(Un)Original Ideas

In Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “The American Scholar,” Emerson discusses the importance of original and creative thinking in creating a legacy for American thinkers, as opposed to continuing to study and praise those of other times and countries. Since Emerson’s time, we’ve undoubtedly had many brilliant and original minds creating literature that is part of our American legacy. There have also been many people who have taken ideas that they see as great and made it their own. Are these ideas uninspired and the creations that result from them void of original thought or are they brilliant in their own right? Consider these examples. How much credit do the creators deserve?

Movies

• Easy A – inspired by Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter
• 10 Things I Hate About You – inspired by Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew”

Music

• Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit” – inspired by Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland
• Bruce Springteen’s “The Ghost of Tom Joad” – inspired by John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath

TV

• Game of Thrones – based on George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series
• True Blood – based on Charlaine Harris’ The Southern Vampire Mysteries series