How much originality does one have? A cousin and his wife in their younger years invented a language that could only be understood by them. As original as it might seem, it came from the concept of pillow talk, sharing something intimate between two people.
Have not all melodies been written? Have not all that needed to be said, said? Music is actively borrowed, modified and incorporated by composers of all disciplines. Painters are encouraged to imitate the styles and techniques of the great masters. “Innovation” might be the word to use in place of “originality” when it comes to new work.
Poetry competitions call for “original” poems by one author. After years of learning the English grammar, reading books, hearing and speaking the language, everything I think and write is influenced by something and someone. It makes me nervous to think that my poems might be original. I don’t think they qualify, but I send in some.
Image taken from Klementinum Library, Prague–Czech Republic.
Agreed that “innovation” is a much better word than “originality.” “Innovation” goes very well with Pound’s admirable dictum, “Make it new.” (To innovate is to make something NEW. Unlike the contests you mention, Pound, with reason, didn’t say, “Make it original.”) “Originality” is rooted in what I believe to be the mistaken notion of “individuality”: we are not individuals, monads, undivided entities; we are multiples–ragbags of stuff. We don’t have an “origin”–some simple starting point peculiar to ourselves–but we do have a “history,” some vast tale out of which we are constantly emerging. Time is in our fingertips. Better to recognize that history, not originality, permeates us. If you want to innovate, to make something new, it’s a good idea to know what was already made. Pound understood that a “poet” was (by etymology, by history) a “maker,” so he said, “Make it”–write a poem, be a maker. But, he added, “Make it NEW.”
Okay, but I think more important than making it new is making it well. This requires a tradition, for as Willy wrote:
Irish poets, learn your trade,
Sing whatever is well made,
Scorn the sort now growing up
All out of shape from toe to top,
Their unremembering hearts and heads
Base-born products of base beds.