tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6656468.post114573012904259606..comments2024-03-18T09:14:44.500+00:00Comments on Grumpy Old Bookman: Some things from the weekendMichael Allenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11338398159818400930noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6656468.post-1146017404788255472006-04-26T03:10:00.000+01:002006-04-26T03:10:00.000+01:00The NY Times pretty well leapt to her defense this...The NY Times pretty well leapt to her defense this morning, noting that at her tender age she was impacted by the other books at an even younger tender age and her subconschous/devil made her do it all without realizing they were near exact,word-for word PARAGRAPHS. <BR/><BR/>Good news for all, she is sorry (no, she regrets this astounding misrouting of brain neurons) for the coincidence, and will include a disclaimer somewhere on the inside, worded in such a way as to be meaningless. In other words,<BR/><BR/>it never happened.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6656468.post-1145917077792199172006-04-24T23:17:00.000+01:002006-04-24T23:17:00.000+01:00"Deception bordering on fraud" was my verdict on t..."Deception bordering on fraud" was my verdict on the process by which 19 year-old Kaavya Viswanathan was coached by an agent and book packager during the writing of her novel How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life.<BR/><BR/>What I didn't realise when I made my comment to Grumpy Old Bookman was just how prescient I was.<BR/><BR/>This – surely – is plagiarism, no matter how you slice it. Ms Viswanathan may very well be a talent young writer, but on the evidence of her first novel she is not above "drawing on" (ie lifting) another author's work – in this case Sloppy Firsts by Megan McCafferty – in order to reach her goal.<BR/><BR/>Should her defence be that she didn't do the lifting personally but, rather, accepted "suggestions" put to her by her agent and packager, then she is just as fradulent as if she had doen the dirty herself. The difference in the second case is that she is joined in the dock by her co-conspirators.<BR/><BR/>At any rate, she should now come clean and admit what she did, or allowed to be done on her behalf. To hide behind a "no comment" will only work until such times as her publishers investigate the case, conclude the bleeding obvious and offer a settlement.<BR/><BR/>Plagiarism – in spite of the recent High Court verdict involving Dan Brown and the Da Vinci Code (in which Brown was exonerated) – is on the increase in publishing.<BR/><BR/>I have personal knowledge of a case (and I can mention no names at this point) that is representative of what sometimes takes place.<BR/><BR/>A first-time novelist wrote a book in 2003 which he submitted, through his agent, to a well-known British publisher in the spring of 2004. The novel in question was set in an obscure corner of Europe during the Second World War and turned on the efforts of a young, public-school and Cambridge educated ex-soldier turned spy, to prevent a calamity occuring that could have caused Britain to lose the war.<BR/><BR/>The novel was rejected three months later on the grounds that, though well-written and interesting, it was "retrospective," and therefore (for some reason) of no interest to the reading public.<BR/><BR/>Nearly two years later, another novel, with a similar theme and an almost identical cast of characters, set at the same time in the same neglected corner of Europe, appeared from the same publisher written by an established author previously known for his bestsellers in a different genre.<BR/><BR/>The book has done well and received good reviews.<BR/><BR/>When pressed, the publisher denied that anything untoward had occured. He claimed to the author of the rejected novel that the published book had been presented "as a completed manuscript" in the summer of 2002. Given that the author himself, in an interview, said that he had "just finished" it in 2004, this was plainly wrong. But the complainant got nowhere and the dispute, for the moment, remains unresolved.<BR/><BR/>Could it all have been coincidence? Who can say? Did the published author draw directly on the rejected manuscript, or was it "suggested" to him how an interesting plot might be forged out of a certain circumstance and set of characters? Or did he simply awaken one morning with a fully-formed story in his head and rush with all possible speed to his word processor?<BR/><BR/>Who knows?<BR/><BR/>Is it possible that Kaavya Viswanathan coincidentally "dreamed up" whole passages previously written by Megan McCafferty? Perhaps. Contrary to the cliché, there is nothing stranger than fiction.<BR/><BR/>In the meantime, the agent and packager who "assisted" Ms Viswanathan in the preparation of her novel need to answer some very hard questions.<BR/><BR/>There is little enough integrity left in publishing. We need to conserve what shreds remain.<BR/><BR/>– Jeremy SnippetAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com