Albert Einstein once said, "Creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."
I'm starting to wonder about this blog. Despite the fact that I have a sitemeter account with this blog, I have no idea who reads my posts. In the past, it worried me because I didn't want certain people to read about my personal thoughts. Now, I'm beginning to wonder if people take the ideas I write on here and mold them into their own works.
I don't own the idea of "Malice in Wonderland," and I never wrote the phrase specifically on this site. I did write a post titled "M.alice in Dreamland" in 2006, building off of that play on words. But when I first came up with the play on words, I felt clever about myself and admittedly felt I possessed ownership over those three words strung in the same phrase. So when I discovered "Malice in Wonderland" had been used as a title for a fictionpress story, my gut reaction was not a pleasant one. But after reflecting on it for a few minutes, I suppose I am not all that special -- anyone could have come up with "Malice in Wonderland." If you look it up on a search engine, you'll find plenty of hits, which clearly shows I am not all that wonderful (thus dealing the fatal blow to my wounded ego).
As far as I know, nobody has plagiarized my work... yet. I do confess, however, that I bordered onto being a plagiarist when I was younger. I would take works I thought were beautiful or clever and "revise" it to suit my tastes. I wonder what Rose Mortmain really thought of me, for with many of our letters, I borrowed key phrases and sentences from Francesca Lia Block.
I suppose all that has happened now is that I have gotten smarter at "borrowing." I take the parts I like out of many different stories and hash them together to create an unrecognizable, seemingly "creative" story. I am a plagiarist, or do I just draw inspiration? Then again, am I creative for being able to draw a story out of patchwork?
Rogue and I often mock how many fictionpress stories operate with the same formula -- smart under-the-radar girl falls for brother's hot best friend but gets into trouble with head cheerleader. Clearly those are not creative, but where does that bring me? Actually, when it all comes down to it, my stories are superficial fluff. They just happen to be filled with lurid plot devices and fancy imagery.
On another note, I am at a complete loss over what I should write for my college appication essay. I wish I could write like David Sedaris.
5 comments:
on the contrary, dearie, i think you are quite original and creative.
you tend to not really go along with the popular trends, thus revealing your uniqueness, more or less. plus, your likes and interests in stuff are interesting most of the time, too.
but, bottom line is, even if you weren't all of those things, i'd still love you anyway. :)
today, all art has to be is marketable!
but then it's not exactly art anymore is it.
it's just how some phrases and chord progressions of music are pleasing to the masses, so they get chopped up and slapped together again to become the weekly top 10
ouch. Your mom told me to come to a speaking seminar after I gave the speech in journo.
ouch
lol
one of my greatest fears is that i will try to publish my work one day to find out that somebody has already published it off.
i get insanely paranoid whenever i wonder just how safe the files on my computer are.
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