Paragraph Revision

Other contemporary examples of plagiarism, such as West Side Story and High School Musical, were based off earlier works like romeo and Juliet as well as Greece, respectively. But even one of the greatest playwrites of all time pillaged one of his most famous and quoted plays from the Romans. Ovid`s "Pyramus and Thisbe" is essentially the same story of Romeo and Juliet, but was about 5 or 6 centuries earlier written. However, without knowing whether or not Shakespear knowingly copied Ovid`s work or ha da mere memory of it he incorporated into his work, the phenomena is known as cryptomnesia, and is very common in a literary field (Jonathon, 211).

Other contemporary examples of plagiarism, such as West Side Story and High School Musical¸ were based off earlier works like Romeo and Juliet as well as Greece (respectively). Anyone who grew up with the newer versions (i.e. High School Musical) would not realize the musicals were pillaged from another source, but assume they were new ideas. As Lethem states, “I also came of age swamped by parodies that stood for originals yet mysterious to me…” (Lethem, 216). As stated, when Lethem grew up, he was introduced to the knock-offs of famous and new pieces that came around when he was growing up before the original pieces, and so took the knock-offs to be the originals. A person from the previous generation who grew up with the original (i.e. Greece) would shake their head at the newer version and criticize the writer for not having the creativity to make a new piece. However, some good does come out of the reworking of old pieces. Continuing with the Greece/High School Musical example, my parent`s generation more easily identifies with Greece than with High School Musical since they grew up with the former, while in my generation more easily identify with the reworked version of the musical, since the setting is in our current time period. Because how much the world changed between my parents` high school days and my own, there are syntax's and cultural references that may not make sense to me if watching the former and my parents if watching the latter. So, despite the common themes, plots and characters, by reworking Greece, the writer brought that musical to life in a new generation who might not have experienced it otherwise. Many writers have reworked former pieces in this way to make a ‘new’ book, story or play, even one of the greatest playwrights of all time pillaged one of his most famous and quoted plays from the Romans. Ovid`s “Pyramus and Thisbe” is the same story as that of Romeo and Juliet, but was written about 5 or 6 centuries earlier. As Lethem states, “…consider the remarkable series of “plagiarisms” that link Ovid`s “Pyramus and Thisbe” with Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and Leonard Bernstein`s West Side Story” (Lethem, 214). Had Shakespeare plagiarized Ovid today, he would have been sued and discredited for the rest of his life as a playwright. Yet, despite his plagiarism, Shakespeare`s play is one of the most famous and quoted plays in all of history. By reworking Ovid`s original piece into the Victorian age, Shakespeare actually preserved it for all of history and wrote a play that is still studied and performed today.  

In the original paragraph, I basically rephrased Lethem`s argument and examples from his paper. I was advised by my reviewers to add a lot of  analysis to the paragraphs in my essay and cut some examples from it. By doing so, I was able to more accurately support my thesis and expand on my argument, as well as clarify what the argument is. There was a section in the paragraph I dropped from the ending since it had no correlation to the original topic I began the paragraph with.