Lethem post response

Thanks for trying out this experimental blog post assignment with me. I wasn’t sure what you might find, but some of you had very insightful things to say about the differences between Lethem’s concerns and those of his sources. Of course, the purpose of this assignment was twofold: one, I wanted you to begin to familiarize yourselves with library research tools, and two I wanted you to continue to work on your close reading skills, particularly your ability to make connections while simultaneously drawing distinctions. I hope that, in addition to looking for the title of the source that Lethem used, you spent a bit of time trying to figure out where you might locate that source. It sounds like some of you were able to find books and articles online, but I’d also encourage you to find out where you can go in the library to get physical copies of such things, since not everything you’ll want to research will be available online. We’ll work on that more when we hear a Rutgers research librarian’s guest lecture in October. Regarding close reading, I think you all would benefit from even greater specificity when you explain the significance of a quotation. Rikab and Gabby both make interesting connections in their posts. Rikab focuses on a passage that describes how the project of the intellectual is to combine material in interesting ways like those in Borges’s short story about the Library of Babel. What stands out here is that Rikab extends the connection to think about its broader significance to Lethem’s point about the intellectual “commons”: originality is not the goal, communication and connection is. One could take it a step further to consider the applications of this standard beyond artistic production, especially since the original source is talking about medical research. What are the stakes of intellectual property for a field like medicine, where sharing information could potentially save lives? Pointing out distinctions, such as those between artistic production and scientific research, puts you into a better position when you’re trying to explain the significance of a connection. In your blog posts and your papers, you should be answering the question “so what?” Why does this point matter? For instance, is Lethem pointing out the absurdity of treating ideas as property by drawing a comparison between ideas and physical objects? What does it mean to “own” an idea? Is it even possible to be original, according to Lethem?