Rip Offs

A week or so ago, a friend of mine and I were strolling through a bookstore when we came across a stand advertising the newest book in the Inheritance cycle by Christopher Paolini. After a short dialogue about my desire to read the book and the obligatory comment that the movie was horrible (it was horrible compared to the source material; even Jeremy Irons couldn’t save it), my friend made a face and simply replied, “That movie was such a rip off of Star Wars.”

That wasn’t the first time I’d heard such a statement, and I’m sure it won’t be the last. But, it did get me thinking about a few things, the first of which being that the movie that irrevocably altered our pop culture isn’t all that original to begin with.

I know many people may be astounded that a nerd would say such a thing, but honestly, if you’re gonna say something is a rip off of Star Wars, you should at least acknowledge that Star Wars is technically a rip off of The Odyssey or any other story that follows the pattern of the monomyth.

Anyway, this conversation reminded me of a fantastic web documentary entitled Everything is a Remix which details numerous citations throughout our cultural history where the borders between creativity and piracy have been blurred. It’s a fascinating thing to experience.

I recently re-watched part two, where the writer goes into detail about how innumerable films today are based off of books, comics, games, older movies, etc. Throughout the clip, the documentarian modifies numerous film clips and movie titles to draw our attention to the fact that everything in the film industry is just a fabrication of something else someone else did.

It’s interesting to look at the line between creativity and plagiarism and how prominent a concern it has become to contemporary people.

Why is this?

My guess would be that kids today have more access to a broader array of resources than children and adults did just thirty years ago. In this changing world, it is fascinating to see how obsessed we have become with individual creativity while our cultural history has been built upon ideas that all had clear influences.

Where is the line between individual expression and intellectual theft? I honestly can’t say.

"Think Outside the Box"

While stumbling around on the internet, I came across this cartoon that made me laugh a lot. It wasn’t just because the message was delivered in a humorous and ironic way; it was because the whole image was put together in such a simple and straightforward way that it is almost impossible to mistake its intent.

I found this cartoon on the Wilmington Design Company’s website. The author of the post entitled Creativity: what it is and how to get it and the cartoonist is Carolyn Pikoulas. The article was interesting and provided numerous examples of ways to stimulate your creativity by journaling and freewriting and is worth reading when you have a spare ten minutes or so. I digress.

The cartoon is aimed toward the world’s populace, more specifically to individuals who have difficulty accessing their creative spirit. Pikoulas’s take on the cliché “Think outside the box” shows that creativity is not as seemingly effortless as some people believe it to be. The close proximity of open box and the frustrated young man give the audience a sense that he is straining to think creatively. The bleak monochromatic color scheme combined with the caption “This isn’t working” gives the viewer a sense of the character’s frustration with his situation.

Without the context of the article on creativity, someone could see this image as a left-brained person’s critique of creativity and complaint about its inaccessibility. Overall I think the cartoon conveys its message very well, but it is the caption that clarifies its intent to the audience.

I think everyone can empathize with this cartoon weather in a creative sense or not. We’ve all run into road blocks when working on school assignments or projects for our jobs. It’s a fairly universal feeling, particularly since the more you hear the phrase “think outside the box,” the more you want to slap the person who says it. At least, that’s how I feel.

Cartoon by Carolyn Pikoulas - http://www.wilmingtondesignco.com/index/c/procrastinator-news/article/63/

So what’s the deal with Online Publishing?

As a young woman who has had aspirations of being a published author since…well, probably since I was in the womb, the current shift toward a digital market for books is rather interesting. I’ve always considered success as a writer as having a hard back copy of your first novel, but I’m starting to realize that there are other outlets for writing. One of them is digital publishing.

During my search for some clarification about the differences between traditional and online publishing, I stumbled across a rather useful article on TopTen Reviews: Publishing: Traditional vs. Online (clever title, no?). And inside it, I found some rather interesting facts.

Aside from differences in royalties (individual authors make more with online publishing), retention of rights (your book is actually your book), and time it takes to get published (it apparently doesn’t take the grueling two years traditional publishing houses take to print a book), the entire set up of online publishing seems more streamlined and efficient. Copies of books are printed as they are needed (determined by consumer demand), and authors don’t have to fret about any monumental changes being made to their work.

That being said, online publishing isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. According to Suite 101, writers can expect to make less money on their books since they aren’t paid an advance for their work, but rather receive royalties for every book ordered. Since the market for ebooks is still fairly small, writers also cannot expect to sell as many copies of their book and any desire for advertising and publicity rests on the author.

Honestly, I can’t really say which one is preferable. On the one hand, I like the security of maintaining the rights for my work and the certainty that it won’t be muddled about with. On the other hand, the knowledge that my words would have a wider audience and the ease of not having to worry about advertising suits me just as well. It’s a tossup at the present. We’ll have to see what changes happen in the market and the publishing industry in the coming years.

Introductions Everyone!

Welcome everyone to Creativity in the Digital Age!

If you're looking for posts on the changing conventions and conceptions of creativity and intellectual property in this every-changing technological age we live in, then you've come to the right place.

Personally, this area of inquiry has huge applications toward my own life. In my ever-constant quest to become a fiction writer, seeing how literary media is moving progressively away from the world of well-loved paperbacks toward digital alternatives is kinda alarming.

Not terribly alarming, mind you. I know that being professionally published in digital form is just as exhilarating as being professionally published in a hard copy form, but there’s something about the thought of holding the hard copy of your first book that just sends chills down my spine.

That aside, I’m also interested in seeing how the notions of intellectual property have/have not changed in this new, technological age. As a fan of most things nerdy (Harry Potter, Doctor Who, Firefly, pretty much any decent show SciFi produced), I love seeing how other fans have made these varying worlds their own.

Yes, to everyone who thinks they know what I’m talking about and is rolling their eyes, I am talking about fanfiction. While many may knock it as plagiarism or a cheap imitation of the original source, given my 3+ years of experience with the matter, I’ve found that almost everyone involved with fanfiction to be dedicated to exploring these different worlds and the various facets of canon characters. Come to think of it, I don’t believe I’ve read too many works that don’t include a disclaimer, acknowledging that characters and/or plot is not their own.

Anyway, this is just a brief little introduction to my blog. I promise that it won’ be just about fanfiction or online publishing. Those were just two examples of that seemed to apply.

Happy Reading!