Not a Crook
I can't stand it.
I am so weary of seeing article after article, book after book, from intellectual snobs who make and remake the same claim and accusation. The only thing that changes (moderately) is the accuser and the accused.
Authors claim J. R. R. Tolkien was not an original author because he owes so much of his mythology to actual mythology. Others claim the same about C. S. Lewis, J. K. Rowling, etc.
To answer as with as deep intellectual enthusiasm as I can muster at the moment, "Duh."
Of course Tolkien owes much of his mythology to actual mythology. He was a professor of such, for Pete's sake.
By the same claim, the author of the book making the accusation can be accused of only being able to publish said book because of what Tolkien did. Plagiarist! Liar! Thief!
Any book written about lovers in New York borrows from every other story told about lovers and set in New York. Gasp!
Any spy novel borrows ideas from actual events and the authors of spy material who came before.
No story is created, no song written, no poem birthed, no movie or television story filmed in a vacuum.
No knowledge is gained that way, either. EVERYTHING you learn is added to the knowledge you have ALREADY attained. You cannot learn how to multiply without first learning addition and subtraction. Multiplication builds upon those foundations.
Any original idea began within a mind that had accumulated other knowledge.
Get over it and write a book with an original idea.
And to the publishers who keep publishing this stuff, it's been done. Again and again.
Now, someone help me down from this soap box.
I am so weary of seeing article after article, book after book, from intellectual snobs who make and remake the same claim and accusation. The only thing that changes (moderately) is the accuser and the accused.
Authors claim J. R. R. Tolkien was not an original author because he owes so much of his mythology to actual mythology. Others claim the same about C. S. Lewis, J. K. Rowling, etc.
To answer as with as deep intellectual enthusiasm as I can muster at the moment, "Duh."
Of course Tolkien owes much of his mythology to actual mythology. He was a professor of such, for Pete's sake.
By the same claim, the author of the book making the accusation can be accused of only being able to publish said book because of what Tolkien did. Plagiarist! Liar! Thief!
Any book written about lovers in New York borrows from every other story told about lovers and set in New York. Gasp!
Any spy novel borrows ideas from actual events and the authors of spy material who came before.
No story is created, no song written, no poem birthed, no movie or television story filmed in a vacuum.
No knowledge is gained that way, either. EVERYTHING you learn is added to the knowledge you have ALREADY attained. You cannot learn how to multiply without first learning addition and subtraction. Multiplication builds upon those foundations.
Any original idea began within a mind that had accumulated other knowledge.
Get over it and write a book with an original idea.
And to the publishers who keep publishing this stuff, it's been done. Again and again.
Now, someone help me down from this soap box.
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