Whenever we start a new quarter at school, we have to sit there while the professor discusses plagiarism and the consequence of we plagiarize in any of our work. We have heard this talk dozens of times, yet why is plagiarism so frowned upon? In his Harper’s Magazine article The ecstasy of influence: A plagiarism (2007), Jonathan Lethem, an award-winning novelist, studies how, in a way, plagiarism is what has driven society for centuries. Harper’s Magazine is famous for addressing issues and provide perspectives and narratives on politics, culture, and society. As Lethem writes, we are constantly reusing ideas. For example, most, if not all, of the most popular cartoon shows on television today would have never come about had it not been for similar shows in the past. In today’s society, second-use and reuse are common, and we are constantly reshaping and rethinking the ways in which something is used.
When looking at plagiarism, it is crucial to discuss the notion of intellectual property. How are we to decide what ideas are property and what is trivial? Does something have to be copyrighted in order to be intellectual property? With the availability of technology today, as Lethem points out, even ideas that are considered intellectual property are becoming less and less like property. If I wanted to, I could Google a particular song and download it illegally from the internet. Within a matter of minutes, the song would be mine, and the odds are that the artist got the idea for some of the lyrics from the song from another artist and that artist got it from another and so on.
In general, I, like Lethem, believe that plagiarism is not always a bad thing, but rather that second-use is crucial to our social sustainability. While reading this article, at times I found Lethem’s writing to be off-topic and bit lengthy, but over all I enjoyed this article.
While I do believe that there should be a limit to plagiarism, I have to give plagiarism credit…after all, without it, I might not be sitting here typing this blog entry on a Macbook, listening to a cover of “Let it Be” by the Beatles.
Grace,
I agree with you that plagiarism isn’t always a bad thing. When you think about it, almost everything is plagiarized, even the words we speak were not originally “ours” as Lethem points out. With this being said, plagiarism is very hard to control.
Nice way to wrap up the blog with Beatles example….
Where would we be without covers?
So true…
I agree with Lethem being a bit off topic and lengthy. Although some of his points were valid after a while it just seemed a bit repetitive.
I really enjoy your entry. The last little bit is so true. Who knows where society would be without traces of plagiarism.