Originality is a Palimpsest

Did it ever occur to you that much of the things we read, listen, or watch is always influenced by some other work of art? Maybe when you are creating something, you think about if someone ever done this before. That would not be so unreasonable. But does it mean that everything that has been produced so far is not truly ‘original’? What if originality itself is a myth?

T.S Eliot, renowned poet of the 20th century, states that ‘No poet, no artist of any art, has his complete meaning alone.’ He proposes that an artist cannot be defined without their predecessors and their influence on them. Another important figure, Roland Barthes, has also commented on this in his 1967 essay 'Death of the Author'. He argued that the meaning of a text no longer resides in the intentions of its creator, but in the interpretations of its readers. The author fades, and the reader becomes the meaning setter. What they really intend to give to its audience is irrelevant, or at least redefined by others', in this case its audience's interpretations. So meaning of the texts are not fixed, but is co-created through the reader’s engagement with the text, which is affected by cultural discourse. He also introduced the concept of the ‘scriptor’ and stated that writing is simultaneously emerged with the scriptor, diminishing the authority of the author.

“The text is a tissue of quotations drawn from the innumerable centres of culture.”

It implies that author is not someone who ‘creatio ex nihilo’, but they reinterpret and recombine what already exists. Even such an important and influential figure as Shakespeare, who often been treated as the pioneer of originality, borrowed symbols and events from older myths. One of his most valued works, Hamlet, is thought to be inspired by the legend of Amleth. But this does not make him ‘plagiarist’, rather the transformer of art. In this light, originality is not the creation of something out of nothing, but a recreation of something through the own voice of the artist. True originality is not simply being new or different. It is often emerged through repetition, imitation, and reconstruction. What truly matters is how one speaks in their own words.Take Picasso’s often paraphrased quote: “Good artists copy; great artists steal.” This is not an endorsement of plagiarism, but a recognition that great art transforms what it borrows.