So is There Really a Such Thing as Plagiarism?

I loved reading Jonathan Lethem's essay entitled, "The Ecstacy of Influence"; however, after reading it, I am not really sure where I stand on the issue of plagiarism. Reading the piece left me feeling like perhaps there really is no such thing. Or that the definition of plagiarism should be pulled in tighter so that it encompasses a smaller set of behaviors. The author seems to have a very loose attitude to artistic borrowing and makes a good case that it runs rampant throughout all artistic endeavors. He even seems to go so far as to say that it is the very nature of art to be influenced by, pay homage to, and mimic other artists.

One thing I found interesting was that Lethem mentioned his own first novel, Gun, With Occasinal Music. I loved this book and have read it twice. It totally made sense to me that Lethem would take the stance that he does on artistic borrowing since one of the concepts for this novel came about from a line that Lethem got from a Raymond Chandler book. The line ended with "the subject was as easy to spot as a kangaroo in a dinner jacket." Well, in his novel, which itself blends hardboiled detective fiction and sci-fi, animals are rapidly evolved so that they can talk and function as humans. So one of the antagonists in the story is actually a kangaroo wearing clothes who causes much trouble for the main character.

I have wrestled with the originality issue myself, before I even read the essay. I remember an argument with a colleague, a professional tech writer and hobbyist creative writer, where I argued that there were really not any NEW ideas. Anything that seems new is really only a twist on an old idea or a conjugation of existing ideas into something that appears "new." I had read somewhere that, depending on which scholar you believe, there are really only about a half a dozen or so plots that fictional stories can follow. Some number it as high as a couple of dozen.

After reading Lethem's essay, I have perhaps come to the conclusion that it is less important as a writer or other artist to try to come up with something new and original than it is to take the things that interest you and find new and interesting ways to show them or explore them. I remember when I once had a panic attack about a short story I turned in for a fiction workshop class. After turning it in, I began to wonder if I was guilty of plagarism. I sent a guilt-ridden confessional email to my professor explaining my concern (I took the song lyrics to an old Police song and tried to flesh out the basic song narrative into a short story), and her response was to relax and not worry. She assured me that there were only so many plot ideas out there and, especially in a six week class, it was hard to come up with "new" ideas. In the end, no one in my group even remembered the song or made the connection. Perhaps if I had read Lethem's essay before that incident, I might have been more relaxed about the whole thing. The story sucked anyway, and I was never going to get rich off of it, so what's the big deal, right?