Plagiarism

Lethem does not see plagiarism in the same traditional light as it is explained in Rutgers' Integrity Policy. While Rutgers sees plagiarism as using any aspect of something another person published and frowns upon it, Lethem challenges this by essentially saying that if this is the way we are to define plagiarism, then all published works are plagiarized. Rutgers emphasizes original ideas, and when something is taken from another author it must be cited. However, Lethem explains that no ideas are original, and instead any ideas or essays that we think or write are simply a result of previous ideas we have encountered and have now both consciously and subconsciously copied. Lethem does not at all see it as a negative, which is how it is portrayed by Rutgers. He sees it as natural and inevitable, not cheating. In fact, it is the only method by which we can expand what we know and the extent of our knowledge and perception on the world.

Lethem's passage which demonstrates this is on page 214:
"Most artists are brought to their vocation when their own nascent gifts are awakened by the work of a master. That is to say, most artists are converted to art by art itself. Finding one’s voice isn’t just an emptying and purifying oneself of the words of others but an adopting and embracing of filiations, communities, and discourses. Inspiration could be called inhaling the memory of an act never experienced. Invention, it must be humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of void but out of chaos. Any artist knows these truths, no matter how deeply he or she submerges that knowing."

Lethem essentially describes how art in the form of ideas is never original but taken and adopted from previous ideas and arts. For ideas and art are not created out of thin air, but are taken from everything an artist has previously encountered, one might call it plagiarism, but it is the only way to create ideas. 


It's important for us to know the difference, because as inspirational and perceptive Lethem's essay may be, it is not what our curriculum is based and our grades rely on our accordance with Rutgers' Integrity Policy, so it is easy to see which one we will have more of an inclination to live by, regardless of personal views.