Martha Silano's newest collection of cosmic lingo tango

This book is devoted to a deceptively simple but original argument: that copying is an essential part of being human, that the ability to copy is worthy of celebration, and that, without recognizing how integral copying is to being human, we cannot understand ourselves or the world we live in. In spite of the laws, stigmas, and anxieties attached to it, the word “copying” permeates contemporary culture, shaping discourse on issues from hip hop to digitization to gender reassignment, and is particularly crucial in legal debates concerning intellectual property and copyright. Yet as a philosophical concept, copying remains poorly understood. Working comparatively across cultures and times, Marcus Boon undertakes an examination of what this word means—historically, culturally, philosophically—and why it fills us with fear and fascination. He argues that the dominant legal-political structures that define copying today obscure much broader processes of imitation that have constituted human communities for ages and continue to shape various subcultures today. Drawing on contemporary art, music and film, the history of aesthetics, critical theory, and Buddhist philosophy and practice, In Praise of Copying seeks to show how and why copying works, what the sources of its power are, and the political stakes of renegotiating the way we value copying in the age of globalization.

A concise, lively, and bracing exploration of an issue bedeviling our cultural landscape–plagiarism in literature, academia, music, art, and film–by one of our most influential and controversial legal scholars. Best-selling novelists J. K. Rowling and Dan Brown, popular historians Doris Kearns Goodwin and Stephen Ambrose, Harvard law professor Charles Ogletree, first novelist Kaavya Viswanathan: all have rightly or wrongly been accused of plagiarism–theft of intellectual property–provoking widespread media punditry. But what exactly is plagiarism? How has the meaning of this notoriously ambiguous term changed over time as a consequence of historical and cultural transformations? Is the practice on the rise, or just more easily detectable by technological advances? How does the current market for expressive goods inform our own understanding of plagiarism? Is there really such a thing as “cryptomnesia,” the unconscious, unintentional appropriation of another’s work? What are the mysterious motives and curious excuses of plagiarists? What forms of punishment and absolution does this “sin” elicit? What is the good in certain types of plagiarism? Provocative, insightful, and extraordinary for its clarity and forthrightness, The Little Book of Plagiarism is an analytical tour de force in small, the work of “one of the top twenty legal thinkers in America” (Legal Affairs), a distinguished jurist renowned for his adventuresome intellect and daring iconoclasm.

"So... eh... before I start, I would like to say a little about myself and a little about why I have chosen this theme..." "BY ALL MEANS NO! You have already started! Actually, you have jumped the gun and that is just as foolish as a musician starting to play his instrument in the wings or on his way onto the stage. There is only one start and that has to be distinct." Mette Højen does not beat about the bush when she with immaculate precision, and a twinkle in her eye points out the rhetorical bad habits of corporate life. In a simple and informal style, she shows us how you stand to gain more from your speeches, meetings and presentations by making a few rhetorical adjustments. It is plain speaking with one clear objective: maximizing the return on your allotted speaking time – or put differently maximizing your rhetorical ROI.

The classic introductory Latin textbook, first published in 1956, and still the bestselling and most highly regarded textbook of its kind. Revised and expanded, this sixth edition of classics professor Frederic M. Wheelock's Latin has all the features that have made it the bestselling single-volume beginning Latin textbook and more: * Forty chapters with grammatical explanations and readings based on ancient Roman authors * Self-tutorial exercises with an answer key for independent study * An extensive English-Latin/Latin-English vocabulary section * A rich selection of original Latin readings—unlike other textbooks which contain primarily made-up Latin texts * Etymological aids Also includes maps of the Mediterranean, Italy and the Aegean area, as well as numerous photographs illustrating aspects of classical culture, mythology, and historical and literary figures presented in the chapter readings.