Derivatives of the Past in the Present

 

derivative - noun - something based on another source; adj. - imitative of a work of another person and  criticized for that reason.

Perhaps this entry will eventually strike you as derivative as I have certainly spent time on the subject of plagiarism in the past (notably on April 2nd). But for whatever reason, derivatives or perhaps just unheralded references to past creative achievements keep coming up over and over again in the present, twice in two weeks for me. 

Occasion 1: Two Mondays ago, my book club decided on meeting via Zoom because one of the members was able to cajole the author of the contemporary novel we had just read to join the on-line discussion since he had graduated from the high school in which the majority of us had taught English and actually had two of us (but not me since I had been instructing on the middle-school level at that time) as teachers. His book–not exactly a best seller, but well written and timely–the New York Times and Washington Post had reviewed favorably. If you go back to my entry dated April 2 ("Allusion as Homage versus Plagiarism") and reread parts of it, you'll be able to obtain some necessary backstory. As mentioned in the previous article, on the first page of his fictitious work that ironically centers on the theme of plagiarism, he alludes to the plot of Poe's "Masque of the Red Death," but seemingly for no real reason. Curious as to why he would do something like that, I asked him. Guess what? He had never read Poe's classic short story and had NO IDEA that the plot reference was not completely original. In short, he had "borrowed" from the past out of sheer ignorance. Yet what was even more surprising was that I was the only member of the erudite club who was quite shocked that he, his agent, or anyone in his publishing house (or the Times or Post) could have possibly bypassed something that seemed so obvious to me or anyone who paid attention in seventh-grade language arts when the narratives of Poe were introduced. One of my arrogant colleagues simply said, "Well, Poe's is a common plot line (is it?). I'm sure that he took the idea from another author himself." Really? I doubt it. (According to Wikipedia, Poe alludes to another writer's use of a castle as a setting and a character's name but not to the plot.) Writers in the nineteenth century had more education, imagination, and integrity than they have today.

Occasion 2: This morning, my daughter, a close friend, her daughter and I found ourselves escaping the unseasonable heat at the local AMC. The second installment of the PBS series Downtown Abbey has found its way onto the big screen. While we were watching, I picked up on more derivative material. For one, the character of Carson, the former butler at the estate, quoted Oscar Wilde's Wagnerian antagonist Lady Bracknell precisely at one point, yet perhaps intentionally since a majority of the British viewers might actually recognize the allusion from reading The Importance of Being Earnest in public school (which is private there). No one would pick up on the reference here (except my former students and I wouldn't put any money down on the table that they would) although I did notice that most laughed since Wilde's 19th century humor is perennial. Yet what should have been blatantly apparent to the American audience was the Downton writers' imitation of scenes from the movie version of the stage play, Singing in the Rain. Even the costuming in the scenes involving the filming and recording of a sound movie seemed to be copied precisely from the Gene Kelly classic. Were the producers of Downtown Abbey paying homage to the musical or just counting on the widespread immaturity and lack of cinematic knowledge of the audience? It is hard to say. And quite frankly, I don't even want to think about it. 

Without sounding like Bill Maher, I think the creative community in this country needs a bit more education between its ears. Writers and publishers as well as screenplay authors should have enough knowledge of the past so that they don't repeat it directly, intentionally or unintentionally. They should strive to produce original works as opposed to regurgitated copies. Even those who "fictionalize" their friends' true tales of life experience should at least change the settings and names of the characters so that they transcend "auto-fiction," the new norm when it comes to composing fiction. Doing the right thing can never be wrong. And if allusion is the objective, perhaps credit should be given to the originators so that the clueless understand that they are absorbing something of the past in the present. 

#word-to-words, #spilled thoughts, #vocabulary, #good advice, #personal essay, #vocabulary