literature

It's Been Done Before

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Literature Text

It‘s something you hear every day if you hang out in writers’ communities: “That’s been done before.”  “It’s so cliché.”  “There are no original ideas left.”

Well.  So what?  Hamlet’s 400 years old, but that didn’t stop The Lion King, or 2011’s Thor from being wildly popular.  What makes The Great Gatsby so much different from Romeo and Juliet when it comes down to it?  Well okay.  In both Shakespearean versions, everybody dies, where only Scar and Gatsby bite it at the end.  Even Loki comes out of his role relatively unscathed.  But at a fundamental, nit-pick all the plot points level, the only difference between lions on the Serengeti and a depressed Danish prince are the aesthetics.  And you have to have a serious bladder of steel to make it all the way through Branagh’s Hamlet in one go, but that’s another thing entirely.

What is the actual problem with writing something that’s already been done before, really?  How many times have stories about dwarfs and elves on quests been published?  There are so many loveable scoundrels who toe a very fine line between criminal and hero.  And do we really need another space orphan?  No, not really.  Do we want another space orphan?  Yeah, sure.  Why not.  Because while Luke Skywalker may be the original emo kid, Peter Quill uses space rats as musical props while dancing to a Walkman that should have disintegrated into dust years ago.  They both have the same goal: saving the Galaxy from an evil, destructive force, but their stories and methods for success are wildly different.  So, sure.  Bring on the space orphans.

The reason why the same idea again and again works isn’t because the idea itself is new, but because it’s packaged and presented differently.  Why are your dwarfs going on their quest?  To find the lost artefact of questionable Norse significance?  To find the lost heirloom, or to reclaim the lost homeland?  Because someone got drunk and it seemed like a good idea at the time?  All are perfectly valid reasons to send your dwarfs on a quest.  But what makes these questing dwarfs different from the questing dwarfs you read about last week?

The use of different tropes and clichés can turn this typical fantasy storyline into something unique.  So, you have you dwarfs who got drunk and went out to see what trouble they could find.  While several towns over, they realise they may be able to locate some lost artefact of questionable Saxon significance.  Along the way, they run into some travelling Moorish merchants who are headed north to sell their wares.  All goes well, until halfway through act three, when it turns out the Moorish merchants have the artefact of questionable Saxon significance.   The dwarfs want it, the Moors want to sell it, and their buyer will kill anyone who tries to take it.  Now the dwarfs on a quest story that’s been done a thousand times before becomes dwarfs running a heist.  It’s still dwarfs in a fantasy setting, trying to procure some lost artefact, but it’s not the same story that has them travel to the ends of the earth, fight the big evil, and claim the reward.  It’s a different story where they travel to the ends of the earth, deceive the big evil, and claim the reward.  And if they’re just in it for the glory, they can sell the artefact to the big evil anyway, claim the gold, and go home and spend the next three months drinking themselves into a stupor.

Few people really care if the story they’re reading has been done before.  In fact, that’s why most people tend to stick to certain genres.  They know this story has been done before, and they liked it every time they’d read it before, so now they want to see how you’ll write the story.  People like to see how many different ways the same story can be told.  This is why remakes and reboots tend to do so well in cinema.  Two Hercules movies came out within six months of one another this year.  How many different ways can you write the story of Hercules?  Well, I don’t know, but one of them has the Rock.  And for a lot of people, that was reason enough to go see it.
There is nothing new under the sun.  And so what?
© 2014 - 2024 ML-Larson
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fill-in's avatar
Why yes. Appropriately, the first things that popped into my head while reading this were three quotations of three different people from somewhat different times that all basically amount to the same exact thing!
Yet I enjoyed reading this because you said it in a different way (and probably because I agree). That last paragraph seems especially true; people cry for innovation and new things but in the meantime, those movie remakes you mentioned are successful and the three millionth installment in the Call of Duty series is, to my knowledge, about as popular as its predecessors.

Now I think I'll go dig through your gallery.