fanfic forensics

Reductionism can either mean (a) an approach to understanding the nature of complex things by reducing them to the interactions of their parts, or to simpler or more fundamental things or (b) a philosophical position that a complex system is nothing but the sum of its parts, and that an account of it can be reduced to accounts of individual constituents.[1] This can be said of objects, phenomena, explanations, theories, and meanings.

In fact it is great fun to try to pry apart the musical and lyrical inspirations and underpinnings of all the great songs, or better yet to stumble upon what is obviously an immediate genetic predecessor of an “original” song that you love.

None of this takes into account that songs can also get their genetic material from movies, books, poems, even paintings.

Perhaps what I do should be called “song-composting,” “song-mulching,” “song-smoothie-ing,” something like that. Or you could just call it “ripping off” and take me to court. I’d probably lose.