Jonathan Lethem, The Ecstasy of Influence: Nonfictions, Etc.
I had no idea this was coming out. The original 2007 essay—a “plagiarism” woven together from passages from other writers—was a huge influence on me and Steal and probably a bunch of other people. (Heck, David Shields took the idea and turned it into a whole book.)
Like almost everything Mr. Lethem has written, “The Ecstasy of Influence” is a reflection of, and a pixelated homage to, those whose work he fetishizes. If this book has a thesis, it’s this: For an artist, influence is everything. “Wasn’t the whole 20th century,” he writes, “a victory lap of collage, quotation, appropriation, from Picasso to Dada to Pop?” My iTunes and bookshelf, c’est moi.
(Kind of a hideous cover, no?)UPDATE from meaghano: “haha the cover looks MUCH better IRL. Much more subtle and not so rainbow-y. Anyway I read a good chunk of this — it’s great!”Thx, @jeremybusch