The Unoriginality of an Idea
In his interview on the Colbert Report, David Shields says that he wants writers to “ignore the laws regarding appropriation, obliterate the distinctions between fiction and nonfiction, and to create new forms for the 21st century”. His book Reality Hunger, is comprised of quotes by other people, who, if he had a choice, he would not have given credit to.
This opens a discussion for the nature of ideas. People form ideas from their experiences and listening to others. In this sense, no idea is new; they only draw from what has already been provided. “All art is theft”, Shields summarizes — but the unavoidable and unintentional theft of drawing on previous ideas is different from a direct and intentional theft of an idea. Therefore, not citing people’s work is disrespectful of the work of drawing on other ideas to create another, and the work of articulating that idea. There are many benefits from using other’s ideas, and it’s worthwhile to consider how laws against plagiarism may discourage people to make use of other people’s ideas.
Shields chose the following quote for his book on the distinctions between fiction and nonfiction; “Our culture is obsessed with real events because we experience hardly any”, the real being the original (Chapter H, 242).
In this tweet, Shields could mean that to really be original, one has to not be subject to what others say.
