IT! it’s what’s for dinner.
this week, part two in the things i hate. that’s right, a rapidly aging artist whines at people who just want to read a comic or two while they’re wasting time at work, or on their phones on the can.
i remember i had a heated argument with an artist friend of mine who was trying to convince me that originality was dead. that it’s all been done, and the most we can hope for is to hide our influences, and rip something off obscure. i found this sort of offensive, not only because a small part of me worries he was right, because there’s certainly evidence to support it, but that accepting it as a truth is a creative dead end.
but there’s a logic to it. each of us is only a mass of experiences with social insurance numbers and pants. anything we come up with is just a variation on what we’ve already learned, in our own way. maybe this is the logic that causes studios to reboot original content, but in a new, fun, super edgy way for the next generation. but i don’t think those things will stand the test of time. there are very few sequels that are considered classics. think of a sequel that was as good, maybe better than the original. the first movie that popped into my head was ‘Aliens’, which stands up very well, if not better in some ways than it’s predecessor, ‘Alien’. little fun fact about that super original dark, horror in space…. it was influenced by……
‘It! The Terror from Beyond Space (1958)’
this black and white gem came out only 21 years before alien came out. but by the look of it, you’d have guess twice that amount of time, easily. not just cause it’s black and white, and not just cause the entire crew is white, looking like they just stepped off the set of leave it to beaver, but cause it has all the dreamy shortsightedness of science fiction. it depicts a future where interplanetary travel is the norm, but there’s still a cute broad who brings the all male flight crew cookies. maybe they mastered the cancer and the whole ‘oxygen rich environment’ thing too, cause boy howdy, they still smoke like it’s the 50’s…..
on top of all that, it’s not nearly some shot for shot precursor of alien. there’s no android, there’s no queen. but there is the bare bones of a story of a murderous alien that stowed away on a ship, terrorizing the crew, pinning them from compartment to compartment until they figure a way to blow it out an airlock. i’d have said SPOILER ALERT, but i figured it came out over 50 years ago. the grace period for spoilers is…. well not 50 years.
so, there it is. you don’t need to watch this movie, but you can get a kick out of the trailer below. it has a similar basic plot to a movie that came out far after, but i don’t think less of alien for it. it was just the only time i could think of a movie heavily influenced by something else, building upon it, and making it awesome. it may be a counter point to my original argument, but it deserves to be noted that it can be done.
funfact, in 1996, pamela anderson starred in a futuristic, post apocalyptic remake of casablanca. it was no alien.
If you consider the concept of Jungian Archetypes, the whole idea of a story being “totally original” to the author becomes impossible. Even the most imaginative story told by an author must have some basis in their own human experience of existence. Granted this is an idiosyncratic experience, but Jung postulated there must be a sort of racial memory of existence that unites all of us. Not only does it define what makes each of us “human”, it forms the underlying bedrock for all forms of communication between individuals.
^yeah, what he said.
I think the idea that the best chance of success is to quietly copy something is a tad bit cynical. Drawing inspiration from something and copying it outright are slightly different. I think you can do something creative without compromising your creativity. Although if you’re just looking to sell out, it might be something to look into.
i think we’re more or less on the same page, but i don’t recall implying that it was the best chance for success to copy something else, though i will say it would be far easier.
as for the selling out comment, i’m not actually sure that’s a real thing. if you can do something you enjoy, and people pay you to do it, more power to you. i would like to see people who originate, reap larger rewards. so i support the things that i see, that do that more.
All ideas are supposedly taken. All we can hope to do is tell our stories better than the last guy and add our own experiences to them. If you are copying something, it is unrecognizable to me, so keep up the good work!
thanks. I’m trying to make my style my own. I have influences, sure, but I’m always adjusting things, trying to improve. it would be easier to just emulate something successful, but if you’re at that point, why bother?