"Good architects borrow, great architects steal."
Le Corbusier (quoting Picasso)
"A good artist borrows, a great artist steals."
Pablo Picasso (quoting TS Eliot)
"One of the surest of tests is the way in which a poet borrows. Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different. The good poet welds his theft into a whole of feeling which is unique, utterly different from that from which it was torn; the bad poet throws it into something which has no cohesion. A good poet will usually borrow from authors remote in time, or alien in language, or diverse in interest."
TS Eliot
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ReplyDeleteWhat's the difference between borrowing and stealing? Does a "good" artist return what he/she has borrowed? I don't think that it is stealing when the artist changes/improves prior work. After all, creativity seems to be just the thoughtful 'adaptation' of prior works/ideas in order to solve a problem or address a current issue. Nothing comes from nowhere.
ReplyDeleteValentine,
ReplyDeleteGive me an architectural example of a "thoughtful adaptation."
Also, where is this "nowhere" that you speak of and, where can I buy some More nothing (asked Thomas).
ReplyDeleteAll ideas are initially inspired by something whether it is a solution to a problem or a response to an issue. I think stealing is taking someone’s idea and using it and calling it your own. Borrowing on the other hand is like what Valentin said. It is when you take an original thought or idea and work from it to create something else or an improvement to the initial idea. I am failing to see what TS Eliot means when he says a mature poet steals. I guess we must have different definitions for this matter.
ReplyDelete"The good poet welds his theft into a whole of feeling which is unique, utterly different from that from which it was torn; the bad poet throws it into something which has no cohesion."
ReplyDeleteIt's like making a good meal. All risotto is not the same.
I think stealing has something to do with the credit. In this sense if an artist steals they are taking an idea or a precedented solution and with confidence used to to create something entirely different and unique. This new solution is SO unique that it cannot be credited to anyone else beside the artist that created it where the solution of the original artist does not entirely matter because the importance lies in the inovation and not so much its source. Whereas borrowing is where someone takes the solution plays with it and creates a new solution that could is not innovative and the can easily give the credit of the solution to the original artist and not the artist that created it.
ReplyDelete