In 2020, the TV series called Money Heist gained a lot of popularity. I hopped on the bandwagon and watched a lot of episodes too and saw the main character was a guy going by the name "The Professor" and he was a criminal mastermind, just like Professor Otagburuagu.
I threw my hands up in the air like: I've gone and messed things up! I should have finished writing the Professor Otagburuagu books long ago, now people would think I got the idea for the Professor Otagburuagu character, a criminal mastermind Professor guy from Money Heist's Professor.
Next I thought, well, I wrote some Professor Otagburuagu stories in 2017 and posted them on the blockchain so I'll have proof that I had the idea before Money Heist came along. But just before I could feel good about those thoughts I ran off to check what year Money Heist's first season was released and it was 2017! My fucking God! 😂😂😂
So now I have no proof except my words that: Nope, I didn't get the idea from Money Heist, I only saw or heard about the movie in 2020. And guess what? Some guy I met on my last trip to Abuja told me, while looking at the Professor Otagburuagu book, that it reminds him of some Spanish movie he has a character in some Spanish movie he has watched. I asked, is it Money Heist? He said yes and I threw my hands up in the air again.
Some months ago, I wrote a post with the title: The Idea for the Names Rick and Morty Came from Riggs and Murtaugh from Lethal Weapon. In that post I talked about memory bias and cryptomnesia.
Cryptomnesia occurs when a forgotten memory returns without its being recognized as such by the subject, who believes it is something new and original. It is a memory bias whereby a person may falsely recall generating a thought, an idea, a tune, a name, or a joke, not deliberately engaging in plagiarism but rather experiencing a memory as if it were a new inspiration.
Simply put, it is remembering someone's idea as yours, forgetting completely that you heard it somewhere.
I'm not saying that is what happened to me. I only mention it here to show that I know it exists, so much that I've written about it in the past. And to further talk about other influences that I'm sure influenced the Otagburuagu character. I didn't remember these influences until I thought hard about cryptomnesia and how it may have to do with my book. So here are the influences:
The Influences
Professor Otagburuagu, University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) Lecturer.
For now, when you type "Professor Otagburuagu" on google, the first results would be about a Professor Emeka Joseph Otagburuagu, a professor at UNN. Can you imagine that it was not until I typed Professor Otagburuagu on Google that I realised that I got the idea for the name from this real-life Professor E. J. Otagburuagu!
UNN is my alma mater. I never came across this man but I'm now sure I read textbooks he co-authored when I was in the University. When I was creating my character for the first time, since I love strong African names, my brain dug up Professor Otagburuagu which is one of the strongest Igbo names out there, it means "One who preys on lions".
But when my brain dug up this name I didn't remember at all, for years that I had come across a Professor Otagburuagu in the past, until I googled the name trying to find results of my book. Isn't that really something?
Professor Moriarty
We all probably know Professor Moriarty from the Sherlock Holmes stories. He's a villain and goes against Holmes in many clever ways. I didn't know it at the time or I didn't consciously choose to follow this step while making my character but thinking about it after the book and all I have to admit that Moriarty must have influenced my character in some way. Must have been the reason why my villain is a professor in the first place.
Ancient Chinese Military Advisors
My memory of this is very faint but I remember being really impressed by a recurring character that was an Ancient Chinese military advisor. I saw him in movies I watched when I was an adolescent. I can't remember the names of these movies or the stars in them because it's been very long and I remember I watched them at a time when I watched too many movies at a go 😅. That makes you forget a lot of details about the movies, you know.
But now I'm sure the character was Zhuge Liang (181 – c.September 234), according to Wikipedia:
He was chancellor and later regent of the state of Shu Han during the Three Kingdoms period. He is recognised as the most accomplished strategist of his era, and has been compared to Sun Tzu, the author of The Art of War.
In the movies, he was really good at giving genius war advice and was good at predicting the weather. I'm quite sure this character influenced my forming of Professor Otagburuagu, even though this character is not a villain. as you probably know, Otagburuagu is all about the genius masterplans.
The End.
For those who don't know:
What the Book is About
The Professor Otagburuagu Novella is about Professor Otagburuagu, the middle-aged evil criminal mastermind who abides in the shadows and is sought after by wealthy elite Nigerians who need to consult him for his criminal master plans and evil expertise. An evil elderly gentleman, witty and sharp-tongued. This novella is about a hunt for him by an honest police inspector called Inspector Raymond.
The story is filled with mystery, suspense, smarts, useful information, philosophy and depth, intriguing dialogue, fantasy, sex and a lot of humour. It promises to be thoroughly entertaining and intellectually stimulating
It was written by myself and illustrated by Scandinavian artist @katharsisdrill. You can get the softcopy from me for just 4 HBD.
You can also order the hard copy from anywhere in the world via this link: https://katharsisdrill.art/the-katharsisdrill-shop/professor-otagburuagu/
I'm counting on your patronage, thank you!
I understand that many writers worry about this. Authors who are teachers worry that some idea of theirs was originally one of their student's.I wonder how many authors do as you have done, and try to figure out what their influences actually were.
I've ordered my hardcopy and should receive it soon.
I'm a big-time psychology enthusiast, I like to peep into how the mind works and you can hardly do that without honesty. So that's why I do all these introspection and talk about them.
Thank you so much for your patronage @owasco, cheers! 😃