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/lit/ - Literature

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7319620 No.7319620 [Reply] [Original]

"For, mark it well, imitation is often the first charge brought against real originality. Why this is so, there is not space to set forth here."

Why is this so?

>> No.7319634

>>7319620
That man is so fucking handsome

I took the passage to mean that:
A) human thought patterns inevitably follow a certain number of paths, as we are constrained to a fairly similar experience of mortal life (but this is dodging the real question)
B) People are unable to fully process the new and therefore, in an attempt to make sense of it, relate it to a previously invented work (I think this is closer to his meaning)

>> No.7319712

>>7319634
Nice. B makes a lot of sense, thanks.

I've been reading his other work and it is crazy how before his time he was. Bartleby predated Kafka by like 60 years, and I know some consider The Confidence Man the first American postmodern novel.