I was not intending to belittle the work of forgers. On the contrary.
There comes a time when the study becomes as good as or even better than the masterpiece. That's when the question comes up which one is the real masterpiece. After all, the "original" artist was not facing any challenge, just idly setting a bar; but the "student" who can jump all the bars he finds - isn't he the real master? And isn't the artist just a forger with a time machine?
Citing Mr D. Adams describing the making-of of the Hitchhikers Guide:
The simplistic style is partly explained by the fact that its editors, having to meet a publishing deadline, copied the information off the back of a packet of breakfast cereal, hastily embroidering it with a few foot notes in order to avoid prosecution under the incomprehensibly torturous Galactic Copyright Laws. It's interesting to note that a later and wilier editor sent the book backwards in time, through a temporal warp, and then successfully sued the breakfast cereal company for infringement of the same laws.
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