Originality, is it worth it?

Original work, why is everyone so obsessed with it? It's as if it's become a religion or something-- no, it's a god. People worship creative genius.

What's wrong with that? I don't see how originality could possibly be a bad thing.

Oh I didn't say that originality was to blame. I just don't know why people idolize it, and with zeal, at that.

Explain yourself then, I don't see what it is that you're griping about.

Well, I have a friend that is a scientist, and a bit of a nut. Just the other night, I was perusing halls of the physics building at Uni, and I heard mumbling. When I looked to see what was the matter, I found my companion scrawling furiously at the chalkboard. Despite the frantic hacking of his powdery hands, his face stood still, save for his trembling lips. Upon reading the board, I realized that he had derived the full implications of general relativity.

Fantastic! He ought to have been pleased with himself.

Yes, exactly! But when I told him the gravity of his accomplishment, he just stared quizzically.

"Relativity, you say? The work of Einstein? No, it's quite different---"

-- and he launched into the best lecture on the concept of spacetime that I have ever heard. I poured congratulations on my fellow, but reassured him kindly that this was, indeed, the theory of general relativity that he has struck upon.

"No, no! That can't be right, this is what I meant--"

-- even still, he startled me with the brilliance of his approach, and his mastery of the concept was inspiring, such that I exclaimed praises of his prowess.

"You mock me, you do! I'll prove it, I'll prove it!"

And with that, my poor, misguided friend stormed from the classroom.

Surely, he must have come around. Have you spoken with him since?

Every time, I find him in a sullen mood, robbed of the fervor that I had found with him that night. It is a funny thing, in the sciences; one can hardly go about solving problems these days without being disappointed to find that the solution is familiar. Original solutions are the spring of much envy.

True enough. But I fail to see why you shouldn't celebrate original work.

Again, you mistake me. My quarrel is not with the love of novelty, but the love of absolute novelty.

What are you getting at?

When you cook a meal, does it cross your mind that it has been made by countless cooks before you?

Sometimes, I suppose.

And does that reduce the virtue of the dish, if it is a good one? Do you enjoy it nonetheless?

Well of course, if the dish is good.

Of course, food can be satisfying whether you wrote the recipe or not. Now, my friend gave an elegant account of relativity that night, and demonstrated a full understanding of the theory. Was he skilled in doing so, even if he did not write the theory?

Given your account, I would suppose so.

Why then should my fellow student be distressed? After all, he is a student of physics, whose sole purpose is to become adept at the practice of physical theory. Would you rebuke a chef in training for making a good meal if you were to find out that she had used a recipe?

Of course not.

And for that reason, I wonder why I see so many lose hope when they fail to breach new ground. We live in a world of seven billion, and a great number of us communicate through the internet. Statistically speaking, it is very likely that neither you nor I will ever create some great novelty. The originality of our works are destined to become smaller and finer, to the point where only mere detail separates ours from the work of others.

This is not for want of things to create, but rather a result of the glut of creators which we have engendered. So many voices have filled the world that it is difficult to find one more beautiful than the next, or louder, or more eloquent.

I presume that you must have a hard time getting out of bed, thinking like that!

Hardly, each day is a pleasure. At one point, I became so weighed down by my statistical insignificance that I was forced to decide: do I let go of my happiness while maintaining my desire to be original, or do I sacrifice the drive for originality in order to pursue my happiness? And I have not regretted the decision ever since.

But nature, with all of her satirical humor, has showed me something else that has left me stumped. Even though I tried to forget the mad rush to be creative, to make bizarre and foreign things, I still find myself craving a personal level of originality. Those things which are new to my own eyes, these are the things that give me pleasure. When I forgot that they had already been done before, the dreams that I had accomplished became ever sweeter. With respect to the world, I am an average person, but in my experiences, I have found something new and beautiful at every turn. Maybe one day somebody will celebrate something of mine, but I won't be listening.

And so I don't see why artists torture themselves, why people allow themselves to sink so low for the love of the weight that they carry. A world full of people trying to impress one another, and yet full of people screaming and sulking after failing to do so. Only a few things can be new, but there are a multitude of things that can be beautiful.