Author Invites Public To Plagiarize World’s Longest Novel

Nov. 29, 2009 - PRLog -- Coppell, TX – Want to publish a novel but don’t have time to write?  Mark Leach has a deal for you.

The Texas-based writer is lifting copyright protections on “Marienbad My Love,” the world’s longest novel, to encourage wide-scale copying, distribution, transmission and remixing of the 17-million-word work.

“William Burroughs said that words don’t have brands on them the way cattle do,” Leach said. “Today I am opening the gates of my literary corral and turning ‘Marienbad My Love’ loose on the public. Lasso as many  words as you want. In fact, steal the whole herd.”

Leach is making “Marienbad My Love” available through a Creative Commons license, which allows authors to offer their copyrighted work to the public for free and legal sharing, use, repurposing and remixing.

“The remixing opportunity is what really excites me,” he said. “I find it astonishing that 2009 is the 50th anniversary of the publication of Burroughs’ ‘Naked Lunch,' a novel that remixed snippets of other writers' texts into a new and unique work. While the book regularly shows up on lists of the best novels of the 20th century, relatively few writers have followed Burroughs’ remixing lead. The conceptual poet Kenneth Goldsmith recently asked ‘why hasn't straight appropriation become a valid, sustained or even tested literary practice?’ I couldn’t agree more. By inviting the public to legally ‘plagiarize’ my work, I hope to awaken a new generation of writers to the vast possibilities of literary appropriation as a valid creative endeavor. Steal my words and make them your own.”  


About "Marienbad My Love"

"Marienbad My Love" by Mark Leach is a love story for the end of the world. The novel features a protagonist who attempts to film a science-fiction-themed pastiche to "Last Year at Marienbad." A free ebook download of "Marienbad My Love" is available at marienbadmylove.com.