Lethem post response

Thanks for trying out this experimental blog post assignment with me. I wasn’t sure what you might find, but some of you had very insightful things to say about the differences between Lethem’s concerns and those of his sources. Of course, the purpose of this assignment was twofold: one, I wanted you to begin to familiarize yourselves with library research tools, and two I wanted you to continue to work on your close reading skills, particularly your ability to make connections while simultaneously drawing distinctions. I hope that, in addition to looking for the title of the source that Lethem used, you spent a bit of time trying to figure out where you might locate that source. It sounds like some of you were able to find books and articles online, but I’d also encourage you to find out where you can go in the library to get physical copies of such things, since not everything you’ll want to research will be available online. We’ll work on that more when we hear a Rutgers research librarian’s guest lecture in October. Regarding close reading, I think you all would benefit from even greater specificity when you explain the significance of a quotation. Matt does an excellent job of explaining how Lethem’s use of President Truman’s speech turns Truman’s advocacy for preserving natural resources into a metaphor about treating ideas as resources. One could go even further to think about the distinctions between natural resources (which are finite) and ideas (which can be shared without risking depletion). Pointing out such distinctions puts you into a better position when you’re trying to explain the significance of a connection. In your blog posts and your papers, you should be answering the question “so what?” Why does this point matter? For instance, is Lethem pointing out the absurdity of treating ideas as property by drawing a comparison between ideas and physical objects? What does it mean to “own” an idea? Is it even possible to be original, according to Lethem?