(Before I go on, I want to emphatically point to my personal debt to Michele Boldrin and David Levine’s Against Intellectual Monopoly, from which everything in this article is derived.) In the German-speaking world of art in the 18th and 19th century, imitation by composers was considered to be the greatest tribute. When Bach would write an elaboration of Buxtehude, it was seen as a wonderful gift to Buxtehude’s legacy and memory. When Mahler would turn a phrase by Brahms, or re-orchestrate a Beethoven symphony, it was the tribute of one master to another. So it is in literature and … Continue reading Generosity or Resentment