The major problem of twentieth-century art is the constant demand for something new and original. The consequence of this demand is that while everything appears to change, nothing actually changes. Instead there is a constant reappearance of the same half-baked ideas, using a succession of increasingly silly names. It took thousands of years to develop perspective, and yet today people demand radical innovations every week. The result is that they get exactly what they deserve—insults.
The great advantage of plagiarism as a literary method is that it removes the need for talent, and even much application. All you really need to do is select what to plagiarise. Enthusiastic beginners might like to start by plagiarising this article on plagiarism. A purist will choose to plagiarise it verbatim; but those who feel the need to express the creative side of their personality will change a word here and there, or re-arrange the order of the paragraphs.
Plagiarism is a highly creative process because with every plagiarism a new meaning is added to the work. Unfortunately, the forces of order have contrived to make plagiarism of recent texts illegal, making the risk of prosecution a deterent even to the most dedicated plagiarist. However, a few sensible precautions can be used to reduce this risk. The basic rule is to take the ideas and spirit from a text, without actually plagiarising it word for word. Orwell’s 1984, which is a straight re-write of Zamyatin’s We, is a fine example of this. Another possibility for avoiding prosecution is to work under an assumed name such as Karen Eliot, or use non-copyrighted material such as the texts of the Situationist International.
Home, Stuart. Plagiarism: Art as Commodity and Strategies for Its Negation. London: Aporia Press, 1987.
pdf