To say that not one singular piece of art is wholly original may initially sound completely absurd and unlikely to an audience that is unfamiliar with How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster. Despite this concept seeming irrational, much more logic begins to form when one thoroughly ponders the idea of there being “nothing new under the sun.” Humanity’s imagination is limited to ideas, situations, objects, et cetera that have already been experienced or observed once before in the world. It is the evolution, addition, connection, and sharing of these that make not just art, but also technology, philosophy, and reason.
Foster describes this concept in literature as “one big story”. He is implying that all literature is formed from another piece of literature; Ian Fleming's James Bond series and Homer’s The Odyssey, Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea and The Holy Bible, and many other countless pieces of literature. At first thought, one might not see the connection between the two different yet very similar works of literature, the James Bond series and The Odyssey, but the connection reveals itself when the two texts are closely examined. Both James Bond and Odysseus rely on beguilement and stealth as their vehicle to success, both continually encounter a feminine distraction, and both are well-known masters of combat. Whether he paralleled Bond to Odysseus intentionally or not, Fleming still lacks originality in his writings just as every other author does because of the reliance of previous texts due to the limitation of man’s imagination.
With that being said, one might wonder which pieces of literature or art influenced Homer to create The Odyssey and The Iliad from. That would be the wrong question to ask, however - the more appropriate question would be what in general influenced him, not just what art influenced him. Homer didn’t necessarily concoct his duo of epics that has been apart of the human subconscious from just previous art, but he may have been influenced by nature and society -- the earliest section of the “big story,” -- such as many other contributors to the “big story,” have done. Albert Camus’s philosophical story of a man lacking emotion and motive, The Stranger, was influenced by his views of the “absurd” society that we live in and not directly from another piece of literature. Although The Stranger undoubtedly has been affected by previous literature at least in the slightest of ways, the basis of the story was formed from Camus’s perception of human nature. Camus’s use of his philosophy based on his observations of human nature write a new page into the “big story”. No Country for Old Men is a story that has been influenced heavily by The Stranger, and The Stranger was heavily influenced by how Camus perceived human nature.
Without even realizing it, humans are constantly surrounded by some of the most influential art. For instance, 70.6% of Americans are Christian. The Holy Bible is the basis of Christianity, and there are countless stories of Christ-like figures that go unnoticed by humanity. In Hemingway's The Old Man and The Sea, the main-character has qualities that would categorize him as a Christ-like figure, yet most of the audience is unaware of this parallel. Also The Holy Bible even influences the morals and decisions that a significant portion of the world makes. If someone that is amongst a large Christian community decides that he/she does not wish to indulge in the practices of "witchcraft", most likely it is because these practices are perceived negatively by the words of The Holy Bible. Without recognition by most humans, literature is embedded within everyone's lives, morals, and decisions and all of this has already been written into the "big story".
Every single piece of art is an excerpt from the “big story”. The “big story,” is a metaphorical composition of art and history that eternally records humanity and life and reconstructs it into the form of art. Each one of our ideas, thoughts, or emotions have already been written down in this, and artists are the ones who are able to access the story and present it to the world. What makes an artist great is not their originality, but their ability to delve deep within the “big story” of art and share their findings to whom unawarely created it, life.
