“Ecstasy of Influence,” a plagiarism, by Jonathan Lethem is about the idea of intellectual property and inspiration. He states that all inspiration is plagiarism in some form or another. That is to say, art is fundamentally built upon the foundation of some other work or thing. For instance, he himself demonstrates this idea through writing “Ecstasy of Influence” as a collage of texts: a plagiarism. Every single paragraph and its contents had its inspiration sourced from another work!
However, he still believes that the creators of art deserve some level of recognition of credit; hence, he included a “key” after the collage to show where he drew inspiration for each paragraph, phrase, and word. He only has an issue with what has been coined as “imperial plagiarism:” a ‘colonial’ form of plagiarism, where powerful entities, such as corporations, pillage and sack culture and maintain a monopoly on many works of art (7). This imbalance in authority stifles innovation, creativity, and progression of the Sciences and Arts.
Indeed, this inherent flaw on the current design is very detrimental to society. Lethem sees is a flaw in intellectual property; however, he did not explicitly state its inherent connection to capitalism. His only reason for some level of intellectual property is to ensure the livelihood and compensation of the creator. Furthermore, he saw this as a necessarily evil (5). If one could guarantee the livelihoods of innovators, would intellectual property matter insofar as it does? Would it not simply be necessary to attribute credit and inspiration? The current status of intellectual property and gaining inspiration through other work leaves us with many unanswered questions.