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referential fiction and 'originality'
May. 18th, 2021 04:08 amWhat do you do as a fiction writer when most of your conceptual library is built up on media that’s referencing other media?
By which I mean, you think of the shining examples of stories that grabbed you start to finish, and it's almost all media that is a creative 'adaptation' or parody of an existing work, or it's a pastiche or deconstruction of an existing genre, or a combination of different genres. It's also often media with a specific aesthetic that is intended to draw on a past 'retro' aesthetic. For me personally I am thinking specifically of Venture Bros., Team Fortress 2 (which isn't a linear story, besides in the comics, but it sure got my attention), The Incredibles (okay, we get it, you like 60s/70s aesthetics), almost every genre that functions as a revival of a 'classic' genre (neo-noir is one example). In some regards, sure, I could be talking about most media because nothing is original, but here I specifically mean media where the basic premise is inherently referential.
What do you do when you don't really like the works being referenced as much as the referential work? As in, you don't have much motivation to seek out more of the 'original sources' that influenced whatever you liked, because the examples you have seen/read give you a decent sense of the vibe but, for you, they don't pack the same punch or provide the same enjoyment? Because it's something about the dialogue between the two parts, between the past and the contemporary, rather than necessarily the original work in isolation. A lot of my music tastes reflect this idea of ‘dialogue’ too — I love sample-based music, like plunderphonics and mashups. I love it when people put together songs and genres I never thought could be combined. But in a lot of those cases, the sum of its parts is the appeal for me, and not necessarily the original.
I love artists who wear their influences on their sleeves and poach as much as they can get away with. I'm not so concerned about having an in-depth knowledge of the sources they're referencing, because obviously the references aren't all of why I like the media in question, but the parts which reference and adapt clearly must have some value to me because this keeps showing up in all my favourite works and genres. And I'm not really sure why, and I’m not sure how to use that in my own work.
( Read more... )
By which I mean, you think of the shining examples of stories that grabbed you start to finish, and it's almost all media that is a creative 'adaptation' or parody of an existing work, or it's a pastiche or deconstruction of an existing genre, or a combination of different genres. It's also often media with a specific aesthetic that is intended to draw on a past 'retro' aesthetic. For me personally I am thinking specifically of Venture Bros., Team Fortress 2 (which isn't a linear story, besides in the comics, but it sure got my attention), The Incredibles (okay, we get it, you like 60s/70s aesthetics), almost every genre that functions as a revival of a 'classic' genre (neo-noir is one example). In some regards, sure, I could be talking about most media because nothing is original, but here I specifically mean media where the basic premise is inherently referential.
What do you do when you don't really like the works being referenced as much as the referential work? As in, you don't have much motivation to seek out more of the 'original sources' that influenced whatever you liked, because the examples you have seen/read give you a decent sense of the vibe but, for you, they don't pack the same punch or provide the same enjoyment? Because it's something about the dialogue between the two parts, between the past and the contemporary, rather than necessarily the original work in isolation. A lot of my music tastes reflect this idea of ‘dialogue’ too — I love sample-based music, like plunderphonics and mashups. I love it when people put together songs and genres I never thought could be combined. But in a lot of those cases, the sum of its parts is the appeal for me, and not necessarily the original.
I love artists who wear their influences on their sleeves and poach as much as they can get away with. I'm not so concerned about having an in-depth knowledge of the sources they're referencing, because obviously the references aren't all of why I like the media in question, but the parts which reference and adapt clearly must have some value to me because this keeps showing up in all my favourite works and genres. And I'm not really sure why, and I’m not sure how to use that in my own work.
( Read more... )
