Book Quote by James Gleick
“The quotation-business is booming. No subdivision of the culture seems too narrow to have a quotation book of its own… It would be an understatement to say that these books lean on one another. To compare them is to stroll through a glorious jungle of incestuous mutual plagiarism.”
About This Quote
Source Essay: “The Quotation Business,” The New Yorker, 1995
Quotation culture creates endless intertextual borrowing, leading to a tangled web of similarity that blurs originality.
In simple terms: Quotation books constantly copy each other.
Key Takeaway
Value originality over easy reference.
Themes
literature
culture
originality
intertextuality
Mood
critical
thoughtful
Type
literary
analytical
When to use this quote
- academic writing
- publishing
- content curation
Key Concepts
plagiarism
creative reuse
media studies
Questions to Reflect On
- How does constant borrowing affect cultural memory?
- When does homage become plagiarism?
A Different Perspective
Some quotations are essential for preserving ideas.
![“Richard [Carrier] takes the extremist position that Jesus of Nazareth never even existed, that there was no such person in history. This is a position that is so extreme that to call it marginal would be an understatement; it doesn't even appear on the map of contemporary New Testament scholarship.” quote by William Lane Craig](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/79f/william-lane-craig-8716_carrier_richard-carrier-takes-the-extremist-posi_493423.jpg)
