American author Mark Twain famously stated “there is no such thing as a new idea.” Twain, beloved in the US for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn wrote to his friend and fellow author Helen Keller, a writer and activist perhaps most famous for promoting awareness of deaf-blind disabilities and rights. (Helen herself was deaf and blind). Twain wrote to her following a long and ugly incident where she had been accused of plagiarizing one of her stories. He shared his support of her work, and examined the notion of ‘original ideas’. An extract from his letter reads:
“There is no such thing as a new idea. It is impossible. We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope. We give them a turn and they make new and curious combinations. We keep on turning and making new combinations indefinitely; but they are the same old pieces of coloured glass that have been in use through all the ages.”
Twain’s description of a kaleidoscope filled with a finite number of pieces that can be assembled into an infinite number of combinations is a succinct analogy for the limits — and limitlessness — of human creativity.
In his fantastic book “The Seven Basic Plots” Christopher Booker outlines that every story — be it a Greek tragedy, Shakespearian farce, 70’s sci-fi or 90’s horror, falls into one of seven categories of plot. Booker spent a whopping 34 years researching and writing his book, distilling down the storylines of plays, films, novels, myths, short stories, TV programmes and operas into seven distinct categories. These are namely: Overcoming the Monster, Rags to Riches, The Quest, Voyage and Return, Comedy, Tragedy and Rebirth.
An excellent book well worth reading by anyone in the creative industries (as we are all — to a point — telling stories for a living), The Seven Basic Plots provides some fascinating insights into the way we tell and receive stories.
By splitting plots into seven categories Booker is not suggesting that every new story is a plagiarism. The point here — like Twain’s kaleidoscope — is to highlight the infinite number of combinations that can be created from a limited number of factors. In one description of ‘The Quest’ (where a group of protagonists make a long journey, overcoming adversity and temptation, to reach a common goal) Booker compares Iliad, The Lord of the Rings trilogy and Howard and Kumar go to White Castle. Three very different works that follow the same basic plot. The creativity is in the development of characters, the building of worlds, patterns of dialogue and the means by which the story is told.
The same can be said for all creative work — from the framing of a photograph to the stitching on a garment. Whenever we create anything we are influenced by immeasurable factors. Some of these may be conscious — borrowing the stylistic tropes from a particular era, referencing our heros in our designs — but the vast majority is unconcious. The human mind is a gigantic sponge that collects and absorbs continuously. Ideas may be recalled at any time in any number of ways. Most of the time we won’t realise we are doing it. Plagarism is when this happens conciously, or to such an extent that others become consious of our sub-cranium workings.
