and extension programs for our brain. External hard drives...Creepy.
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Post by Himmelslicht »

It would be hard to see new colors, since the visible spectrum is actually an illusion created by our eyes in order to perceive the world around us (evolution gave us a little help, or else we'd be rat moles, ew!) but regarding technology I can't think if there's anything so great that will change that much how we see our life and the world around us than we already do this day. But then again, that's what people said back in 1950.
I think that seeing the universe with infrarred filters is pretty cool, though xD
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Post by Skillian »

haha I just figure... if they can make other animals grow the neurons which can give them extra senses (like a worm able to see light) than they were born with... then eventually they will be able to alter people too. Even if it is highly controversial.

I have a wild imagination though. hehehe
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Post by TLGabelman »

I think all of you make excellent points!

I hypothesize that perhaps what happens a lot is that details stored in our subconscious from our personal experiences make their way into our conscious. We never really know what impacts us through our life, every experience shapes us and nuggets of our history are constantly being stored in our mind for later retrieval. Our challenge is to take these pieces and shape them into the original, its a labor of love.
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Post by Himmelslicht »

tlgabelman wrote:I think all of you make excellent points!

I hypothesize that perhaps what happens a lot is that details stored in our subconscious from our personal experiences make their way into our conscious. We never really know what impacts us through our life, every experience shapes us and nuggets of our history are constantly being stored in our mind for later retrieval. Our challenge is to take these pieces and shape them into the original, its a labor of love.
Excellent development. A good extension of the opinion I also share.
I think that every great work that can be considered a breathrough comes from a very tiny flame or spark. A diamond in the rough.
What we create is a gathering of our past experiences as human beings traveling through time in this planet, therefore, all we create can only have base on what we lived before reaching an outcome we consider ourselves satisfied with.
I see originality as a road that, to discover new and great things, you need to travel further a little everyday. I think that's what's wrong with many writers (not only writers, but since this is a book forum) is exactly that: they walk exactly the same distance everyone has walked before them. It's bland, it's boring and I'd thank said people to stop writing altogether because it gets really hard to find GREAT books nowadays.
From the starting idea, that, probably 99,9% of time is nothing original, you can achieve something that hasn't been done, but this does not require creativity. Creativity is the distance you travel from having an emtpy mind to having that first flame or spark. Perspiration and hard work is what you need to develop the rest of your idea to create something original. And that's terribly difficult because that will requite an author to walk a path that hasn't been explored yet.
Do something great, or else don't waste your time or other people's time that is simply non-refundable.
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Post by Skillian »

bahaha nah you're just honest.

I think it should be mandatory that people travel alone before writing a book. Experience some life. Get your heart broken. Break a heart. Fail at something you really tried at. See pain. See death. etc.

There are a lot of things people have never experienced enough to understand... to a level that would make them able to see the new angles or to extend on them through writing. Granted there might be some really out-of-box thinkers who can get away with not living before writing..... but mostly... it seems like something that needs to be done.

Then again the younger and less experienced might have a truer and less biased lens. Or just a completely fresh way of looking at something. hmmmm. *scratches head*


The self-publishing and online one click publishing is making more and more of generic writing hitting the scene though. Maybe there needs to be some kind of database that people can screen their ideas with... however... people probably wouldn't bother to use it. haha.


Also, I think there are plenty of writers who make plenty of money without needing to find very original ideas. Which is fine. I don't mind an easy reading.. I don't feel like thinking... book now and then.

Someone should start a book store franchise that only holds amazing... life changing.. makes you think books... which doubles as a bar and coffee shop... and then it could have a little sister store that is all easy reading and trendy books... which is also a smoothie and frozen yogurt shop. hmmmmm. Maybe if I win the lottery I can open these.... :p
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Post by Himmelslicht »

Depending on the publishers there are a few that only publish philosophy-related books or classics, etc.
But when you have to buy books on the internet, it is so vast that sometimes you get a little lost until you find something worth your money. It's usually easier to go to a bookstore and go straight to what you want because you simply can't find self-published books there. They haver higher standards and only publishers can sell there exactly because they examined all the books they received, sparing us from the work of cherry-picking.
I wish people were better at cherry-picking their own works though.

That's why I don't write. I know I suck. But I'm a great reader :mrgreen:

PS: That's why I can't be a reviewr on this forum. I'm VERY harsh and I don't let any details escape my Virgo-esque brain. (even though I don't give a frap about zodiac)
Last edited by Himmelslicht on 16 Dec 2014, 11:11, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by TLGabelman »

Himmelslicht wrote:
tlgabelman wrote:I think all of you make excellent points!

I hypothesize that perhaps what happens a lot is that details stored in our subconscious from our personal experiences make their way into our conscious. We never really know what impacts us through our life, every experience shapes us and nuggets of our history are constantly being stored in our mind for later retrieval. Our challenge is to take these pieces and shape them into the original, its a labor of love.
Excellent development. A good extension of the opinion I also share.
I think that every great work that can be considered a breathrough comes from a very tiny flame or spark. A diamond in the rough.
What we create is a gathering of our past experiences as human beings traveling through time in this planet, therefore, all we create can only have base on what we lived before reaching an outcome we consider ourselves satisfied with.
I see originality as a road that, to discover new and great things, you need to travel further a little everyday. I think that's what's wrong with many writers (not only writers, but since this is a book forum) is exactly that: they walk exactly the same distance everyone has walked before them. It's bland, it's boring and I'd thank said people to stop writing altogether because it gets really hard to find GREAT books nowadays.
From the starting idea, that, probably 99,9% of time is nothing original, you can achieve something that hasn't been done, but this does not require creativity. Creativity is the distance you travel from having an emtpy mind to having that first flame or spark. Perspiration and hard work is what you need to develop the rest of your idea to create something original. And that's terribly difficult because that will requite an author to walk a path that hasn't been explored yet.
Do something great, or else don't waste your time or other people's time that is simply non-refundable.
I'm a jerk.
Said very well and no you are not a jerk! I think we often get our hopes up based on all the promise what the writer presented. That feeling of being let down though is rough and to experience something great we must keep going and enduring the 'un-creative' to get to the really good stuff. Its all about perspective. A lot of times I read something and think "crap!" and have a discussion with a friend and they loved it...of course I have little respect for their literary opinions after that but I digress. Now that I think about it, im pretty sure that what drove me to seek out this forum.
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