originality – Page 3 – Steven Savage

(Tamara had a great post last week on the paradox of originality versus people seeking original works. Spinning off from that, I think I've got a bead on why originality is sometimes rewarded in media – and as well why sometimes stunning unoriginality is not).

Are you getting tired of vampires?

I've been tired of vampire fiction, movies, what have you for quite awhile. i've seen it all, heard it all, and by now I have nearly no interest whatsoever in the whole vampire genre and its spawn. I started getting tired of it around Anne Rice's heyday, and most young people reading "Twilight" today probably think Anne Rice is a cajun dish.

I can't be the only one tired of vampires in every media known to man. Yet they're everywhere.

This should probably be a Frustration Friday, but it's fresh in my mind and probably not ranty enough.

So I try and write my weekly posts at a bookstore. It's fun yet I stay focused, I get to get out, and in general, the change of pace helps me. So as I take a break, something strikes me that I've seen before, but hadn't thought about viscerally.

A LOT of book covers look like ripoff's of Twilight's stark black-background covers. I mean a lot.

Sure some have a bit more color or some variant, but it's usually dark-background and object and that's it. I don't even know if some of these books have anything to do with vampires or even fiction. With some of the titles, for all I know, I'm seeing a very pretentious cookbook.

So this got me thinking about originality in the age of geekonomics.

Why Originality – and Unoriginality – May Not Matter To Media Success

Twilight Of The Book Covers – Originality And It’s Cycles