"We say that an author is original when we cannot trace the hidden transformations that others underwent in his mind; we mean to say that the dependence of what he does on what others have done is excessively complex and irregular. There are works in the likeness of others, and works that are the reverse of others, but there are also works of which the relation with earlier productions is so intricate that we become confused and attribute them to the direct intervention of the gods."
-Paul Valery, "Letter about Mallarme"
Nothing is more "original," nothing more "oneself" than to feed on others. But one has to digest them. A lion is made of assimilated sheep.
-Paul Valery, Analects
via i collect things
Why?
ReplyDeleteIn regards to the Inheritance books, I am in the camp of readers who are offended/irritated/amused/angered by their highly derivative nature. There's a large faction who recognize this fact about them, but have no problem with it and insist that "no one is truly original."
ReplyDeletehuh? (is a little slow today)
ReplyDeleteAre you refering to all the business about Paolini's books having to many similarity's to LOTR? I like the books, but it kind of annoys me that they are so alike.
ReplyDeleteGreat quotes (they do remind me of Christopher Paolini).
ReplyDeleteI hope that since he is now older, he can come up with more original thought than his fifteen-year-old writings.
Sweeeeeet profile pic. It rocks.
ReplyDeletePatrice - yep, exactly. But let's don't forget Star Wars. ;)
ReplyDeleteSookie - yeah, one can hope...I'm going to wait and see what others say about Brisingr before I consider reading it.
Erin - thanks! :)
those are really good quotes.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to read Brisingr just because I don't like it. If I hate it even more then Eragon and Eldest, I'll burn the whole trilogy in our firepit. I just got back from an Inheritance forum and it's disgusting. People are actually saying LoTR isn't as good as Inheritance. How messed up is that? It was a world of fun bashing Eldest and Eragon. I don't like This "trilogy" at all. However, I don't want to murder Christopher like some weird people who hate his books. He probably isn't a horrible person just because he writes bad books.
Rant over.