Thursday, January 22, 2015

What I Read/ Introduction

It is interesting to think about what I read and what I want to write. I read a ton every day from books, to sports articles, to news, and any random web page in between. I am currently into any great American classic: anything Hemmingway, I am just starting The Sound and The Fury by Faulkner, Lord of the Flies, Moby Dick, etc… I am also into any short story I can get my hands on from Charles Dickenson to Edgar Allen Poe. I have typically been into epic poetry but I have strayed away from that lately.

I want to write about Law, specifically intellectual property laws relating to how we read and interpret ideas. I became intrigued with this subject when hearing about Dan Brown’s plagiarism case involving The Da Vinci Code. He stole the idea of Jesus’ bloodline living on through Mary Magdalene from another author’s book. Eventually this case got dismissed; I wondered why and where the line was drawn between theft, plagiarism, and the just sharing of ideas. I am not quite sure how I can narrow this down into a project appropriate for this class but as I do so it would be helpful to read: any law journal involving my subject, any case study involving my subject, any case study/ analysis of Dan Brown’s trial, any medical/ physiological publication on how the brain processes ideas, any state or nation legislation involving intellectual property law, and any literary criticism involving how we read and interpret ideas. I think reading a lot of literary criticism will help me form my own literary criticism. I think having my own interpretation on how we read and interpret ideas will help me throughout my project.

2 comments:

  1. Hi Austin -

    This is ambitious topic as you lay it out here that will require more focus from you, which means you'll need to begin early with writing toward it, so that it can take shape and you can find a more narrow focus for your piece. Remember our exercise in focused writing from 205 (if you were there) - you need to figure out a way to say something small!

    Also, you've got to be careful about editing - there are a couple of misspellings of authors' names in this entry, and as a writing major, you've got to be aiming for a meticulousness in your prose. We've worked on this before, so we'll keep working on it.

    Kirk

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  2. I think Phil Gaines is a forensic writing analyst. He would be an interesting person (and asset) to discuss your topic with. Just a thought!

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