All Good Editors Are Pirates: In Memory of Lewis H. Lapham | Hacker News Reader

All Good Editors Are Pirates: In Memory of Lewis H. Lapham

laphamsquarterly.org

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Someone here recommended Lapham's podcast, The World in Time, the last time he came up.

It's amazing! Truly someone out of a different age.

https://pca.st/podcast/daa59d90-feeb-0134-ec79-4114446340cb

Here are a few of Lewis Lapham's obituaries

Harpers: https://harpers.org/2024/07/remembering-lewis-lapham/ Lapham's Quarterly: https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/roundtable/lewis-h-lapham-1... LitHub: https://lithub.com/on-the-remarkable-legacy-of-lewis-lapham/

This is a total tangent, but I am amazed by the image at the top of the article. I did not know until today that theatrical sets were ever first designed as models or dioramas, and that one is especially beautiful. I have now embarked on a set design model box research expedition.

Step softly so you don’t break any little people.

The title is explained way down:

> Lewis was fond of saying that “all good editors are pirates”—they steal from everyone

A contradictory quote for publishers and editors in the AI era.

And it doesn't even make sense, as it's the artist or the author, not the editor, who is supposed to "Steal from the best, forget the rest."

culture has always been all about imitating and copying each other unapologetically

the whole "marketplace of ideas" which has led us into "let us charge money for ideas" is as dumb as bricks

"the marketplace of ideas" does not and never meant buying and selling ideas nor intellectual property.

it means if ideas are freely exchanged, the best ideas will win and become ubiquitous and bad ideas will be discarded.

The line between an inspiration and plagiarism is perhaps sometimes blurry but there's definitely a line.

But you have to steal something, themes at least if you want to create a piece in a style.

Trying composing a blues song without any "stealing".

I like Jerry Seinfeld’s take on plagiarism in comedy. His point is that whoever writes the funniest joke about a given premise gets the credit. This applies forward as well. As you may come up with a new angle and punchline for a well established premise.

I wrote a fun (to me) take on the good ‘ole horse walks into a bar joke. Here it goes:

Horse walks into a bar.

Bartender says: “Why the long face?”

Horse replies: “I can’t find a stable job.”

…

I like this model for giving credit. Sadly, no attribution avlbl for this one:

a thesaurus walks into a bar. a thesaurus strolls into a bar. a thesaurus saunters into a bar...

Robertson Davies, and E. Anne Proulx used this as a vignette in writing about small town newspaper editors.

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