I mentioned this

Chatterbox: Blab About Books

Similarities Among Books
I mentioned this...

I mentioned this before on the LOTR fanpage, but I don't think anyone read it, so I'm going to repeat it again:

Who thinks J.K. Rowling actually borrowed quite a bit from LOTR when writing the Harry Potter series?

Similarities: Ringwraiths/Dementors. The Ring that whispers to Frodo/The Horcruxes that speak to Harry. The fact that the Ring holds Saruon's spirit/The Horcruxes hold the parts of Voldemort's soul. Two gray wizards (Gandalf and Dumbledore) as mentors.

Obviously, Rowling was very original in the whole conception of the wizarding world itself, but it is funny to note the similarities between the two serieses. (Serieses--sounds like a Gollumism!) 

What are some similar things that you've noticed between and among different and unrelated books??? 

submitted by Everinne, age 14, Hogwarts
(February 18, 2014 - 8:56 pm)

back to the Blab about Books

Princess Academy and The Selection. The Selection is pretty much a futureistic version of Princess Academy. I'm not even going to go into detail about what was similar, because there are so many things!

submitted by Ivy
(February 19, 2014 - 12:53 pm)

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submitted by blink, London Eye
(February 19, 2014 - 7:09 pm)

In one of the many Eragon threads on CRR there was a discussion of Eragon vs. Aragorn.  And then Catherine of Aragon (or something like that) was mentioned and it was a bit of a mess.

submitted by Gollum
(February 20, 2014 - 3:38 pm)

I noticed quite a bit of idea-plagiarism in Star Wars from LOTR. For example, both had a father figure who disappeared to who knows where, there are wise men in cloaks who mentor and instruct the main character, the swords/light sabers glow red and blue, etc. I'm sure y'all noticed this, but I consider it crazy that they got away with it. There are tons more if you look it up.

submitted by Pearl, age 13
(February 24, 2014 - 9:11 am)

It's another stereotypical Hero's Journey! Ah, I'm sorry, but I love the Hero's Journey, so I cannot compare two of them and say THEY'RE EXACTLY THE SAME.

I did notice that in both THE ABSOLUTELY TRUE DIARY OF A PART TIME INDIAN and THE ASTONISHING ADVENTURES OF FANBOY AND GOTH GIRL both the main characters think that comics will get them out of their somewhat horrible life. Funny how that never quite works out...

You can't copyright an idea, though, so the idea of light up swords and light sabers can be used. I mean, if they did the exact same thing, and were called the same or almost the same, then we might have a problem...

 

submitted by Theo W.
(February 24, 2014 - 6:08 pm)

I noticed quite a bit of idea-plagiarism in Star Wars from LOTR. For example, both had a father figure who disappeared to who knows where, there are wise men in cloaks who mentor and instruct the main character, the swords/light sabers glow red and blue, etc. I'm sure y'all noticed this, but I consider it crazy that they got away with it. There are tons more if you look it up.

submitted by Pearl, age 13
(February 24, 2014 - 9:12 am)

@ Theo and Pearl:

Yeah, the whole idea of the Hero's Journey goes way, way back to the old, old legends--you could compare Star Wars and LOTR to the sagas of the north and even the tales of King Arthur! It's all just that style of storytelling. I do agree that people can copy shamlessly from LOTR (Eragon is basically LOTR fanfiction in my opinion), but Star Wars isn't that similar. George Lucas took most of his inspiration from old mythology, and so did Tolkein, so there are bound to be similarities. Read Eragon and you'll see how similar it is to both of them--how Paolini got away with it, I have no idea.

@ Gollum: 

Aragorn/Aragon is a sad coincidence of etymology. Eragon is another shameless plagarism; besides being one letter away from "dragon," thus rather threadbare in its origins, Paolini seemed to try to flatter himself that his so-so hero was anything like the wonderful King of Gondor.

submitted by Everinne, age 14, Alagaesia
(February 24, 2014 - 7:29 pm)

I've found a lot of similarities between The Hunger Games and other Dystopias. I have read very few Dystopians where I think: "Wow. Now that was original." I think Uglies and The Hunger Games both deserve a medal for being original. Later Dystopians are very similar. Compare Legend/Hunger Games or Divergent/Legend/Hunger Games. After a while, I get tired of reading because they seem repetitive. 

submitted by Elizabeth, age 14, Germany
(February 26, 2014 - 7:44 am)

I agree. I did read one really excellent one called Proxy by Alex London recently, though. I'm not sure when it was written/published, but it actually felt original.

submitted by Ima, age 15, Texas
(March 5, 2014 - 8:34 pm)