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No piece of creative work is totally original. They all borrow from and are influenced by works that came before. This sharing of ideas is what makes culture grow and thrive.

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Appropriation and Plagiarism's Role in the Creative Process

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Appropriation and Plagiarism's Role in the Creative Process

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All creative works build on existing ideas, images, or words. Appropriation, plagiarism, sampling, and collage have always been a central part of the creative process.

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In his argument, Johnathan Lethem highlights two forms of plagiarism. Cryptomnesia is when an author unknowingly copies a pre-existing work while claiming it to be an original creation. On the contrary, higher cribbing is when an author knowingly takes inspiration from someone else without giving them credit.

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"Lolita" is one of the best-selling novels of all time, with over 50 million copies sold worldwide. But the origins of this story are controversial. Some claim that Nabokov had unconsciously taken the idea from Lichberg, who had published his novel 40 years prior, a form of cyptomnesia. Others claim that Nabokov used higher cribbing and had knowingly been inspired by Lichberg's tale and wrote his own version of the same story.

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Lethem states, "Dylan's originality and his appropriations are as one"(233). Bob Dylan has borrowed from many sources, including vintage Hollywood films, Shakespeare, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and others, for his song titles and lyrics.

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Burroughs, the author of "Naked Lunch," used a "cut-up" method and incorporated snippets of other writers’ texts into his work.

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Modern-day copyright laws have expanded and become extreme, creating monopolies over culture and "intellectual property."

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Disney has filed many lawsuits over the sampling and remixing of their characters and stories; however, many of these elements were originally plagiarized from others. Disnial is a term that Lethem uses to describe this phenomenon, a mix of "Disney" and "denial".

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Imperial Plagiarism is when more privileged artists have access to the use of Third World or primitive artworks.

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The creative process functions as a gift economy, where ideas are shared and built upon, rather than a market-driven one where everything is owned by one person.

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The Velveteen Rabbit is an analogy that Lethem uses to explain the gift economy of art. In the story, the toy rabbit becomes real through love and use. Similarly, Lethem argues that works of art gain their true value not by being owned or protected, but by being shared, reused, and woven into people’s lives. Just as the rabbit’s worth comes from being cherished, art’s vitality comes from circulation and cultural use, not from being locked away by copyright.

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The commons(language, art, and literature) belong to everyone and should be used for creativity. Artists would benefit from a public domain, but copyright laws bar access. Intellectual property laws raid and exploit the commons for private gain.

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We are surrounded by signs: pop culture icons, brand names, images, and references. Artists borrow and reshape these familiar signs to create artworks, but copyright laws claiming ownership over these signs restrict their use.

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At the end of his essay, Lethem reveals that his entire essay was plagiarized from other authors/artists. This essay is a prime example of how plagiarism can be a source of innovation and a vital part of creativity. Borrowing others' works and building off of one another's ideas is how culture grows.