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MUTATION

                                      February  2, 2005
An interesting aspect of
popular/pulp/series fiction      
is that it changes through       (as opposed
the gradual accumulation         to serious 
of small innovations.            fiction?)  

   A new piece 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,                   Though there's a more            
it's defnitely frowned                   extreme example:         
upon to "write the same                  architects, expected to  
novel" over and over with                be members of a "school".
only minor changes, but                                
in popular fiction that's                    That weird criticism    
precisely what is                            of Gaudi: one man    
rewarded.                                    trying to do the work
                                             of a generation.     
   Even worse in Literary                                             
   literature would be using                 
   someone else's work as a                                      
   precise template for your                    BETWEEN_SOUL_AND_FATE
   work.                                        
                                                       
   But this is precisely how                 
   popular fiction works...                     
                                                                     
   Evolution, not revolution.                
                                                                      
   Novelty produced only                     
   gradually, without                                        
   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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