Download - "Art as Theft/Theft as Art: Using Imitation
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8/12/2019 "Art as Theft/Theft as Art: Using Imitation
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Art as Theft / Theft as Art
Using Imitation
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True Ease in Writing comes from Art, not
Chance,
As those move easiest who have learned to
Dance.
Alexander Pope,
An Essay on Criticism
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What similarity do you notice?
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Imitation in Art
Michaelangelos famous
sculpture Piet depicts
Mary holding her son
Jesus, after he is brought
down from the crossafter his crucifixion. It is
on exhibit in the Vatican
in Rome, and has often
been used as a model byother artists.
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Jacques-Louis Davids
The Death of Marat is
an idealized portrait of his
good friend, the post-
French Revolution patriotand fiery orator Jean-Paul
Marat, stabbed to death
in his bathtub in 1793.
Davids use of Christsright arm from the Piet
sends an obvious
symbolic message
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What good is it?
Imitation allows inexperienced writers to learnfrom those who are more experienced.
Imitation collapses the distance between thelearning writer and the text.
Imitation is a different form of thinking, allowing
the inexperienced writer to discover and explorethoughts they may not have even known theyhave.
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For exampleModel: Here it was motels and billboards and the
hot jangle of neon bursting red over fourlanes of concrete. (Ellington White, Iagoand the Tired Red Moor)
Here it was calculus books and term papers andthe confining rules of behavior boiling up instudents.
Here it was umbrellas and towels and thesuffocating heat blanketing the granules ofsand.
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Another model?
A man on horseback passes slowly,
accompanied by a boy on foot who carries
a willow branch.
(Joan Colebrook)
NOW ITS YOUR TURN
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Student sample imitations
A man in a Mercedes flies by,
accompanied by a woman who has a
Coach handbag.
A princess on a horse passes slowly,accompanied by a prince on foot who
carries a jewelled staff.
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What about Poetry?
Separation
Your absence has gone through me
Like thread through a needle.
Everything I do is stitched with its color.
(W.S. Merwin)
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Student sample imitations
This assignment has filled mewith yesterdays garbage.
Everything I do is touched with my boredom.
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Another model
Image
Old houses were scaffolding onceAnd workmen whistling.
(T.W. Hulme)
YOUR TURN AGAIN
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If it works for ONE line
This Is Just To Say
I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox
And which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast.
Forgive me
they were deliciousso sweet
and so cold.
(William Carlos Williams)
Please Accept My Apologies
I didnt mean
to steal your Porsche
When you
were not around.
A nice car
Very easy to drive.
The Police couldnt catch me.
Forgive me.
It was such a beautiful car
So shinyAnd so fast
(Bern Brestek)
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Zimmers Head Thudding Against
the BlackboardAt the blackboard I had missed
Five number problems in a row,
And was about to foul a sixth,
When the old, exasperated nun
Began to pound my head against
My six mistakes. When I cried
She threw me back into my seat,
Where I hid my head and swore
That very day Id be a poet,
And curse her yellow teeth with this.
(Paul Zimmer)
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Rhapsody in Black and Blue
Seated at the piano I had played
Five wrong notes in a row.
I was about to strike a sixth
When my old hag of a teacher
Began to pound my head againstThe keyboard. When I cried,
She plopped me back in my seat
Where I hung my head low and swore
That very day Id become a truck driverAnd run her over with my semi.
(Stacey Lee, modeledafter Paul Zimmer)
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What can you imitate?
Forms of:
sentences / lines
paragraphs / stanzas
entire texts
From sources such as:
novels / short stories
poems
newspapers
magazines
plays / screenplays
essaysreally, anything!
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But you cantpublishit
Oh no? How about comparing this:
Police think they can see me lean
I'm tint so it ain't easy to be seen
When you see me ride by they can see the glean
And my shine on the deck and the TV screen
-- Ridin (Chamillionaire feat. Krayzie Bone)
With this:
First in my class here at M.I.T.
Got skills, I'm a champion of D-&-DMC Escher that's my favorite MC
Keep your 40--I'll just have an Earl Grey tea-- White and Nerdy (Weird Al Yankovic)
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Practice!
There are two times in a mans life when
he should not speculate: when he cant
afford it, and when he can. (Mark Twain)
In war, events of importance are the result
of trivial causes. (Julius Caesar)
Character is a victory, not a gift. (proverb)