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I don't think I'm following this thread very well.
It seems that whenever reading a poem that is brilliant and new and full of life, I'm in the presence of original thought--throughts not thunk before!
And certainly when hearing great musical works---they were certainly original---hadn't been in the world before. The first time I ever heard the Mozart clarinet concerto--Richard Stoltzman at the Kennedy Center---I was amazed at what Mozart had brought about two centuries ago. Something original came into being in the universe in that one work, for instance. It sure hadn't been there before. And so is true for all kinds of works of art.
So, I'm not following the debate on this thread at all. I see artists as being fountains of originality--and the problem is when art is unoriginal, cookie cutter art---duplication--nothing fresh--stale, humdrum, unemotional because overdone and hackneyed.
It seems the role of the artist (and I liked here the mentioning, too, of engineers who bring about so much that it new and original) is to take the time she/he lives in and to evoke works, whether written, musical, pictorial, staged, that respond to the time (or other times, who cares!) in an original way. "Make it new!"
OK. If I've completely missed the point of this thread, nothing original there! I'm pretty habitually off-track most of the time anyway.
Best regards,
WonderingWind
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Perhaps the Prince of the Blood, when he opened his mouth and did or did not insult the native Australians was guilty of coming up with an ab-original thought? Just asking ... 
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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The trouble with original thoughts (and things) is you only find out they were original when they are no longer so.
Sometimes it's like with the sources of some big rivers: they disappear underground for a stretch...
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If I've completely missed the point of this thread, nothing original there!I think WordBind has posed a question that we musn't just ignore. what we seem to have here is two disparate threads. the one, and the one to which she alludes, has to do with creativity, not something with which everyone is blessed. the other, certainly more pedestrian, thread (more like a skein, actually) deals with the everyday flow of thoughts, in which we might occasionally pause and think: now that's an original thought. but of course it's nothing new, under the sun. ...I think. http://home.mn.rr.com/wwftd/
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Define creativity. Is it somehow possible that something can be created yet not be original within its own frame? No!
That inversion would render both the concept "creativity" and "originality" without meaning. Listen...
If you choose to play semantics you must follow the logical sequence to conclusion. And the only conclusion possible in any sequence of any words is that words have no ultimate meaning, words have only an evolutionary function.
We play with our dictionaries only to amuse.
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Coincidentally, I stumbled upon a bit of history of the word "orginal", and we seem to be caught between two competing meanings of the word. As I understand it: Original had previously meant something in the nature of innate, as in the phrase Original Sin. The modern usage as newly created originates with John Dryden, Fables, ancient and Modern, (1700). My source is the url below. Can anyone verify this tranmogrification? http://www.smithsonianmag.si.edu/smithsonian/issues02/mar02/presence.html; 2nd paragraph from end. Note to Max: You may find this article interesting as a whole.
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I see artists as being fountains of originality--and the problem is when art is unoriginal, cookie cutter art---duplication--nothing fresh--stale, humdrum, unemotional because overdone and hackneyed. Well, I did once say that I like to have a peaceful relationship with the dead , but, the end of that description started to sound like you were talking about Bach! ...words have only an evolutionary function.This seems to Define creativity quite nicely.
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The concept of Original Sin seems to beg for a nuance of firstness rather than uniqueness. Since this was the first sin, and not among the most grievous; and since all sin is imperfection, or a straying from innocence....then wouldn't original in this sense mean first? Does "uniqueness" then need to be a prerequisite for originality? Or can orginality also simply stand to designate the first of a common thing?
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The concept of Original Sin seems to beg for a nuance of firstness rather than uniqueness.
Why not both? When first, it is, until repeated, unique. In the biblical context, are we not faced with the conundrum of original independent thought equaling original sin? I've seen it argued that the biblical tale is an allegory for humankind's ceasing to be nomadic hunter-gatherers and settling down, raising crops "by the sweat of their brow," becoming husbands of animals (original meaning - nothing kinky implied!) and in that way, i.e. having gained the knowledge necessary to control their environment, they became slaves to the very environment they had mastered.
Now, as for Dub Dub's idea of creativity being original thought, I suspect that Joseph Campbell would have smiled on her idea, and would call the modern artist the equivalent of the ancient Shaman, reconnecting us to others and to the life of the spirit. It also fits with Mircea Eliade's concept of sacred time and profane time, the one circular, the other linear. Creativity exists as circular (sacred) time, but is performed in linear (profane) time.
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