Flamboyant Shades of Imitation
Let it be "Life for Art's Sake"
Life resembles art because art is the highest form of the incarnation of our existence. Art is able to make unique moments ideal, as it leaves their essence, frozen and imperishable. That is how the followers of aestheticism would think, admiring paintings, listening to music, reading books in their make-believe shrine far from Reality.
Why cannot we break this charmed cycle of imitation? Is it possible to create a pure art form, not dependent on the precise source of inspiration? Let us immerse in the chain of reflections, trying to catch forever-changing muses and look into their dazzling eyes.
There is no More Desperate Imitator than a Devoted Reader
Are you a bookworm, and traveling through the pages is your favorite leisure? Then I bet you attempted to write something so dramatic, powerful, and meaningful, but it often resulted in sheer imitation of the author you admire. Though it is difficult to find such a desperate word lover who memorizes the whole prose passages, many people, being impressed by a certain book, wrote their own prose in some kind of exaltation, not noticing that they were stealing the ideas they simply liked so much. Hence, you should be able to separate this subconscious desire to imitate from inspiration. Being inspired means being ready to create something unique on your own. Inspiration should be a stimulus to expose your inner world, all your hidden talents; it should make you realize that if another person could be so ingenious in his or her thoughts, then you are also able to achieve this level, but it must be Your Level, it has nothing to do with a stranger’s self-expression. Yes, every author is a stranger, we know nothing about their true reality, we are able to delve into their books, but not into their souls, which are purely individual just like your energy, just like your potential. I am sure even if words are repeated and forgotten ideas become new, every person is able to create something original – you just have to be as unbiased as possible. Ideally, every time you have to write something you must forget about everything you know for sure, destroy all the stereotypes you have, perceive facts as something relativistic – create your own facts, play with reality, do not be afraid to distort your usual perception of the order of things in the context of both microcosm and macrocosm.
Someone said Originality does not exist. Well, it does. It’s like painting: you use the existent colors and hues, they are the same, and it only matters what you paint: if you look at a canvas not knowing what your imagination will create and you suddenly start creating (not looking at other paintings, not even thinking about them) like some cosmic energy gently moves your hand: that’s when Originality emerges. That’s a no-brainer: you tend to plagiarize when you struggle to find your own ideas and directly search for the sources to look at in the process of your feigned creativity. Be sincere with yourself: read books, go to art galleries, listen to intellectual movies, and seek inspiration for the sake of that Inner Insight that opens your eyes and, like the Muse, whispers into your ear: See Your Own Path.
What If Your Intentions Are to Copy Others...
If you plagiarize intentionally, the main cause of plagiarism is Laziness. You simply neglect to learn more about the notion of plagiarism and ways to avoid it. If you are eager to steal the ideas of others, it entails you are reluctant to think on your own, to develop the mastery of thinking and embody compelling ideas by means of gaining knowledge and profound analysis of everything you have learnt. Even if we easily memorize something that inspires us, we shouldn’t be tempted to imitate (though imitation is a part of learning) – we should nurture the creative genius within to produce unique brainchildren. How to avoid plagiarism? If you write something, rely on your inner Muse, forget about all those alluring Internet resources, stop Googling information, find it in your mind! Of course, it’s likely that you will discover the ideas invented by someone even inside your mind, but your intellectual mechanism is able to interpret them anew, which will make your ideas original. In this case, I am talking about the general creative process, not a research, which requires the vast investigation of the necessary resources. If you have to cite the authors in your work, simply don’t forget to do it, and cite them properly. Apparently, your work can’t consist of mere citing, so again, your quintessential task is Profound Analysis of all the information you intend to elucidate. It is also reasonable to use plagiarism checkers even if you know that your ideas are original. These scanners usually help me to see certain clichés I’d rather avoid in my writing, so I replace clichéd phrases by more inventive ones. It’s funny that plagiarism in art and literature is partly (and intentionally) present, even when copyright issues are not involved. You just have to belong to some literary organization, peculiar poets’ club, or creative brotherhood, just recollect The Parnassians or The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood – the latter used very similar themes in their paintings, so an inexperienced beholder will likely confuse Dante Gabriel Rossetti with John Everett Millais. Probably, if you don’t want to be accused of plagiarism, you should be a genius in a circle of eccentric soulmates.
Teach Yourself to be Authentic or Find Your Seamless Teacher
Sometimes, you can become your own teacher and apprentice (I command all alter egos to wake up and work!) when you put your mind in the right cosmic tune. However, you must do it only when you realize that an untold story fills your whole essence as a deep ocean full of wonders and secrets. For instance, I’ve always been fascinated by fine arts but I haven’t developed the ability to paint on my own. Nevertheless, I have a precious ability to Imagine astonishing picturesque storylines. If I can imagine all these whims, why can’t I create them? I lack practice, some knowledge of artistic techniques, but if I learn it, I will be able to produce a work that is currently in my head. Anyway, if I had learned to paint without using imagination, my pictures would have been technically good but unremarkable, they wouldn’t have conveyed any specific meaning. It’s likely that the works produced without the creative potential are pale imitations of the existent paintings, they don’t reflect your inner world and they lack a certain profound quintessence that lives, breathes, and tells a marvelous story. While I tried to be inspired when writing it, my routine tasks absorbed and slightly chewed my creative ego while procrastination took over me, so I can only confess that I’m still not able to paint like Jacek Yerka, alas! I managed to play my piano today, recollecting some old pieces by Tchaikovsky and cried together with “Dido’s Lament” by Purcell (in the process, I was incessantly imagining outlandish realms and eerie creatures I can paint in my head or using eloquent words when a wayfaring Muse slaps me in the face…) If creativity is something that can be taught, then I’d like to meet my dear Art-Armored Teacher, one of the Serapion Brethren, one of the rarest kind…
The Paradox of Creative Plagiarism
Paul Gauguin once said, “Art is either plagiarism or revolution.” If to think globally, we all plagiarize unintentionally because we still haven’t discovered that incredible potential to express ourselves in a totally unique way. The only idea of the absolute originality is utopian as we have to wake up every day with a fantastically revitalized mind always ready to invent new words and suggest state-of-the-art ideas. But if every human being could speak an individual language every day, then how could people share these unique ideas with each other? So if to exaggerate the whole notion of plagiarism, it appears to be that we all plagiarize because our intellectual resources are limited. Then yes, on the one hand, if we create something, there’s always some kind of relative plagiarism because our creations are based on the ideas of all those writers, inventors, artists, and other great minds that inspire us. On the other hand, we shouldn’t forget a popular saying “Great minds think alike”. If we weren’t inspired by certain philosophies and inventions, we wouldn’t contribute to their development and advancement in the future. Creative people of different epochs unite in this incessant chain of human Imagination. What would humanity create if history didn’t repeat itself? That is why being inspired by someone’s ideas in order to create something unique from the point of view of self-expression and individual Imagination is not plagiarism.
What If a Robot Completed the Academic Essays You Hate Writing
Artificial Intelligence was created by humans, and despite all science fiction scenarious and neurophysiological predictions, it is slightly strange to imagine that it will surpass our thinking one day. To make a conscious robot full of "original ideas", you should be a genius scientist working with complex patterns of artificial brains. That is a question for robotics, actually. For instance, to write a seamless critical essay or at least a short story with suitable characters, this AI must resemble androids from Westworld. Nowadays, AI writes poetry and it even sounds meaningful sometimes (well, absurdism can also be profound)… well, I am sure AI can already write not complex essays, but since those tasks do not simply follow a certain structure but also require a thorough investigation, there are doubts whether AI is able to write well, imitating the skills even of an average student: your professor will definitely know that the essay wasn’t written by you, it will still reflect a written work accomplished by a machine. Perhaps, such essay-writing AIs will be widely available in the future, but I do not assune we will benefit from it. We are already degrading in some way because of the ubiquitous information pressure, the abundance of it… We lose focus, we read books more seldom, we are more lazy to express our ideas in writing… We will soon forget what our handwriting looks like. We, as students, learn writing research papers to train analytical, critical thinking, and narrative skills, which are valuable in the adult world, which can help us get an inspiring creative job, transform our knowledge into something bigger like writing books... I don't know about you, but I can’t get used to the idea that computers will be able to accomplish almost everything instead of us. It is dangerous primarily for our intellectual development. The predictions of science fiction authors related to AI have had harsh consequences. I don’t want some AI to think instead of me, even while writing an essay. I can understand that you may hate academic writing or any kind of technical writing because those tasks are usually boring, seem to be useless… This way, it is essential to study what you like or to have a job that motivates you: then you will not crave for an opportunity to shift responsibility onto the writer-robot…
Contemplate the World Around You, Dive into Your Inner Realms…
It’s very beneficial to read classic literature… I still have not found modern authors who are so insanely eloquent and imaginative as Gustav Meyrink, E.T.A. Hoffmann, Ray Bradbury, Herman Hesse, and Edgar Poe, of course, not to mention many others… Such High literature has Soul, and it greatly enhances your Imagination. Write short stories and poetry as well. Besides, you’ll become extremely imaginative if you listen to creative music, such as art or progressive rock, jazz, world music (and its incredible fusions), as well as classical music where you can also find some astonishing avant-garde. If you want to get creative, just remember once and for all that your perfect imaginative friend is Art! Immerse in art, create art, be Art!
