"Dylan's originality and his appropriations are as one." This quote struck me most, because it links into a question I've been interested in for some time: what is choice, and what influences us to do the things we do. As an artist, or at least someone who relies heavily on subconscious inspiration, always in the back of my mind there is that little, hesitant voice, whispering "Is this yours? Did you make this? Or did you rip this off?" Jonathan Lethem's suggestion that an idea can be both, and that Dylan's genius lies in recognizing this, is remarkably freeing.
But the question remains: where do ideas come from? In one of his best examples, Lemen shows a songwriter giving five separate points of inspiration for one of his songs: his own active mind, a subconscious inspiration, a recording he heard, the teachings of his instructor, and a general reference to culture ("it came from the cotton field"). When combined, these five muses create a song that is new, but benefiting from the past. Similarly, when Dylan writes a song, he uses everything he knows, most of which is outside himself. When I direct a show, or design a plot of lights or a set, I also use my knowledge of everything that might be useful to me. In fact, I am taking Art History at this school, even though it is not required of light designers, because I fully believe that inspiration lies in knowledge. If the brain is to put out new ideas, it must have old ones to recycle.
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