Analyze, Research and Re-write

1

I can’t stop thinking about what David Shields is thinking

1-) What confuses you about this essay?

This essay is confusing since one cannot tell whether it is in support of plagiarism or not. The author believes that there are no original ideas and thoughts since according to Shields (2013) artists, innovators and authors have over the years slightly shifted what others have made or invented in the past. [One way to approach this, if not necessarily solve it, is to puzzle through Shield’s argument, and the Colbert Report appearance can help here too. Is he arguing that we should all be plagiarists? Well, sort of, but he seems to be more interested in how we perceive copyright and fair use, and for that matter how we understand originality. So perhaps this is an article more about originality than it is about theft…]

What frustrates you?

What frustrated me in this essay is the fact that David Shields does believes that there are no innovative people in the world this is including artists, authors and innovators. Shields’s critiques on the past great work by renowned people such as great singers, great artists and authors despite their efforts. [Again, it’s helpful to think through the complexities and contradictions here (and to consider which are productive and which are just confusing).]

What fascinates you?

What fascinated me about this article is the fact that David Shields took time to research and discover the close relations between the different ideas and innovations that have been made over the years since the 12th century. I was fascinated by the development in innovations and inventions that have emerged over the years and the fact that they all have certain similarities though not easy to notice. [what your answers to these three questions suggest is that you are interested but puzzled by his argument—that’s a great place to start an essay]

2-) Represent the entire essay.

“I Can’t Stop Thinking through What Other People Are Thinking” by David Shields is an article that interested in ensuring that it shuns copyrighting, plagiarism and the lies that come from artists and authors. David Shields is trying to show that the innovations, the books we have read, the songs we listen to and the artwork that people admire have for a long time been ideas and thoughts that were borrowed from the past years [yes]. No matter how much people try to claim to be the original innovators they are not originally the main innovators but people that lived before them are the ones that deserve to own the ideas (Shields 2013). [why not rely on some of his great examples, or introduce new ones of your own?] There are people that come up with new ideas and thoughts but mostly they are normally motivated by ideas and thoughts that they have come across. Example book authors have ideas that are closely related through they claim to be the real owners of their work, they even go to lengths of claiming to have been involved in the scenarios they present in their work to prove the originality of their work.

The task is left to people to discern between people that are lying and those that are true about their originality in their work [very interesting]. The articles gives examples of famous authors, songwriters, singers and artists in the past whose works are admired and have copyrights to protect them from being plagiarized or copied illegally but the fact is that they too got the ideas from ancient innovators who were not recognized nor appreciated. The article thus tells us that through keen and thorough research it is possible to discover the relation between artwork, books and publication, songs and inventions since they all contain a similar aspect though partly in one way or another.

3-)

In “I Can’t Stop Thinking Through What Other People Are Thinking”, Shields explains how Bob Dylan lied about his past life. First person that came to my mind while I was reading this paragraph was Antone Broyard and how he kept his black identity as a secret and also sometimes lied about his past. These two men are successful and well known by the public. Bob Dylan is a great singer and writer, but he made up stories about his past because he found his real past lacking authenticity. In the other hand, a great writer, Antone Broyard, kept his “colored” identity and roots hidden, even lied about it to the press even his own children because he wanted to be more successful.

Shields’s position is unexpected: it’s a celebration of (and a deliberately provocative one) of practices that many writers, teachers, and public thinkers criticize: borrowing others’ work without attribution. I think an important question that you haven’t yet touch on is: Is Shields more interested in plagiarism or originality?

Check

Citation

Shields, David. " I can’t stop thinking via what other people are thinking.” Broadview Anthology of Expository Prose, edited by Laura Buzzard, Don LePan, Nora Ruddock and Alexandria Stuart, third edition, Broadview press, 30 March 2016, or

http://www.thewhitereview.org/features/i-cant-stop-thinking-through-what-other-people-are-thinking/.