Assignment 3: Reaction Paper

Original Work in Fictional Literature: How Important Is It?

“Within bodies of writing, everywhere, there are linkages we tend not to see. The individual document, at hand, is what we deal with; we do not see the total linked collection of them all at once. But they are there, the documents not present as well as those that are, and the grand cat’s cradle among them all” (Nelson, 6)

It is not unimaginable that while writing a fictional story, an author may call upon the ideas and experiences of those before her. After all, what else is fiction but an imagined story? Fiction cannot be mutually exclusive to the lived experiences of an author (that’s called non-fiction), and relies not only on the drawing of one’s imagination, but also on the combination of stories either written or spoken. In fictional literature, how important is originality? Fictional literature’s plots and storylines have boundaries in originality which are insurmountable; however, originality does not make one work better than another.

In the boundaries of fictional literature, what is considered appropriation? Exact phrasing, or similar storyline, or both? It is clear, at least from the standpoint of copyright law, that exact phrasing is protected. The seven rights under the Copyright Act are reproduction, adaptations, distribution, public performance, public display, moral, and digital performance rights (Tune 19). Anything duplicated that is longer than a few words in a phrase is considered appropriation by reproduction (Tune 19). However, ideas themselves are not protected. “Ideas simply cannot be protected under copyright law. Thus, procedures, processes, systems, methods of operation, concepts, principles, and discoveries are not copyrightable regardless of the form in which they are embodied. Ideas are free for all to use” (Tune 24). In copyright law, plot falls under the category of idea, and is therefore not protected. But this brings up another question: is it moral or fair to be unoriginal, to use the plot of another story?

If there were an infinite number of plots or storylines in fiction, it would be easy to say that appropriation of plot is immoral and unfair. However, one would be hard pressed to find a story with a plot that is original, or has nothing in common to the plot of at least one other story. Surely there are a limited number of storylines, no matter how complex they are. For example, Georges Polti categorized every dramatic situation that he could find in classic Greek and French stories or performances, and he finds and describes all thirty-six in The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations (Polti 7). Others identify twenty plots, or seven plots (Adams). Take into consideration the following: an estimated 106 billion people have been born on Earth (Haub 4); with so many lives and many fewer combinations, how can one say that anything we create is original?

To be more specific, let us simplify the storylines of two fictions and compare. The plot of Ursula K. Le Guin’s 1968 A Wizard of Earthsea is boiled down to the following: a young boy discovers that he has magical powers. He goes to school and unleashes a “dark” wizard that is somehow part of him. He discovers that he is the only person who can destroy the “dark” wizard, and through a series of events, he finally vanquishes the “dark” wizard. J.K Rowling’s 1997 Harry Potter series can be simplified in a very similar way” a young boy discovers that he has magical powers. He goes to school and discovers that a “dark” wizard exists that is somehow part of him. He discovers that he is the only person who can destroy the “dark” wizard, and through a series of events, he finally vanquishes the “dark” wizard. The storylines of these two fictional narratives are surprisingly similar; however, they are told very differently, as can be seen in the style, differences in character, time period, location, and duration of narrative. The difference between the two stories is that one is an original idea, while the other is not. As Le Guin said about Rowling, "She has many virtues, but originality isn't one of them" (McCrum 25).

We can see a difference between an original works and an unoriginal work, but that does not mean that an original work is “better” than an unoriginal work. This is a matter of personal preference. Some readers may value Rowling’s series above Le Guin’s story, for the differences listed above as well as accessibility and popularity. Original works may be more interesting, especially to a person who reads much fictional literature, but there are many factors in the retelling of a story that can influence personal preference.

Originality in fictional literature is bound by the constraints of human experience, plot and storyline. While original fiction is indeed more interesting to the reader, it is the personal preference of the reader to decide if an original story or an unoriginal story is “better”.



　
Works Cited

Adams, Cecil. “What are the seven basic literary plots?” Chicago Reader. Chicago Reader, 24 Nov 2000. Web. 19 March 2010.

Haub, Carl. “How Many People Have Ever Lived on Earth?” Population Today 30:8 (November/December 2002): 3.

McCrum, Robert. “Plagiarism: In the words of somebody else… there’s nothing new in literature.” The Observer (January 17, 2010): 25.

Nelson, Ted. “Proposal for a Universal Electronic Publishing System and Archive.” in Noah Wardip-Fruin, N.M. ed. The New Media Reader, MIT Press, Cambridge, 2003: 441-461.

Polti, Georges. The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations. Ohio: James Knapp Reeve, 1924. Internet Archive. Web. 7 April 2010.

Tune, Cydney A. “Overview of Basic Copyright Law Principles.” The Licensing Journal 26.2 (February 2006): 18-26.