What do you think of remix culture? Is the concept of plagiarism outdated? Should it be outdated?
Ms. Hegemann finds herself in the middle of a collision — if not road kill exactly — between the staid, literary establishment in a country that venerates writers from Goethe to Mann to Grass, and the Berlin youth culture of D.J.’s and artists that sample freely and thereby breathe creativity into old forms. Or as one character, Edmond, puts it in the book, “Berlin is here to mix everything with everything.”
via Author, 17, Says It’s ‘Mixing,’ Not Plagiarism – NYTimes.com.
I’m all for remixing, mashups, and creative plagiarism – provided its done with proper credit and attribution, and respectfully of other artist’s rights where applicable. Hegemann erred in presenting the work as exclusively her own, not the literary remix that it apparently is.
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i guess it is becoming more difficult to have an idea of one’s own.
Well – let’s be honest: at this point in the history of human culture, most stories have been told in one form or another. Any given movie in theatres or book on shelves is really a remix (deliberate or otherwise) of the ideas, themes, characters, settings, and events captured by its predecessors. I’d say its pretty rare to encounter a plot, idea, or character that’s truly “novel.”