What if the reinvention of literature came precisely from those writing techniques long excluded from its domain—such as word processing, programming, and cryptography? What if plagiarism, appropriation, theft—and ultimately, unoriginality—were the forces breathing new life into the creative act? In this book/manifesto—fast-paced, provocative, at times irreverent, yet rich with historical references—Kenneth Goldsmith sets out to rethink the figure of the contemporary writer (and reader). No longer a romantic, isolated genius, but a programmer of language, a connected thinker who sets up and tends to a complex “writing machine.”

Language is now everywhere; texts proliferate. Even our images, our videos, our music are made of letters. Faced with this explosion, we must first learn to negotiate and manage the overwhelming amount of text we are exposed to.

Starting from how the visual arts responded to the advent of photography, Goldsmith attempts to reimagine creativity from its apparent erasure, tracing a compelling narrative that weaves together the last hundred years of literary and visual art history—from concrete poetry to the most recent post-internet experiments, from Situationism to video art, passing through figures like James Joyce, Walter Benjamin, Jonathan Lethem, and Cory Doctorow.