Mermaids! In Space?

professormariachi on Oct. 27, 2009

There's almost a story behind this one. Almost, but not quite. At least not one I'm willing to tell without a significant amount of money lining my purse, or alcohol intoxicating my system. It's interesting that academics emphasize the terrible evils of plagiarism but barely gloss over the fact that all the good thoughts have already been taken. It's true, when you stop to think about it. We are entreated to be original, but write well. However, there are such stringent conventions to good writing that it hardly seems possible to be 100% original. Other people have already used our words! Our stories have already been told a hundred times before! Our analyses are identical to Cliff Notes! Gasp! Shock! Oh, the humanity!
But in all seriousness, I've been to a lot of movies that were new and outstanding, only to realize I knew exactly what was going to happen next. Was it because I understood the genre conventions? Yes, and also because I swear I've already seen academy-award winning movie twenty-six times: they just keep repackaging it with different actors! It's a conspiracy I tell you. The last bastion of original thought is the non-sensible. In the words of George Carlin, “the next time somebody tells you to describe something in your own words, tell them Weep Bap Zibble flonder flooo.”