Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Open Source Literature

A great essay entitled "The Ecstasy of Influence" by Jonathan Lethem who argues that: "Literature has been in a plundered, fragmentary state for a long time" in a discourse that ranges across Burroughs, John Donne, Bob Dylan, Muddy Waters, Eliot, Nabakov and others to reveal the truth behind John Donne's claim that "All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated. . . ."
Published in Harper's Magazine:
www.harpers.org/TheEcstasyOfInfluence.html

[via Library Link of the Day]