Creativity or theft?

“Originality is the fine art of remembering what you hear but forgetting where you heard it.”- Dr. Laurence J. Peter

“Originality is undetected plagiarism.”- W. R. Inge

There is nothing original left. The world is too old; everything’s been done before. I have heard these lines and their varieties from family, teachers, and even random adults, all trying to warn me about being a writer. They claim that I can’t be a writer: there’s nothing left to write. As discouraging and unhelpful as they are, I still can’t find it in myself to blame them. After all, the world is 4.6 billion years old; and perhaps more relevantly, pretty much every movie and television show is either a remake of a much better movie or television show, a god-awful sequel to a somewhat decent movie, or a game/reality show that somehow manages to degrade humanity even lower. With such sleaziness and garbage passing as entertainment, creativity turns into a modern day Tinkerbell, as it hangs on because a precious few believe. (For the love of God, please clap.)

But what people fail to realize is the fact that creativity is as alive as ever, even though it appears to be in hiding. Creativity, in fact, abounds: if only because there is so much variety in stories today. There is really only one story: life. Take a breath. In that breath, the entire song of “Kumbaya” was proven true. All lives follow the same basic pattern: birth, joy, sorrow, maturity, love, friendship, family, and eventually death. (I’d really prefer not to quote Elton John, but it really is “The Circle of Life.”) There are over 6 billion people on this earth, and every one of them has the same basic experiences. Of course in some cases, certain elements are missing, but the framework is still there. The details change, but the story remains the same.

In order to be creative, one only has to focus on the details. Every person on earth is at a different part in their story, and because of that, their voices are unique. Because, after all, we are all snowflakes. (Hey, if I'm going to be cliche, I might as well go all out, right?) In all seriousness however, a different view point changes everything, even if it's the same story.

To those who still think I'm crazy, I offer one more piece of evidence. (Well, actually its my only piece, but...) Some of the best examples of literature, and art have been "stolen". Look at Shakespeare. (I'm not talking about whether or not he wrote the plays, it doesn't really matter.) He got many of his ideas for plots from earlier writers (see Romeo and Juliet) or history (see any of the historical plays and one of his best masterpieces Macbeth). Disney stole the vast majority of the plots for its movies from fairy tales. (To be fair they did sanitize them.) H.P Lovecraft took ideas from Poe who took ideas from earlier Gothic writers. Goethe took some elements of Faust from the Marlow play as well as the earlier fables that Marlow borrowed from. Borrowing from others was very common in the past, and yet, all of the examples I've given managed to make their own versions very different from the "original." That's really all creativity is: having something to say, even if it's been said, because some of the truest ideas are, and expressing it in a way that has never been done before. And that, I think, I can do.