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MUTATION

                                                      February  2, 2005
An interesting aspect of
popular series fiction         (as opposed to
is that it changes through      serious fiction)
the gradual accumulation
of small innovations.
                             TWISTING_SHADOWS
   A new work is
   usually intended to
   be only a minor
   variation on the old...

In contrast, in the world
of high art, it often                Odd exception: in the
seems that an author is              graphics art world,
expected to produce a new            an artist is expected
work that will be a break            to crank out a large
with history, a totally              number of variations on
new creation, a thing unto           a theme, re-working the
itself.                              same basic idea.
                                                                    
In the Literary realm, it's                Though there's a more    
defnitely frowned upon to "write           extreme example:         
the same novel" over and over with         architects, expected to       
only minor changes, but in popular         be members of a "school".     
fiction that's precisely what is                                         
rewarded.                                      That weird criticism     
                                               of Gaudi: one man        
   Even worse in Literary                      trying to do the work    
   literature would be using                   of a generation.         
   someone else's work as a                                             
   precise template for your                                           
   work.                        
                                                BETWEEN_SOUL_AND_FATE
   But this is precisely how
   popular fiction works...     
                               
   Evolution, not revolution.

   Novelty produced only
   gradually, without much
   direct emphasis on            GHOSTS_OF_THE_SHADOW
   the need to be new...



   We might use the "X-Men" as an
   example of slowly mutating art...

      BRAND_X


                                            Interesting thing about
                                            "mutate"... it's an
                                            inherently passive verb.

                                                   You don't go out
                                                   and mutate something.

                                                      It just happens.

                                                  UNINTENDED



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