The illusion of originality: webspinna battle

Originality is something that is strived for by any artist.  Each wants to make her mark in the rapid, ever-expanding world of artistic expression.  Jonathan Lethem in his montage The Ecstasy of Influence discusses how artists, be they authors, painters, or other creators, often find themselves in a debacle when creating a piece of art.  In the fight for originality, the artist can become suffocated by the shear volume of already produced works.  

Indeed, this suffocation could completely choke the artist from creating anything.  How is an author to feel when his magnum opus parallels, almost mirrors, a fictitious tale already written?  Is he then guilty of plagiarism?  What if he had no clue that this tale had already been told?  As Lethem iterates, many artists must come to the conclusion that their art is influenced and in part derived from pre-existing products.  As Carl Jung postulates, there is some merit that mankind has a collective unconsciousness that bleeds across geographical and cultural barriers and marks the influence for so many similar pieces of art.  

Our Webspinna battle is no different.  Although our idea of conflict is somewhat original, the works we use to accomplish our foray are the products of other artists.  We begin with an establishing notion, that Dr. Yellow is the embodiment of happiness, sunshine, dreams, and accomplishments.  Mr. Blue upends this delightful atmosphere by reminding us that the world we live in is full of blue, sour moments; rife with maddening irony; and oftentimes contains experiences we would rather have swept underneath the carpet.  

Dr. Yellow tries to cure our depressed friend, but Mr. Blue convinces us that we each have a monster inside of us, one that is hard to face, and that sometimes this monster gathers other heathens around us.  Mr. Blue also makes clear that no one owns his will but himself and that he is not at all afraid to say ‘NO’!  Exasperated, Dr. Yellow tries desperately to out-compete Mr. Blues repertoire of anti-establishment, reject-driven, and disheartening rhetoric.  

But in the end, both Mr. Blue and Dr. Yellow realize that we are each who we are, even born into these different states of being.  Finding a common ground, we experience at last a harmony worth our attention and focus.  Perhaps the best solution to our characters’ objecting viewpoints is for them to agree to disagree.