No such thing as original thought?
Emily Manns | Fulcrum Contributor
Illustration by John Baisi
OUR TEACHERS TELL us to be original in our writing, to think up new ideas that are ours alone—but is that really possible? With over seven billion people on this planet, you have to wonder if maybe all that originality has been used up. Maybe all we’re left with is old ideas that are constantly being recycled, ideas that went out of style or were forgotten.
British comedian Stephen Fry put it best when he said, “An original idea. That can’t be too hard. The library is full of them.” Fry is right—it does feel like every good idea that ever was has been immortalized within the bound pages of a book. This doesn’t stop people from taking those ideas and turning them into something new, but that is becoming more of a struggle thanks to the presence of ever-tightening ownership laws.
Everyone has seen a product being advertised on TV that they could have sworn was their idea first. Well, unless you went and put a patent on it, legally speaking it wasn’t your idea—no matter how long you’ve thought about making a blanket with sleeves or a self-flushing toilet.
The movies have been hit the hardest when it comes to the quest for new and exciting stories. I cannot begin to fathom why people pay so much money to watch the same plot over and over—two people meet each other, fall in love, almost fall out of love, overcome some obstacle, and end up closer than they were 90 minutes ago. Romantic comedy isn’t the only genre guilty of following a predictable structure—you know, the one that makes you want to shout, “Don’t open that door, you’re gonna die!” The only thing that could be argued as original is the way plot ideas are implemented—the changing up of chronology or point of view, for example—but even this almost always seems to come from something that someone has already imagined.
As much as I would like to think that the works of Joss Whedon or J.K. Rowling are completely original, I’m positive if I looked hard enough, I could find a story or two that have an uncanny resemblance to their tales of vampires and wizards. Perhaps it’s time we redefine the concept of original thought so that it encompasses not just new ideas, but new spins on old ones. Now, you’re going to tell me that you had the idea for this article a month ago, right?
