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can a book be truly original?
Feb. 19th, 2010 05:54 pmToday's question is: can a book be truly, 100% original?
I was reading The Hunger Games (HG) yesterday and my brother came up to me, asked me what it was about and immediately after I told him the premise he said it was "a total rip off" from Battle Royale (BR) which is a thriller book written by Koushun Takami in 1999. It even has a movie.
When it comes to comparing book plots to their earlier "friends" I've been in both of the groups and I almost always stand corrected. Take Twilight. The fandom and blind love for the books and characters put me off most of the times, but I can't deny the fact that I couldn't stop reading the books and immensely enjoyed every page. I used to be a hater. I told each and every person I know that it was done in Buffy the Vampire Slayer with Buffy and Angel, starcrossed human/vampire couple bla. bla. bla. But come the fucking on, myself, you can't just judge a book by its cover. Literally.
So one day I sat down, I managed to obtain the first book of Twilight saga and I enjoyed so much that I hated myself for it. I'm a writer, too, I write so many stuff that is similiar to all kinds of different, very well known works and I was completely wrong about Twilight.
Same thing happened with BR and HG today as well. I found Battle Royale and opened up the book and after a couple of pages I realized how those people who blindly called HG "a cheap rip off" were wrong.
( Comparisons, rants, questions, etc. etc. No spoilers though. )
A few months ago I sent a picture with Star Wars's general plot points striked over and names and places were replaced with the ones in Harry Potter's. It's so easy to say something was ripped off from another thing if you squeeze the big picture into the smallest frame and consider the general points. Please don't do that, be open minded and look for differences in books instead of trashing it for its similiarties to an earlier work.
I have to go home now, I don't know where this sudden rant came from, but I had to write it down :))
I was reading The Hunger Games (HG) yesterday and my brother came up to me, asked me what it was about and immediately after I told him the premise he said it was "a total rip off" from Battle Royale (BR) which is a thriller book written by Koushun Takami in 1999. It even has a movie.
When it comes to comparing book plots to their earlier "friends" I've been in both of the groups and I almost always stand corrected. Take Twilight. The fandom and blind love for the books and characters put me off most of the times, but I can't deny the fact that I couldn't stop reading the books and immensely enjoyed every page. I used to be a hater. I told each and every person I know that it was done in Buffy the Vampire Slayer with Buffy and Angel, starcrossed human/vampire couple bla. bla. bla. But come the fucking on, myself, you can't just judge a book by its cover. Literally.
So one day I sat down, I managed to obtain the first book of Twilight saga and I enjoyed so much that I hated myself for it. I'm a writer, too, I write so many stuff that is similiar to all kinds of different, very well known works and I was completely wrong about Twilight.
Same thing happened with BR and HG today as well. I found Battle Royale and opened up the book and after a couple of pages I realized how those people who blindly called HG "a cheap rip off" were wrong.
( Comparisons, rants, questions, etc. etc. No spoilers though. )
A few months ago I sent a picture with Star Wars's general plot points striked over and names and places were replaced with the ones in Harry Potter's. It's so easy to say something was ripped off from another thing if you squeeze the big picture into the smallest frame and consider the general points. Please don't do that, be open minded and look for differences in books instead of trashing it for its similiarties to an earlier work.
I have to go home now, I don't know where this sudden rant came from, but I had to write it down :))
