Just to be clear: We’re all in agreement that when we talk about someone in their capacity as “a writer” we’re referring only in part to how well they perform at the craft of actually, you know, doing writing, right? That, like, while we can compliment someone on their chiasmus (or whatever, idk) (“That’s some fancy metonymy!!”) there’s also a whole other part of the calculus here? Namely: that thing for which writing is just a proxy? i.e. the “thinking with a brain” part?

I ask only because when I read pieces like Slate’s take on Jonah Lehrer’s self-plagiarism problem—which is a very good piece!—I worry a little over passages like this:

For a writer as prolific as Lehrer, reusing a phrase every so often may be unavoidable. But why would a writer as accomplished as Lehrer become this much of a copy/paste addict? Because he has ceased to be a writer. With the success of his recent books How We Decide and Imagine: How Creativity Works, Lehrer has moved into the idea business. This is the world of TED talks and corporate lectures, a realm in which your thoughts are your product. For the idea man, the written word is just one of many mediums for conveying your message and building your brand.

Because sure, yes, that’s a likely diagnosis of what has happened, but it also sidesteps the inevitable corollary, which is that Lehrer’s not just engaging in a different manner of writing but also necessarily a very inferior type of thought. (It also raises the question as to whether wasn’t always an inferior thinker.) (Ahem.)

Which is not to say inferior thoughts aren’t marketable! Or that one can’t be very “accomplished” at this sort of thing. It just stands that the writing he churns out now as an Idea Businessman is not just lazy it’s arguably not even writing, since the thing it proxies is not actually thought so much as something different, something less than. Like dogma, maybe! (Though I mean, hey, when the only tool you have is the one good idea you ever had suddenly everything looks like a $100K speaking gig, so who am I to judge.)

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13. johnlempka said: “unavoidable”
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