Counterfeit Chick Lit...
Plaguing the op/ed sections of every newspaper I've read for the past week, the now infamous Kaavya Viswanathan has received more attention than Paris Hilton's break up with Greek shipping heir Stavros Niarchos. She is so popular that even Americans unable to properly pronounce the word "bedroom" are comfortable saying her name. This notoriety has permiated the media to such a degree that her next book, even if it is another compilation from the works of various other authors, is guaranteed to be a best seller.
Due to her blatant plagerism her notorious and extensively titled book "How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life" has reached number 58 on Amazon.com's best seller's list. Her success has trumped that of thousands of writers that have slaved over their original works for twice her tender age of 19. Karma appears to have spared Kaavya.
Those that have purchased Viswanathan's work of plagerism have given into the pop culture impulse reaction to purchase whatever it is that is advertized. Perhaps the buyers are hoping to auction the books off on ebay just in case Viswanathan commits suicide from literary theft induced teenage depression. That gamble may be worthwhile since writers have a high suicide rate and Viswanathan has much to feel guilty about. Hemingway commit suicide simply to save his soul. Will Viswanathan do it to save herself the humiliation that will endure the rest of her life?
The modest pursuit of capitalizing on the growing infatuation amongst young women towards depth deprived literature has spiraled out of control. Is Viswanathan simply an victim of circumstance? Were the dozens of alleged literary borrowing simply accidents as she says? Doubtful.
The clue that marks the multitude of mistakes as intentional is derived from the name of the book packager that shared the copyright: Alloy Entertainment. According to Merriam-Webster's dictionary, the word "alloy" means a compound, mixture, or union of different things. Although the packager hasn't been reached for comment, the mixture of different works by chick lit authors appears to fit the corporate namesake. Something is suspicious here.
With the over abundance of published works from blogs to chap books, how is it that anyone could assert that they are not plagerizing? Viswanathan simply made the mistake of borrowing from too popular a book. There have been questionable instances of literary borrowing in the past. Sagan's "Contact" was too similar to Lem's "His Master's Voice". Lem's "Memoirs Found in a Bathtub" is similar to Kafka's "The Trial". Kafka's "Amerika" is similar to Voltaire's "Candide". Voltaire's "Treatise on Tolerance" is... ad infinitum. The perception of originality is inversley related to ones wealth of knowledge.
Hunter S. Thompson was able to avoid the pitfalls of plagerism by employing his Gonzo Journalism. He recorded his own subjective interpretation of the events he experienced and editted out the drug induced incoherence. He essentially eliminated the possibility of plagerism. But even if there were some similarities to literary works, he could blame the resemblence on the cyclical nature of the world.
If some don't subscribe to Thompson's full proof plagerism avoidance method, then they should learn from Viswanathan's mistakes. Her borrowed work was too similar to the original. If you want to borrow from Camus, instead of starting out with "Maman died today. Or maybe yesterday, I don't know," say "My mother died, either yesterday or today, I can't discern which." With Dostoevsky instead of starting out, "I am a sick man... I am a spiteful man. An ugly man. I think my liver is diseased," say "I'm unhealthy and abnormal... Just disgusting. I can feel my bile boiling up within me."
Viswanathan was simply lazy. Placing words between the stolen phrases instead of replacing them. Perhaps Viswanathan thought that she could hide the plagerism of "How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life" by packing filler prose between the lies. Now that her lie is exposed there is no burying it again, no matter how many words she throws into the title.
Due to her blatant plagerism her notorious and extensively titled book "How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life" has reached number 58 on Amazon.com's best seller's list. Her success has trumped that of thousands of writers that have slaved over their original works for twice her tender age of 19. Karma appears to have spared Kaavya.
Those that have purchased Viswanathan's work of plagerism have given into the pop culture impulse reaction to purchase whatever it is that is advertized. Perhaps the buyers are hoping to auction the books off on ebay just in case Viswanathan commits suicide from literary theft induced teenage depression. That gamble may be worthwhile since writers have a high suicide rate and Viswanathan has much to feel guilty about. Hemingway commit suicide simply to save his soul. Will Viswanathan do it to save herself the humiliation that will endure the rest of her life?
The modest pursuit of capitalizing on the growing infatuation amongst young women towards depth deprived literature has spiraled out of control. Is Viswanathan simply an victim of circumstance? Were the dozens of alleged literary borrowing simply accidents as she says? Doubtful.
The clue that marks the multitude of mistakes as intentional is derived from the name of the book packager that shared the copyright: Alloy Entertainment. According to Merriam-Webster's dictionary, the word "alloy" means a compound, mixture, or union of different things. Although the packager hasn't been reached for comment, the mixture of different works by chick lit authors appears to fit the corporate namesake. Something is suspicious here.
With the over abundance of published works from blogs to chap books, how is it that anyone could assert that they are not plagerizing? Viswanathan simply made the mistake of borrowing from too popular a book. There have been questionable instances of literary borrowing in the past. Sagan's "Contact" was too similar to Lem's "His Master's Voice". Lem's "Memoirs Found in a Bathtub" is similar to Kafka's "The Trial". Kafka's "Amerika" is similar to Voltaire's "Candide". Voltaire's "Treatise on Tolerance" is... ad infinitum. The perception of originality is inversley related to ones wealth of knowledge.
Hunter S. Thompson was able to avoid the pitfalls of plagerism by employing his Gonzo Journalism. He recorded his own subjective interpretation of the events he experienced and editted out the drug induced incoherence. He essentially eliminated the possibility of plagerism. But even if there were some similarities to literary works, he could blame the resemblence on the cyclical nature of the world.
If some don't subscribe to Thompson's full proof plagerism avoidance method, then they should learn from Viswanathan's mistakes. Her borrowed work was too similar to the original. If you want to borrow from Camus, instead of starting out with "Maman died today. Or maybe yesterday, I don't know," say "My mother died, either yesterday or today, I can't discern which." With Dostoevsky instead of starting out, "I am a sick man... I am a spiteful man. An ugly man. I think my liver is diseased," say "I'm unhealthy and abnormal... Just disgusting. I can feel my bile boiling up within me."
Viswanathan was simply lazy. Placing words between the stolen phrases instead of replacing them. Perhaps Viswanathan thought that she could hide the plagerism of "How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life" by packing filler prose between the lies. Now that her lie is exposed there is no burying it again, no matter how many words she throws into the title.
6 Comments:
Didn't T.S. Elliot say hacks borrow, but artists steal? Myabe it was someone else. But I paraphrased it.
By
Moderator, at 11:38 AM
That may have been Picasso. Artists make concepts their own. Given that nothing about us is our own creation, we are forced to steal.
By
T.S. Idiot, at 12:18 PM
Thank you!
[url=http://tcrkedvl.com/bpsa/bseg.html]My homepage[/url] | [url=http://auxyhaek.com/emur/wlaf.html]Cool site[/url]
By
Anonymous, at 11:07 PM
Good design!
My homepage | Please visit
By
Anonymous, at 11:07 PM
Good design!
My homepage | Please visit
By
Anonymous, at 11:07 PM
Well done!
http://tcrkedvl.com/bpsa/bseg.html | http://tmplienp.com/efrz/wboc.html
By
Anonymous, at 11:08 PM
Post a Comment
<< Home