"I doubt if they would have understood our demand for originality or valued those works in their own age which were original any the more on that account. If you had asked Lazamon or Chaucer, 'Why do you not make up a brand-new story of your own?' I think they might have replied (in effect) "Surely we are not yet reduced to that?' Spin something out of one's own head when the whole world teems with so many noble deeds, wholesome examples, pitiful tragedies, strange adventures, and merry jests which have never yet been set forth quite so well as they deserve? The originality which we regard as a sign of wealth might have seemed to them a confession of poverty. Why make things for oneself like the lonely Robinson Crusoe when there is riches all about you to be had for the taking? The modern artist often does not think the riches is there. He is the alchemist who must turn base metal into gold. It makes a radical difference."
(The Discarded Image, pp. 211-212)
This completely changed the way I look at literature. A story doesn't necessarily have to be original to be worth telling. I'm reminded of epics like the Iliad, Odyssey, Beowulf, Paradise Lost. The authors didn't create the stories; they simply found compelling ways to tell them.
I especially love the one sentence, "Spin something out of one's own head when the whole world teems with so many noble deeds, wholesome examples, pitiful tragedies, strange adventures, and merry jests which have never yet been set forth quite so well as they deserve?" Totally inspiring.
Challenge accepted.
