Acknowledgements

[jehane]

I'm currently reading Grimspace by Ann Aguirre. The worldbuilding setup, specifically the nature of interstellar travel, is virtually identical to that of This Alien Shore by CS Friedman, itself inspired by The Game of Rat and Dragon by Cordwainer Smith. Friedman acknowledges Smith as inspiration and it was that acknowledgement that led me to read Smith's work. In other aspects (plot, characters) all three works are quite different.

In your opinion, as readers, should authors acknowledge when they have borrowed specific, key ideas from other works?

[crich70]

Originally Posted by jehane

I'm currently reading Grimspace by Ann Aguirre. The worldbuilding setup, specifically the nature of interstellar travel, is virtually identical to that of This Alien Shore by CS Friedman, itself inspired by The Game of Rat and Dragon by Cordwainer Smith. Friedman acknowledges Smith as inspiration and it was that acknowledgement that led me to read Smith's work. In other aspects (plot, characters) all three works are quite different.

In your opinion, as readers, should authors acknowledge when they have borrowed specific, key ideas from other works?

I think it's a given that all authors borrow a bit from the works of those who came before or (in the case of contemporaries) whose works they have heard about. That is they borrow ideas not whole plot lines, characters, etc. For example if a contemporary author writes about two young people in different groups (gangs, social levels, etc) then he/she is using the same idea as Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet but putting their own spin on the story idea.And I wager if you could ask Shakespeare where he got the idea for Romeo & Juliet that he'd say he got it from someone else's work too. Something he'd read or something he'd heard about. The art of writing isn't just about creating a simulation of reality IMO (within the pages of a story) but is also about taking common elements and rearranging them in a new pattern that hasn't been seen before.

[pwalker8]

Yep. I've read that there are only five original story lines (or some such number). Some authors don't acknowledge getting ideas from other works simply for legal reasons (witness the attempt to sue JK Rowlings some years ago). All in all, I don't really see a purpose to saying where this idea or that came from. It's kind of cool to find out where an author got an idea, but ultimate it's what the author does with the idea that makes the difference.

[Kasper Hviid]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Yep. I've read that there are only five original story lines (or some such number).

It took a bit of search, but I have found that the number of original story lines are 1, 3, 7, 20 and 36:

The "Basic" Plots in Literature