Kenneth Goldsmith, a popular American conceptual writer and poet has come to embrace Douglas Huebler’s quote “The world is full of objects, more or less interesting; I do not wish to add anymore”, except in regards to forms of literature. He discusses Majorie Perloff’s term “unoriginal genius”, as the romantic notion of the genius has become outdated. She believes that the writer today resembles that of a programmer. In conjunction with this, Goldsmith states in his article “It’s Not Plagiarism. In The Digital Age, It’s ‘Repurposing’” that writers are exploring different ways of writing, including: “word processing, databasing, recycling, appropriation, intentional plagiarism, identity ciphering, and intensive programming, to name just a few”
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The reader does not acquire an accurate representation of the person in the biography as a different person writes every entry within the work. Most of the entries that Eckhoff received were from people who did not even know who he is. His work defies so much of what is expected within biographies. James Frey, an American writer, fabricated large portions of his biography A Million Little Pieces (2003). Even after he was caught, he continued to pass off his work as authentic and sincere. The company who published Frey’s memoir, Random House, “was sued and had to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees and thousands to readers who felt deceived” (Goldsmith, Uncreative Writing). In the new printings of the book, there is a disclaimer stating that it is a work of fiction. This is an example of the anxieties experienced while writing an accurate and truthful book. In Eckhoff’s case, some of the entries written about him were false information as the authors did not know who he was and could therefore not write accurately about him. Would this be considered dishonest
The reader does not acquire an accurate representation of the person in the biography as a different person writes every entry within the work. Most of the entries that Eckhoff received were from people who did not even know who he is. His work defies so much of what is expected within biographies. James Frey, an American writer, fabricated large portions of his biography A Million Little Pieces (2003). Even after he was caught, he continued to pass off his work as authentic and sincere. The company who published Frey’s memoir, Random House, “was sued and had to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees and thousands to readers who felt deceived” (Goldsmith, Uncreative Writing). In the new printings of the book, there is a disclaimer stating that it is a work of fiction. This is an example of the anxieties experienced while writing an accurate and truthful book. In Eckhoff’s case, some of the entries written about him were false information as the authors did not know who he was and could therefore not write accurately about him. Would this be considered dishonest