It takes the average reader 5 hours and 54 minutes to read Common As Air by Lewis Hyde
Assuming a reading speed of 250 words per minute. Learn more
DIV In 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his famous ‘I Have a Dream’ speech. Thirty years later his son registered the words ‘I Have a Dream’ as a trademark and successfully blocked attempts to reproduce these four words. Unlike the Gettysburg Address and other famous speeches, ‘I Have a Dream’ is now private property, even though some the speech is comprised of words written by Thomas Jefferson, a man who very much believed that the corporate land grab of knowledge was at odds with the development of civil society. Exploring the complex intersection between creativity and commerce, Hyde raises the question of how our shared store of art and knowledge might be made compatible with our desire to copyright everything, and questions whether the fruits of creative labour can – or should – be privately owned, especially in the digital age. ‘In what sense,’ he writes, ‘can someone own, and therefore control other people’s access to, a work of fiction or a public speech or the ideas behind a drug?’ Moving deftly between literary analysis, history and biography (from Benjamin Franklin’s reluctance to patent his inventions to Bob Dylan’s admission that his early method of songwriting was largely comprised of ‘rearranging verses to old blues ballads, adding an original line here or there… slapping a title on it’), Common As Air is a stirring call-to-arms about how we might concretely legislate for a cultural commons that would simultaneously allow for financial reward and protection from monopoly. Rigorous, informative and riveting, this is a book for anyone who is interested in the creative process. /div
Common As Air by Lewis Hyde is 352 pages long, and a total of 88,704 words.
This makes it 119% the length of the average book. It also has 108% more words than the average book.
The average oral reading speed is 183 words per minute. This means it takes 8 hours and 4 minutes to read Common As Air aloud.
Common As Air is suitable for students ages 12 and up.
Note that there may be other factors that effect this rating besides length that are not factored in on this page. This may include things like complex language or sensitive topics not suitable for students of certain ages.
When deciding what to show young students always use your best judgement and consult a professional.
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