“Originality is dead,” a bold, but not entirely erroneous proclamation, has been making its rounds on the internet and in academic papers for quite some time now. We’ve all seen it: remixes upon remixes of old songs, the “same” storyline in every other movie, and the same cliched tropes in the books sold worldwide. I recently saw a book being promoted as “enemies-to-lovers with a sprinkle of miscommunication” (thanks, BookTok), so it isn’t an exaggeration to say that even novels are now often sold only on the premise of these tropes!
It is not just creatives who are guilty of this, even individually, there has been a dangerous inclination towards “conformity.” From “cottage-core” to “dark academia,” we’ve all become privy to the various aesthetics floating around on the internet, and the people who religiously live by them. With several highly similar social media apps at our fingertips, we have started externalizing our individuality by seeking validation from people we don’t even know and trying to fit into the conventional ‘aesthetics’ laid down by them, be it through our clothes, the way we talk, or even the music we listen to.
But did originality ever exist in the first place? Can we really say that there is a dichotomy between the past and the present in terms of original work? After all, everything is a product of its time. With a population of 8 billion people and thousands of years of civilization behind us, it is improbable that all can develop a novel idea for every piece of art we create.
Maybe originality is dead, or it never existed in the first place. It’s highly debatable, especially with the internet amplifying our worries. But one thing is for sure: to make a powerful proclamation about it would be highly unoriginal.