2009-11-20, 08:01 PM
KajitiSouls Wrote:Cute. You just reinforced the point that originality is a lost cause >_> I'm sure that's mostly coincidence though, seeing how there's a lack of all-powerful uber magic-using elven society in a huge forest that covers 25% of the map >_> Or the Mordor-like doom. Keke
Well of course. Some of the most famous and popular fantasy series of our time (Star Wars, Eragon, The Lord of the Rings) are essentially the same story told with tweaks here and there, yet set in completely different and created worlds from the minds of the authors. Why do you think there's a typical high school freshman English unit called "The Hero's Journey," which fully covers the framework of stories like the aforementioned, and has been/is used in THOUSANDS of books throughout time.
However, originality isn't a lost cause in my opinion. Writers just need to be more creative and think outside the box of normal storytelling in order to craft something "fresh." Harry Potter is a good example of the halfway point between The Hero's Journey archetype and true "originality," as the series takes several classic concepts from the universal story structure (An "item" of usefulness as wands and other magical objects; an older "mentor" to the hero in Dumbledore's relationship with Harry), but spins them in different directions than the complete fictional worlds of fantasy (as seen in Middle Earth and Alagaesia) by fusing them with contemporary reality. What better reason for the "believability" of Harry Potter than the fact that half the setting is in modern London?
For a novel to be truly "new" in this changing age of literature, it must totally redefine the standards of storytelling. Yet of course even then there could exist echoes with classics of the past.
OT: Evan rules! lol...