On Impostors

[not_quite_boda]

Certain patrons are not amused. It is the risk we run. Being an impostor by birth - this was not a life-choice, I assure you - it is a hard truth that some people will be offended by my existence, and no matter how convincingly I present my case, they will still harbour a profound desire to pummel me unconscious at the first sign of an empty street

Comments

[not_quite_yoda]

Originality works best when attached to objects' relationships, rather than any inherent qualities in the thing itself. F'r instance, the seminal work Grand Theft Auto 3 lacks any original features. You could steal cars in its prior forms, wander awfully similar 3D landscapes in any number of action/adventure and driving games (Soul Reaver and Need for Speed come to mind), perform missions for money in any number of things and find hidden packages in even more games, and beating the crap out of civilians has long been a time-honoured tradition for the casual gamer.
But it was the first time they were all together. While original ideas are often celebrated just for being so, though they often shouldn't, there's endless variation in the ways the old stuff can be put together, and when you get right down to it, isn't that what originality really is?

[not_quite_boda]

Perhaps it's better to think of originality as a presupposition, quality as craft, and art as the transcendence thereof, though I agree that worth, for what it's worth, lies in the putting together of old stuff. But it is something of a can of worms the deeper you go, and when you weigh it up, the intuitive form employed by most anyone with an opinion is the only real helpful (and indeed meaningful) one, whatever you make of the terms used. Such is the case with most quasi-philosophical discourse on definition; it becomes so undefined as to be meaningless, and consequently useless.

The post's paraphrased arguments, I should also point out, were actually originally in reference to avant-garde art, where the notion of originality had particular importance, to the point of paradox.