Unique creations

This blog entry was inspired by this trailer. "You can achieve immortality simply by doing one great thing." (0:50-1:00)

It seems nearly impossible to create anything really special. Of course, every creation is unique. Take this blog entry, for example. This combination of words has never been written before, which makes it unique in a way. But is it really so different from the billions of other blog entries that can be found on the Web? I don't think so. Still, every creation is of value to someone, like the author/designer and/or a select few (s)he likes to share his/her creation with. This is often sufficient. For example, when I write a short story for a special someone, it needs be special only to that person, or maybe also to myself. Were I to somehow publish this same story, only a very tiny percentage of the world's population would find it even remotely interesting, or would not even understand it.

On the other hand, if you really wish you create something that millions of people would enjoy/love, you need to make something truly unique. You need to add new elements to whatever it is you're creating for it to really appeal to people. Of course something familiar yet different (but without new elements) can be appealing to some people, but these creations offer fleeting entertainment. I'm talking about something people will talk about for years, or even decades: something truly unique.

Take writing a book (my personal dream). Write any kind of thriller and you will find it virtually impossible to add anything truly new. This doesn't mean it can't be a good thriller, but it will always have dozens of familiar elements. Fantasy and science fiction grant you more options, such as creating an entirely new fictional universe, even though it may bear a resemblance to Middle Earth or the Star Trek universe, for example. But thinking up such a universe, including a wealth of detail to make the world seem truly alive and real, is quite the challenge to say the least. And of course you will have to write an amazing and unique story set in that world for it to be truly appealing to great numbers of people.

This is true for many things. Any work of art will be unique but still bear a (close) resemblance to other works of art. A song can be good, but it could also be referred to as "absolutely genius" by critics and fans around the world. The boundary of "unique" vs "truly unique and enormously appealing" is always present, and it takes a person of considerable skill to defy this boundary and create something people will still talk about, say, fifty years from now.

It also takes a person with a certain mindset to want to create something like this. There are many people in the world who don't strive to create something they will be remembered by. For many it is enough to be remembered only by their friends and family, for example. Others don't even think about this and just enjoy life, thus thinking about the now instead of the future. But for some, and I count myself among them, the challenge of creating - or doing, but this may also happen spontaneously - something truly unique, something that will earn you immortality, that will inspire others in years to come, is something that is on their mind constantly, daring them to come up with just one thing that will earn them a place among the great.
Unfortunately, most of them will fail utterly.

Thus the sweeter the taste of victory will be for the ones who do manage to fulfil their dream.