Michael Dimaculangan
Professor Ann Ilan Alter
Expository Writing 101
14 September 2017
The Right to be Influenced
Growing up, as students, we were all told to “never plagiarize” and to “always create original pieces of work” from our teachers or parents. Plagiarism can be defined as “the practice of taking someone else's work or ideas and passing them off as one's own”. Most students wouldn’t want to risk receiving a failing grade on an assignment or being scolded by their parents just for plagiarizing another person’s work. Because of this fear, students would “walk on thin ice” while working on assignments to make sure that they’re work doesn’t resemble another piece of work already created. However, Jonathan Lethem provides a different point of view on the act of plagiarism in his article “The Ecstasy of Influence: A Plagiarism”. Lethem attempts to persuade the audience to live in a mindset different from the one where plagiarism is a fear. He believes that as opposed to rejecting other people’s ideas in order to create our own, we should become inspired by other people’s ideas to create our own and to appropriate accordingly.
For someone to find originality and to be able to create their own work, they need to become inspired first. An idea comes from an experience or a thought that changes or challenges one’s current mindset. Lethem understands this concept and states that, “Finding one’s voice isn’t just an emptying of and purifying of oneself of the words of others but an adopting and embracing of filiations, communities, and discourses” (214). For example, basketball enthusiasts will watch the NBA and copy their favorite player’s signature moves. Some enthusiasts will not only try to replicate one style, but they’ll try to grab bits and pieces from different players in order to create a play style of their own. Basketball players at local parks can be seen attempting crazy layups to be like Kyrie Irving, or they will try to make basketball shots thirty five feet from the basketball rim to show they have “limitless range” like Stephen Curry. These local players wouldn’t attempt these moves unless they got the idea from watching these NBA players perform them, or watching NBA players perform variations of the move so that the local players could put their own twist on it. They do this because they admire the look of the move and want to be able to perform the move itself to receive that same type of admiration. If replicating someone’s style can be seen as normal in the basketball community, why not in the art community? An artist should be able to view a work of art and become inspired from it. An artist may view a painting of the streets of New York City and admire the chaos illustrated by it from the thousands of walking pedestrians, to the bright lights, and to the “bumper-to-bumper” cars. That artist should be able to notice what makes that painting so captivating and create something similar. For example, since the artist admired the idea of the chaos illustrated in New York they can create a view of the deep sea ocean floor where millions of fish of different species can be seen going in different directions, different objects lying abandoned on the ocean floor, and various plants of size and color. The artist has created a completely different painting but they still get the same admiration because of the idea planted in the painting. Originality comes from becoming inspired first and this should be seen as normal practice. However, this isn’t seen as normal as plagiarism has a bad connotation associated with it in the art or music industry. For someone to have a song with a similar note progression as someone else, they are seen as unoriginal and looked down upon. Ideas need to come from somewhere, and if that means listening to an artist’s album to adopt a sense of style, looking at a painting to imitate efficient techniques, or even watching an athlete to mimic signature moves, it should be seen as normal. Without looking upon a professional or a source to become inspired, then there is no possible way for someone to create work of their own.
While some people may think of other people’s work as work that has already been created, defined, and should never be touched by anyone else, other people look at the glass as if it were half full and see it as an opportunity to use the pieces given as the foundation of an original piece of work. Lethem says, “Whatever charge of tastelessness or trademark violation may be attached to the artistic appropriation of the media environment in which we swim, the alternative-to flinch, or tiptoe away into some ivory tower of irrelevance-is far worse. We’re surrounded by signs; our imperative is to ignore none of them” (216). Work is shared with the public for a reason and shouldn’t be passed up. As stated before, people need to be inspired first by an artist before creating an idea, therefore, the artist that creates that inspiration is just as much as a necessity as the inspiration. For example when buying a Lego Building Set, inside the set will be instructions as to how to build the desired structures promoted by the set and the pieces themselves to create those structures. From there you have two options: you can build the structures from the instructions provided, or you can build your own structures with the pieces provided in the set. The instructions are the signs that Lethem refers to. The instructions give you an idea as to how the pieces from the set are meant to fit together, how they are supposed to look together, and how they are supposed to work together. You don’t need to follow the instructions, they aren’t a necessity for you to play with the building set, however, they are there to fuel your mind with creativity and different ideas for you to use the pieces how you see fit. What if a person was left in a giant white room with nothing to do? They have no experience whatsoever with anything. Numerous lego pieces are then provided to the person in the isolated room. The subject would not know what the pieces are meant to do, what their purpose is, or even what they are. While it is an extreme representation of the situation, it still shows how people are meant to be inspired by what they see and experience. The subject would know what to do or be better prepared if he/she had seen someone else play with the lego pieces beforehand. The world is our list of instructions, we can read it and learn from it, or we can just build our own world.
“Don’t pirate my editions; do plunder my visions. The name of the game is Give All. You, reader, are welcome to my stories. They were never mine in the first place, but I gave them to you. If you have the inclination to pick them up, take them with my blessing” (Lethem 225). Lethem is attempting to provide a new mindset for people to live by. As opposed to the fear to the consequences of plagiarism, he wants us to open our arms and embrace other people’s work as tools to build the monuments of our legacy. He doesn’t want us to cheat, however. Yes, we should take other people’s ideas to help us in our quest to find ourselves and our preferred style, but we should never copy word-for-word. Plagiarism and direct “copy-and-paste” is still immoral but we should use other people’s ideas to guide us. To live with this type of mindset can open our minds to new possibilities and unlock a new hidden potential. People are so reluctant to embrace other artist’s work that they end up “blanking out” and not knowing what to do. But if society were to live looking at the world as a giant ice cream sundae bar thinking about the dozens of ice cream flavors to choose from, the hundreds of toppings available, the millions of ways to organize it, the outcome would be very sweet.
So should students of today look at other pieces of work and copy it? Students shouldn’t, however, they should not steer away from other pieces of work and art when working on their own work or art. Those pieces are our guidelines, they are our role models, and we can use those to better ourselves and discover who we really are. One might say I plagiarized the work of Jonathan Lethem, but I never plagiarized it, I was inspired by it.
Works Cited
Lethem, Jonahan. “The Ecstasy of Influence: A Plagiarism.” The New Humanities Reader, Fifth
ed., Cengage Learning, 2015, pp. 210–234.