Yatterings

Jonathan Lethem is really growing on me. I’ve heard him read and interviewed for a magazine. I especially like his non-fiction - it rises off the page and sings like a slightly mad Bob Dylan. Perhaps Dylan isn’t a bad metpaphor since Lethem uses “old style” tech like printed paper books and “new style” tech like the Internet (like Dylan’s use of acoustic and electric guitars).

Anyhow, he’s written a fantastic essay on copyright and plagiarism over at Harper’s. Titled with a play on Bloom’s Anxiety of Influence Lethem comfortably shows how creativity is influenced by outside sources. He ends with  a clarion call to share the vision but not to pirate the actual work. Perhaps here is the key, the difference between sharing the original source (and acknowledging it) as oposed to plainly ripping off (which to my mind is plain ignorant) another artist. To illustrate his point he has a list of his influences on the essay at the foot of the page.

Perhaps the Bloom vision of artists perpetually in conflict with their influences can be overturned into a series of hugs towarsd those influences? It would be intriguing.

I can recommend The Disappointment Artist which contains his essay on Philip K Dick amongst other writings.