In 1892, deafblind Helen Keller was accused of plagiarizing Margaret Canby’s “Frost Fairies” with her short story, “The Frost King.”
After being acquitted, Mark Twain wrote her a letter of support.
(Source: Mark Twain’s Letters, Vol. 2 of 2; Photo and excerpt, via.)
… Oh, dear me, how unspeakably funny and owlishly idiotic and grotesque was that “plagiarism” farce! As if there was much of anything in any human utterance, oral or written, except plagiarism!
The kernel, the soul — let us go further and say the substance, the bulk, the actual and valuable material of all human utterances — is plagiarism.
For substantially all ideas are second-hand, consciously and unconsciously drawn from a million outside sources …
– Mark Twain
As an entrepreneur and artist — forget that, as a human-being — I simply improve upon existing ideas just as how Facebook toppled Myspace and Myspace over Friendster and so forth.
There is, alas, no originality. We are amalgamations of everything we see, eat and are exposed to. Perhaps, I did add my tiny personal touch, but I am still a result of everything before me.
Twain continued in the letter …
In 1866 I read Dr. Holmes’s poems, in the Sandwich Islands. A year and a half later I stole his dedication, without knowing it, and used it to dedicate my “Innocents Abroad” with.
Then years afterward I was talking with Dr. Holmes about it. He was not an ignorant ass — no, not he; he was not a collection of decayed human turnips, like your “Plagiarism Court;”
And so when I said, “I know now where I stole it, but whom did you steal it from,” he said, “I don’t remember; I only know I stole it from somebody, because I have never originated anything altogether myself, nor met anyone who had.”
Copycat? Yeah … and I’m okay with that for we all are. We can’t unlearn something learned. So, I guess the question — if you’re interested — is whom you copied from.
Sincerely yours,
Lawrence Chan
P.S. My Pinterest WordPress Plugin project is near completion. I intend to get it soon. Follow for updates!
Fascinating! : )
Thank you for making me think. Loved this post.
LOVE the kitty cat picture also. Will try to pin it right this second.
Lawrence, I’m about to plagiarize. I know not from whom, but I know I got this idea from someone else.
There are two types of creativity. Original, and collaborative. (I know those aren’t the words he used, but it’s as close as I remember.)
Original creativity is coming up with something completely new. It’s pulling an idea “out of thin air”, or being insipred to come up with a new idea, business model, marketing technique, pose, photography style, etc. After reading your above article, I fully agree that even original creativity is strongly influenced by the things around us. It may be a new, unique idea, but it is still affected by our surroundings.
Collaborative creativity is taking two or more already known ideas and bringing them together in a new way. It’s seeing two things that haven’t been put together before, and combining them to make something altogether new and unique. It’s taking a lighting style from one photographer and using it on a pose from another photographer, it’s taking some of your marketing techniques and combining it with something from Seth Godin and Tim Sanders and coming up with a brand-new killer marketing idea, it’s putting sea salt on a chocolate caramel apple, it’s…. The list goes on. It’s taking two or more common things and using them together in a way that makes something new, and in many cases, even better (especially the sea salt caramel apple!).
Some people are great at one and poor at the other. For example, I’m pretty good at collaborative creativity, but pretty bad at original creativity. Others are very good at coming up with new ideas (original creativity) but have a hard time putting multiple ideas together to create something new (collaborative creativity).
Focus on your strong creativity, but don’t forget to work on your weaker one too!