TORONTO, Oct. 12, 2010 – A new book by a York University professor argues that the act of copying, much maligned in our culture, is fundamentally necessary to our evolution.
In Praise of Copying, officially launching in Toronto tonight, explores different aspects of copying, looking at everything from quilting and cooking to gang warfare and martial arts as cultures of the copy. Published by Harvard University Press, it features an entire chapter on the saga of Louis Vuitton and the fake handbags which have become ubiquitous today.
“Teaching contemporary literature and culture at a university, I was interested in students’ attitudes to sampling, cutting and pasting, plagiarism, downloading and such matters,” says author Marcus Boon, associate professor in York’s Department of English, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies.
“What struck me is that they were completely unable to justify their interest in these things – mostly because they involve copying and they’d repeatedly been told that copying is bad. At the same time, when I looked at the literature on intellectual property, I was struck by the fact that most of it was written by legal scholars, who seemed to offer no analysis of copying itself, beyond the fact that it was a useful tool that could also be misused. So I wanted to rethink the idea of copying, and show how fundamental philosophical issues shape the way we think about it today,” he says.
The book details how the dominant legal-political structures that define copying obscure the broader processes of imitation that have constituted human communities for ages and continue to shape subcultures today. Drawing on contemporary art, music and film, the history of aesthetics, critical theory, and Buddhist philosophy and practice, In Praise of Copying aims to illustrate how and why copying works, what the sources of its power are, and the political stakes of renegotiating the way we value copying in the age of globalization.
Boon asks why copying another person’s actions or works makes us so uncomfortable.
“If you really think about it, is there anything that doesn’t involve some form of copying? In order to speak and to learn, we have to copy. We can talk about plagiarism and it’s true that very few people would say it’s good to pass off another’s work as your own. But industrial economies are built around making copies, most of which have their origin in something that used to belong to the public domain,” says Boon.
He argues that we should all consider and confront the ways in which our lives are shaped by the act of copying.
“We all do it, and our laws should reflect this. As a society, we should be asking ourselves what is the most profound or joyful use of our capacities for copying. In other words, it’s not a question of whether we should copy or not, but how we copy and what,” he says.
The book launch for In Praise of Copying takes place at 8pm at The Annex Live, 296 Brunswick Avenue; it is presented by This Is Not A Reading Series.
To download a free pdf of the book, visit: http://www.hup.harvard.edu/features/boon/ .
-30-
York University is the leading interdisciplinary research and teaching university in Canada. York offers a modern, academic experience at the undergraduate and graduate level in Toronto, Canada’s most international city. The third largest university in the country, York is host to a dynamic academic community of 50,000 students and 7,000 faculty and staff, as well as 200,000 alumni worldwide. York’s 10 Faculties and 28 research centres conduct ambitious, groundbreaking research that is interdisciplinary, cutting across traditional academic boundaries. This distinctive and collaborative approach is preparing students for the future and bringing fresh insights and solutions to real-world challenges. York University is an autonomous, not-for-profit corporation.
Media Contact:
Melissa Hughes, Media Relations, York University, 416 736 2100 x22097, mehughes@yorku.ca
