A Little Overboard
Poor Kaavya Viswanathan. For the few lines she allegedly plagiarized in her book, she just got a two-book deal cancelled. Ok, so I haven't read the book. And I don't think I ever will. It's "chick-lit" for god's sake. But still, if it wasn't for Oprah and her hate-affair with James Frey, would any of this ever have happened? As if that wasn't bad enough. So he made up a few details in his memoirs. Anyone who ever tells a story adds a little spice to it. What's a story without spice, anyhow?
Now, some Jersey-based newspaper which Kaavya interned at when she was 17 is looking at all the articles that she wrote for them. Jeez. Poor Kaavya. Perhaps if she waits for a couple of years, and graduates from Harvard, she can write about this whole experience. Or she can take the investment-banking route like most other ABCDs I know...
Kaavya: My sympathies are with you. It's a jungle out there, girl.
Now, some Jersey-based newspaper which Kaavya interned at when she was 17 is looking at all the articles that she wrote for them. Jeez. Poor Kaavya. Perhaps if she waits for a couple of years, and graduates from Harvard, she can write about this whole experience. Or she can take the investment-banking route like most other ABCDs I know...
Kaavya: My sympathies are with you. It's a jungle out there, girl.
posted by The Intellectual Masturbater | 7:38 PM
3 Comments:
Well, not to flog a dead horse or anything, but she got a $500,000 advance. Which, to all aspiring writers, is a dream come true, since most book advances are in the $1000 to $10,000 range. So, for her to get such a killer package was a clear indicator that they expected big things -- and were marketing her in a certain way. Plagiarism is what it is. We all are "inspired" by things -- including other people's lives, but to actually lift lines from someone else's writing and change a few words around is inexcusable. It not only shows disrespect, but lack of original thinking, which is key to any good writing worth the fat advance it received. So, no, I don't pity her. I think what she did was reprehensible. And maybe you can chalk it up to her age, but her story is different from Frey's. Frey made up facts about his own life, but he still wrote damn well. He didn't steal other people's lines and pass them off as his own -- and thought he could smarmily get away with it. Like she did. People like her make life a little bit harder for writers who actually care about what they write. Now their writing will fall under scrutiny as well.
well, i suppose i should be clearer. i don't pity her, per se (give me a $500K advance, any day!). but i feel that people have just gone a little overboard with the whole thing. i mean, newspapers where she interned checking up on stuff she did two years ago. i think that's a little too much.
more than anything, it's stupid american hysteria. precipitated by the whole jonathan frey thing. i mean to say that the publishing business is still smarting from the slap-in-the-face given to them by oprah (since when did she become the nation's conscience, for god's sake?!) and that is why they are doing all this over li'l opal.
and i'm not an expert on the whole writing/publishing business, yet. but from what i've read, it seems that she hardly did anything. even the whole plagiarism thing is questionable.
Have you READ the paragraphs? There's over 40 of them. Perhaps the second count of plagiarism (comparison to Sophie Kinsella) is questionable, but not the first. There's no way, no way that anyone can "filter" that information subconsciously.
Post a Comment
<< Home