What Do Others Say About Plagiarism?

So this week I wanted to dive into the idea of plagiarism once again. I know that I have been writing about it for the past few weeks, but I feel like I could never really find a line that is created between plagiarism and creativity. 


I came upon a blog post from viget.com entitled Consumption: How Inspiration Killed, Then Ate, Creativity. The writer talks about how as children, we are subject to an intense amount of "inspiration". 

"The misinterpretation of inspiration is bred into our culture. In school we are taught by the examples of others, given information to digest and remember, instead of being handed problems to analyze and interpret on our own. As children we are taught to fear failure and to learn from the mistakes of others instead of experiencing them first hand. Many times curriculums centered around creativity and exploration are pushed out of the way to make room for ones rooted in practical application and applied theory.."

The author wants us to redefine the word "inspiration". Our culture is supposedly rewording this word in many ways. 


In Naldz Graphics, Drawing the Line - Inspiration or Plagiarism the writer discusses how the things around the world are "copied" from nature.

"Things around us are actually copied. The idea of airplanes came from birds. Most of the stuff around us is created through a study of nature. Up to this day, it is a common knowledge that the idea of airplanes was coined from birds. The birds still have the credit. People are not originalist, we are enhancers and developers. That is what Picasso meant by saying good artists copy."

Both of these blogs point out the fact that we are constantly immersed in possible inspirations. However, Viget completely disagrees in using the so called "inspirations" that we have today. Instead, we should be more focused on what it means to be purely creative without being dependent on the visuals around us. Naldz wants the reader to know that even the "Greats" had forms of inspiration that sparked an idea for their creative masterpieces. 


Between these two blogs, it is clear to see the bias over the blog by Viget due to the blogger's career in writing and other creative outlets. Otherwise, both posts stood as informative forms of sharing to others. 


So where do you stand? Is inspiration good, or are we killing our creativity by taking inspiration from around us?


I encourage you to read the two posts that I have linked to this post. They are very informative and shine a new light on this topic that I have been writing about in my posts.