February 14, 2007
Literary Collage
I've been a bit slow posting a link to this, but it is too good to pass up.
In the February 2007 issue of Harper's, Jonathan Lethem fires a salvo in the ongoing war between the Creative Commons and the Society of the Spectacle. "The Ecstasy of Influence: a Plagiarism" is an essay on the impact and importance of appropriation in the creative process, and it is itself almost entirely appropriation of the words of others, with a little bit of connective tissue written by Lethem himself. Although it is a patchwork of quotation and appropriation, it is a single, coherent essay on the importance of influence, imitation, copying, and outright plagiarism in the creative process. As such, it is a brilliantly original piece of work.
Because of its nature as a collage, to excerpt quotes is almost to miss the point. Read the whole thing, including the explanation at the end of which part was stolen from whom.
(via Roz Kaveney)
Posted by abostick at February 14, 2007 12:40 PMI love the blog that you have. I was wondering if you would link my blog to yours and in return I would do the same for your blog. If you want to, my site name is American Legends and the URL is:
[embargoed]
If you want to do this just go to my blog and in one of the comments just write your blog name and the URL and I will add it to my site.
Thanks,
David
I have no particular objection to blogwhoring per se, but I strongly object to comment spam. Your comment and blog appear to be sincere, but your means of promoting it is essentially indistinguishable from comment spam. I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt and leaving your comment, but I've edited out your actual URL.
My link policy is simple: To be entered into the blogroll of As I Please, a blogger must either (a) sleep with me; or (b) be mentioned or linked in one of my posts. The information you've presented so far makes me think that (a) is rather unlikely (although I could be wrong). So if you want me to link to you, you need to publish something I'm likely to want to pick up, and you need to bring it to my attention somehow.
I really do wish you success with your blog.
Posted by: Alan Bostick at February 15, 2007 10:12 AM
