Originality. (Totally not about Twilight)

[Beartrucci]

I believe a lot of grief comes from what i expiriance in a lot of books that i read. When a character is introduced, if after about five pages in i can accurately predict their fate then the impact of it happening is lessened to the extent of not having one sometimes. If I know what is going to happen 1-5 pages in advance it ruins the whole feel of the book. That's why i love books like the Gaunt's Ghosts series and The Night Angel trilogy because things happen near consistantly that I don't see coming and have no logical objections with it happening (though i do often have an emotional one).

So in short, I believe that the want for originality is lots of times the want to not be able to predict what is going to happen and yet still have a good story.

Hmm, you ever tried reading the Wheel of Time series? It's damn well executed and pretty original to boot.

I have a copy of the first book and got around 60-70 pages into and just stopped reading. Not because I got bored, but I just don't have the time to read anymore because I hang out with friends on the train on the way to school these days and I'm usually too tired before I go to bed to read.

I've read the first book of the Night Angel trilogy and absolutely loved it, I have the other two sitting on my shelf too but haven't read them yet either. I might have to get around to that in the holidays...

EDIT: I wrote that stuff, walked out, came back and posted and realised I hadn't responded to the thread yet.

OT: I get really pissed off when people tell me that Avatar was a shit movie because it was a rip off of Pocahontas and stuff (most of the time they haven't seen the movies that it 'rips off' of, but just go from what others have said.)

To be honest, I don't give a flying fuck if the story was unoriginal, the movie had amazing special effects, in my opinion the story was told pretty well, it kept me thoroughly entertained for the 3 hours it went for and I loved every minute of it.

 

[blankedboy]

I love all originality.

So if I were to make a video of three live birds being put into a blender, and being sliced to bits entirely in slow mo. you would love it? (At least, I think that's an original idea)

I doubt it is.
Also, you'd have to pull it off well, in this case 'well' is with kick-ass 3D animation.

 

[Deacon Cole]

Why do some people put such emphasis on originality. I swear, the word "original" in all its forms comes up in no less than half the threads about entertainment. I'm not saying I don't enjoy things which are original, but I don't think originality is something inherently good. Nor do I think being unoriginal is inherently bad, or that works based off of or similar to previous works are immediately "less than".

I think part of the problem is the term can be applied to many areas. Take Alan Moore, for example. He is considered one of the best writers in comics today. He largely works in the super hero genre, but he did not invent that genre. He often works with previously existing characters or characters that are obvious revisions of previously existing characters. (i.e. Watchmen was based on the Charlton Comics characters) So in these areas, he isn't very original at all. Where the is original is in what he does with them. Such as when he took over Swamp Thing and he changed the scientist turned plant monster into a plant monster that merely thought he was once a scientist.

And this is true of many well-regarded works. Led Zeppelin borrowed heavily from Blues songs. Star Wars has numerous influences, mostly Dune and the Flash Gordon serials.

What I have noticed as I have grown older is that no work of art stands alone. Art, like everything else, evolves. Most artists seem to be writing love letters to their childhood. Things that they loved growing up, they remake but add their own spin on it. When it works, the new art will have a character of its own and find a new audience that the original piece might not have reached. I know I couldn't get into Dune.

So, originality, like anything griped about on internet forums, is best ignored.

 

[DigitalSushi]

I'm more intrigued that you have 346 posts yet no avatar

That in itself could be original.

You kids clearly haven't come across Therumancer on the forums, he's got almost 3000 posts and still no avatar and those "almost 3000" posts, well they are huge posts that could be mistaken for an article in Edge Magazine.

Also, don't beat down on the kid with no face, its not nice to stare at the freaks.

OT I agree, I like a refined gaming experience, while originality can be a refined out of sheer genius the sequels or the copycats may or may not better its predecessor in pacing/controls so on and so forth.

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

Most stuff isn't particularly orginal, but it's usually about how well it's executed. For example, Avatar doesn't have a particularly original plot, but it's still a good film, because it's beautifully executed.

Or Christopher Paolini's Inheritance Cycle (Eragon, Eldest, Brisingr and a book yet to be released), which has a similar plot to Star Wars, and borrows heavily from LoTR. However, there's a lot of detail in there and it's very well written, which makes it a cut above the standard fantasy-for-teens fare.

 

[Deacon Cole]

I'm more intrigued that you have 346 posts yet no avatar, but anyway

I have avatars turned off. So, from my point of view, no one has an avatar