Lethem Argument Map by Liam Brett

Originality Does Not Exist

ldb126 — 2025-02-23 16:35:40 UTC

Stepping Stones

ldb126 — 2025-02-23 16:56:48 UTC

Artists often create with other works in mind, even if they are unaware of it. Muddy Waters created the song "Country Blues" while working on a car, Alan Lomax noticed the song seemed similar to "Walkin' Blues" by Robert Johnson. Blues and Jazz are often considered "open source", meaning musicians often take melodic themes and lyrical fragments from past pieces to use for a new piece. Although these pieces are considered their own, they can often be broken down into pieces that are similar or even exact replications of other pieces. Similarly, The Simpsons would not be the show it is today without pulling inspiration from shows like The Flintstones, Fritz the Cat, and even Charlie Brown. Cartoon producer Roger Meyers Jr. stated, "You take away our right to steal ideas, where are they going to come from?"(Lethem 235).

Agglomeration

ldb126 — 2025-02-23 17:17:53 UTC

Creating something new is very difficult in a world of so many things. So artists like Bob Dylan use many different sources to create. Dylan drew inspiration from films, plays, and other forms of literature to write is songs. These different types of art allowed him to write his music from a perspective different from other musicians. "Dylan's art offers a paradox"(Lethem 233), that paradox being that he urges listeners to not focus on the past, however, his art was developed using past pieces. Lethem himself has experience the cross over between artistic genres. In his search for a quote from 84 Charing Cross Road, he looked through the book, play, movie, and even through websites. All sources had a different adaptation of the same key piece. Showing Lethem that art crosses the boundaries of form.

Legality of Art, Among Other Things

ldb126 — 2025-02-25 03:08:20 UTC

In the modern world when someone creates something they consider to be new, they can go through a process to claim that thing as intellectual property. For instance, the Girl Scouts faced difficulty when trying to use songs that others claimed as their property. This approach shows that if claimed then a piece of art is considered original, because using or copying that piece is deemed a crime. Some corporations, Lethem mentions Celera Genomics, even go as far as to try to patent human genes. Which begs the questions as to how far can big corporations go with monetizing human creations, and humans themselves.

Undiscovered Public Knowledge

ldb126 — 2025-02-25 03:19:58 UTC

The concept of "undiscovered public knowledge" originated with Don Swanson a library scientist. He claims that with the weath of public knowledge humans have, original ideas and solutions for problems are avaliable to be discovered, only it will take time to compile all the resources. For example, the cure for any given medical illness could probably be found if all medical research and knowledge was compiled and combined. Swanson tackled Raynaud's Syndrome with this philosophy in mind. New solutions born from existing data.

Inspiration

ldb126 — 2025-02-26 18:03:16 UTC

Art and Public Access

ldb126 — 2025-02-26 18:03:59 UTC

Copywrite

ldb126 — 2025-02-26 18:13:54 UTC

Modern copywrite stifle artists ability to create using other works. Corporations have abused copywrite law in a way that greatly restricts artists ability to reuse. Lethem uses Disney as an example. Disney used public domain stories like Snow White to built their brand, but now they aggressively protect all of their products so they can be the only ones to profit off of their work.

Open Sharing

ldb126 — 2025-02-26 18:21:45 UTC

When artists are able to borrow ideas from one another, it benefits all who are involved. The artist who is borrowing can create something new from the borrowed pieces and the artist who was borrowed from gets their piece featured in new ways.

Cultural Commons

ldb126 — 2025-02-26 18:33:06 UTC

Cultural Commons are owned by everyone and no one. They are publicly shared things that anyone can have access to. These commons are often abused and people and organizations take advantage of their accessibility. Lakes, forests, and the air we breathe are commons but public domain works are too. Lethem references these things because they are constantly being unfairly used for the good of a few instead of the many.

Give All

ldb126 — 2025-02-26 18:39:41 UTC

Lethem uses the concept of "Give All" to show how artists need to be aware and accept that their work will and should be used by others to further creativity and artistic nuances. If this truth is rejected than all works become "advertisements for themselves". In that situation everyone losses because the publics imagination and thirst for new things will be destroyed.

Gift Economy

ldb126 — 2025-02-26 18:49:06 UTC

When artists share material, they are gifting each other something, rather than exchanging a commodity. Giving a gift establishes a connection, and that is what happens when artists borrow from one another. At first glance, this conflicts with our market economy of the real world. Art can be bought and sold, however, the gift of the art is the work done by the artist for their audience. So in that case the art can be monetized and still establish the "gift connection" between artist and consumer. Even though corporations often try to diminish this connection through strict copywrite law and privatization.

How to Read Map

ldb126 — 2025-02-27 20:56:09 UTC

Read from left to right

Two main pathways and they converge at the end, read each before reading parts in red.

Color Legend

Blue: Opening Idea/Closing Idea

Purple: Subheadings

Yellow: Evidence of Subheading

Green: Ideas that connect subheadings