Christian Kalweit - The ecstasy of influence

Jonathan Lethem's main point of the article is that a society which communicates with one another, sharing individual thoughts and information, will only result in benefiting the group as a whole. By providing information to the public by any form, it can serve to help an unlimited amount of people. The argument of the article is that copy writing has gone to the extreme, to the point where people can not take full advantage of what is being provided to them. Lethem's motive for writing the article is the disgust and annoyance that has developed inside of him directed towards copy writing and the intense focus on plagiarism in today's society.

Dan Hopkins - The Ecstasy of Influence

In this article I feel that Jonathan Lethem's main argument is that overall the act of sharing your knowledge and art with the world will in the future benefit everyone. I think the motivation for writing this came from the great extent of exposure he has of plagiarized works, he has seen how parameters and restrictions of one's copywrited work has stunted the growth of a reader's or viewer's creative thought. I liked this quote "Don't pirate my editions; do plunder my visions" (Lethem) I think it sums up how he feels pretty well.

John Brown-The Ecstasy of Influence: Learning Letter

I believe that Jonathan Lethems argument in this article is that plagiarism is something that is abundant in our society today and has helped shaped American culture throughout history. I feel that his motive for writing this stems from his own experiences with plagiarism and his time of being a writer where plagiarism is a major topic discussed amongst writers.