In modern day society, it seems like the same ideas are recycled over and over again. In recent media, for young adults especially, original ideas seem to be few and far between. When one thinks of the greatest novels of all time, most, if not all, do not appear in this century. In film, things are a bit different, as we have progressed huge amounts in visual effects over the past ten years or so. But even with these advancements, the ideas themselves are overall redundant.

 The question of originality brings up a lot of different questions. Is it gone, or did it even exist to begin with? Are we just reusing the same ideas that were created the beginning of time, only presented in a different way? This is where people tend to differ on their opinions. I believe that while originality may be lacking in our current media, it does exist. Originality is not from the idea itself, but in the different ways these ideas are presented. Think about it. Most romance movies use the same basic principle: boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy wins girl back. It is not a new principle, but movies that use this old idea and shape it into something new are the ones that become classics. Gil Junger’s 10 Things I Hate About You uses the classic romantic storyline, and is also based off of a famous Shakespearean play, but its satirical outlook and witty dialogue are what makes it stand out against the crowd.

 Novels are an entirely different story. When I step into the young adult section at a bookstore, for which I am the target audience, I find it extremely difficult to find something new to read. By “new” I mean not the same dystopian theme that has run rampant through this particular section of literature in recent years. It seems that since the first Hunger Games novel was released, readers have not been able to escape it. With every book, and its eventual movie adaptation, it gets worse and worse. This has been shown by going from Hunger Games, to Divergent (whose movies slowly grew worse and worse), to The Maze Runner (which, again, the novels and the films got worse as one went along), and on and on. Junior Daniel Harrison said, “It seems like I see the same things over and over again lately. I want to be able to see a movie or buy a book without feeling like I have heard it all before.” Is it too much to ask for a series as great as Harry Potter to come along again? There has not been a series since that can match up. I realize we cannot expect all novels to reach to Rowling’s success, but currently, nothing seems to come even close.

 So, is originality dead? No, not completely. It definitely appears to be in a slump, but all it takes is one author, director, or creator to break the mold and create something new.