Prompt 2

     I was once asked to come up with a completely new idea that no one has ever thought of before. I

took a moment and I had a few ideas but they all played off of someone else's ideas.  It is impossible

to come up with a completely new idea, everything is linked in some way. "Think of it this way: can

you use a word no one has ever used before"? (Foster 195)  We all are in some way connected by our

thoughts and how we write and even how we talk because we share the same words. Foster explains

to us that writings are related to one another; literature builds off of one another. Writers draw their

inspiration from works they have seen before,  it could be a novel or it could a piece of art. Themes

and plots can bounce between not only authors but artists and song writers. They can take works they

have seen before and put their own twist on it.  We see it in art works frequently and also movies.

Books can work in the same way; shortly after The Hunger Games trilogy came out Divergent and

the Maze Runner also came into fame. Those titles are all spectacular reads but there is a reoccurring

theme among them. What makes literature enticing to readers is how the author can take a general

idea and turn it into a work of their own, changing details and focus points . Artists tend to use

similar themes; they receive inspiration from other works, or creations they have encountered. Each

seemingly adding to one big story.

Comments

  1. Mrs. MacJuly 17, 2017 at 3:56 AM

    I would agree--"Nothing new under the sun." Since King Solomon, since Aristotle, maybe since forever. There is a theory that all ideas, art, thoughts, EVERYTHING, is already encoded in our DNA. Learning and living is just about bringing out these things, or unmasking them. The idea is we already know everything; we have it in us. This is why the Romans use the term "education" from ex-ducere--to lead out. Very interesting to ponder.
    Mrs. Mac

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  2. Mary Madeline GouldJuly 25, 2017 at 3:03 PM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  3. Mary Madeline GouldJuly 25, 2017 at 3:39 PM

    This post reminded me of something I experienced in elementary school. My class was given the task of creating a new invention; at first I completely struggled with this assignment. It seemed like every concept I came up with had already been produced. I like your idea of authors putting "their own twist on it “because that is exactly what one had to understand to complete the assignment. After days and days of brainstorming I finally realized all I could do was alter, in my own way, something that already existed.

    ReplyDelete
  4. UnknownJuly 29, 2017 at 1:11 PM

    Since I began this assignment, I have struggled to ensure that my comments and posts are not too similar to any other AP Lit student’s. However, with such a great number of students discussing the same topics, it is hard to explain an idea that has not already been mentioned, probably by multiple people. I have seen many students build off of the ideas of others. Though this is on a smaller scale, I associate it with the idea that Mrs. Mac brought up, “Nothing new under the sun.” None of our posts are truly original, but they were inspired by the insightful ideas of our peers.

    ReplyDelete

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