On Authorship, Appropriation & Killing Your Muse

One of the topics to come up in the lecture was the idea of the death of authorship - that everything has been said already. I find this especially interesting in the context of finally having read my husband's blog from last night. I am going to reiterate here exactly what I told him, because this is really really important for artists to hear.

You should never censor yourself for fear that what you have to say has been said already. A lot of things have been said already. A lot of things have been done already. That doesn't mean that they are no longer worthy of pursuit or of comment.

Much of that which has been previously explored may be so obscure that a vast majority of people have never been exposed to it at all. Those ideas may as well have been lost. By not adding your insights for fear that someone has had them before you are potentially depriving others from seeing them at all.

So please don't be afraid to add your two cents, even if it may seem overly redundant. You probably see things at least somewhat differently than others who have had similar ideas. For all that there could be hundreds of Hwacha superheroes out there, there will likely only be one exactly like your own.

If you were an artist, you'd be looking for another career path as you are killing your muse!

So, to all of you artists out there, don't fall victim to the idea that there is nothing worthwhile left to say. Do not kill your muse!