Lethem Reading Assignment

Jonathan Lethem's "The Ecstasy of Influence: A Plagiarism" focuses on the question in society whether plagiarism should be considered influence or copying. Possibly, another person's work could be another person's inspiration further suggesting that plagiarism should not be considered copying. We should draw inspiration from each other rather than avoid each other's work. For the essay in particular I chose to look at the section "Usemonopoly," which held a different idea to the word "plagiarism." Basically, usemonopoly as explained in the essay means, "a government granted monopoly on the use of creative rights." Essentially, it is focusing on the idea of original work and the possibility of copyright for that work or business. There were mentions in this section that suggested that in fact copyrighting or plagiarizing someone else's is overall detrimental to society. It takes away the creativeness behind an individual and lets us only depend on each other rather than ourselves. Th overall public may feel negative effects from plagiarizing or the usage of "usemonopoly."

In addition to his argument of "Usemonopoly," Lethem goes into an example involving one of the main gentlemen that helped built America from dirt, Thomas Jefferson. Thomas Jefferson saw plagiarizing an almost needed but should-be-avoided aspect to creativity. It is almost necessary at times to draw inspiration from someone else to truly make your piece of work a masterpiece. We learn from building off of each other's ideas. The use of "usemonopoly" almost coincides with this idea since creativeness only occurs when one draws inspiration. Yet, if plagiarizing could be avoided it should be otherwise we would live in a society where everyone is unoriginal and we would lack advanced innovation.