Originality Is Overrated: Innovation Depends On Imitation

“Throughout human history, innovation -including the technological progress we cherish -has been fuelled and sustained by imitation. Copying is the mighty force that has allowed the human race to move from stone knives to remote-guided drones, from digging sticks to crops that manufacture their own pesticides. … We’re natural-born rip-off artists. To be human is to copy.”

When The Author Of “Catch-22” Wrote A Musical Comedy

Howe & Hummel has never been performed. It hasn’t even been published. In the 50 years since [Joseph] Heller completed it, it’s never had so much as a public reading. Only two copies of the typescript survive. … In subsequent years, Heller would rewrite reality as artfully as Howe and Hummel, and erase Howe & Hummel from his life. His autobiography spares not a word for the project he devoted so many months to.”

What It Was Like To Work With Jian Ghomeshi (It Wasn’t Pretty)

“One day, Ghomeshi would be jovial and generous; the next, cold and dismissive. His chronic lateness kept staff on edge; he kept people waiting for hours. Everyone bridled – at least privately – at his mood swings and his penchant for playing staff against one another. The predominantly female staff found themselves reduced to tears by his tirades. The trauma and unhappiness within the unit was known within CBC … and yet, CBC management never intervened.”

The Woman Who Matches $10 Million Masterpieces To The People Who Can Pay For Them

“Her profile rocketed after she helped her contemporary-art clients place bids or win half of Christie’s top 10 priciest works in May. Nearly 6 feet tall, she was easy to spot standing between colleagues in the saleroom’s phone banks, wielding three cellphones at a time and lobbing bids at a regular clip. By sale’s end, she helped her Chinese clients win as much as $236 million of art.”

Wait, Is ‘Jane Eyre’ A Genre Novel? (And If So, What The Heck *Is* Genre?)

“Why not just let books be books? The thing is that genre doesn’t have to be vexing. It can be illuminating. It can be useful for writers and readers to think in terms of groups and traditions. And a good genre system — a system that really fits reality — can help us see the traditions in which we’re already, unconsciously, immersed.”