Less Than What Meets The Eye

When someone’s words are quoted I expect them to be profound and insightful or, failing that, witty and memorable. There are some authors, La Rochefoucald is one, who are quoted so often that one wonders whether their entire output consists of quotations. On the other hand, there are some quotations which impress initially but, upon closer examination, turn out to be underwhelming.
One such is by noted film director Pedro Almodovar and appears in Paul Theroux’s travel book Ghost Train to the Eastern Star. Almodovar is quoted as saying ” Anything that is not autobiography is plagiarism.” When I first read it, I immediately thought of John Steinbeck who was of the opinion that a writer could not write about anything that he had not personally experienced, a stricture that he himself observed for the most part. Then I thought about the quote a little more and began to revise my opinion.
To begin with , plagiarism is a strong word to use in this context. There is very little that is truly original. No matter whether it is films, plays, books or any other artistic endeavor, it is usually influenced by what has already been done, sometimes strongly , other times not. For instance, Hunger Games undoubtedly has its roots in Shirley Jackson’s short story masterpiece ” The Lottery”, but it has completely transformed the original premise.( There are other discernible influences too, but I won’t go into that here.)
Also, many of today’s blockbusters are set in the future or the distant past, and often feature superheroes. Obviously, they have nothing to do with autobiography; just as obviously, they are not plagiarism. If writers and other artistes were to confine themselves to what they have experienced first hand, theirs would a very limited palette and it would soon become very boring. In my opinion, only something that is reproduced exactly can be termed as plagiarism.
On this topic of quotes, I couldn’t help thinking about Ashleigh Brilliant( born 1933), the author, syndicated cartoonist and sometime professor of history who has been dubbed the world’s ” only full time professional epigrammist.” Brilliant ( he says that his real name) conceived the idea of putting down his thoughts in short, pithy sayings of seventeen words or less, copyrighting them and charging a fee for those who wanted to use them. He was not shy about claiming copyright infringement and taking his case to the courts; a judge sided with him on the grounds that his sayings were epigrams and could therefore be copyright restricted. David Brinkley once paid him $ 1,000 because he had unknowingly used one of Brilliant’s epigrams in the title of a book. Brilliant hawks his epigrams in a variety of forms including T-shirts, postcards, caps, card-sets, mugs , magnets etc. You can get a fuller list of his products from his website. For myself, I am impressed by Brilliant’s chutzpah but not by his epigrams. Very, very few of his sayings are profound and most of them exhibit a cynicism and brittle sense of humor that leave me cold. In my opinion, Brilliant is not brilliant.