Originality is dead

Even this theme is unoriginal

I have to think that pretty soon after the second human gained consciousness, they started copying the successes and avoiding the failures of the first.

Ever since, this cat and mouse game has played out in art, science, fashion, business, and entertainment. Hell, ekphrasis is a whole subgenre of art that describes or depicts another work of art. TV and film may be the only industry to fully own it, but we live in a reboot culture.

And despite or maybe because copies and upgrades are all around us, we’re always looking for a reason not to do something that’s already been done. We’re self-conscious about being seen as lazy or derivative, and as a result, we burn creative energy trying to go in the opposite direction when we could be catching the same wave and working on making something more interesting or more consonant with the way we see the world.

If you’ve heard of stealing like an artist, you probably know that Austin Kleon has made a creative career out of the philosophy, first with his blackout poetry and then with a creative manifesto of the same name. His work taps into something human. Imitation is flattering. It’s affirming. When an Uber spawns a Lyft, it knows it’s on to something. When a poem spawns another poem or a joke spawns another joke, the creative process continues.

Sometimes that’s all it takes, changing or removing a word to make it yours, to gussy up the original and continue the conversation, knowing full well that as soon as you share it, it’s up for grabs for someone else to play with or vault off.