June 30, 2000
Nothing New Under the Sun
As I'm moving tomorrow, Brand was kind enough to contribute a guest entry. It's a rambling bit of a rant that came up after reading a rather annoying webpage, to which I refuse to link. Anyway, comments or questions should be emailed to Brand.
Recently I've become annoyed, yet again, with the trend towards insistence upon
originality. There is little that annoys me more than the assumption that
something must be original in order to be worthwhile, interesting, or
insightful. So let me begin this rant with the following words:
Everything I say on this page has been said before. There is nothing new under the sun, and all my thoughts are based on the thoughts of others. Through me the dead speak.
With that out of the way, let me give you my thoughts on originality. (Unoriginal, I don't really know if I can even properly call them "my thoughts" as they came to me through the works of others. The only claim I have to them is that I believe them to be true, and will until my mind is changed again by something else that I come upon as a result of someone or something else's actions.)
There was a time when originality was not the God upon the Pedestal. There was little value seen in drawing things out of the air (and most did not really believe it was possible, as knowledge is based upon experience) as creation was seen not as the result of one genius, but of the ongoing dialogue of ages and times. Now there was genius seen in the act of taking the words of others and synthesizing them, or of restating what was old in a fashion that was powerful and true. This, you see, is the genius of Shakespeare. He did not create from nothing, and for this some modern critics -- caught up in the chains of their own pathetically self-referential discourse -- attack him. He did not create Romeo and Juliet , he simply re-spoke the words of others. Well of course he did -- that was what he was supposed to do. The point was that he re-spoke them well.
The whole emphasis on creative originality is a long thing that ties into many facets of history and the development of our culture. It has issues of the development of the individual as subject (which was not, by the way, all about making us free people, but was also a subject that developed due to new methods of categorization and control), and several other things, but the largest of them is money. Yes, that is right, we created the ideal of creative originality for money. You see if you base your words off the words of others, if everyone is part of the same ongoing discourse, then no one can copyright and claim an idea as being theirs and no one else's. It is only by claiming sole patent to an idea that you can charge for the idea.
Didn't Shakespeare charge for his plays? Why yes he did -- but he did not charge for the intellectual material of the play, he charged for his statement, his words upon that subject. Anyone could tell the story of two star-crossed lovers, it was just that only Shakespeare could tell it with those specific words. The difference comes when suddenly we had authors who were claiming that they did not just make the words, but the whole of the story and so even the idea of two star-crossed lovers must be attributed to them.
So what has been the result of this dependence on money and personal glory that resulted in the emphasis upon original creativity? Well, it is deep and subtle, but it is easy to argue that it was one of the lead causes of alienation and the death of poetry and literature. When everything of a book belongs to the Author (the Authority ), what is left to the reader? To sit and admire the genius of the Author? That is an exercise that gets old quickly. The most enduring works were always those in which the audience participates in some way -- in which they feel a part of the work and not just a stone to sit still and be spoken to.
However, all those deep issues aside, the thing that irritates me the most about it all is when people that are little more than wagging jawbones and headpieces filled with straw claim originality. "I am me, and these are my ideas!" They yell, "If you think what others think it is because you are weak minded! Be like me and be yourself, not like them, like me!"
Please people, get over yourselves. There is nothing new under the sun, and every word you will ever speak or think was given to you out of the mouths of others. You may (and I sincerely hope do) process the words into your own form and contemplate and work over the ideas given to you.
Just don't tell me that you came up with the idea that a hate crime is the same
as or different than any other crime all by yourself. You didn't, and you
aren't fooling anyone. Be part of a discourse, not a self-nominated genius who
preaches to us poor masses. We all know that you aren't spouting your own
water, oh fountain, but that of the deep well which feeds you.
Posted by Lisa at June 30, 2000 06:18 PM
