Plagiarism 101?
My former stomping grounds, The Harvard Crimson, reported last night that superstar author Kaavya Viswanathan’s "How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life," bears a "striking similarity" to another chick-lit gem, "Sloppy Firsts" by Megan McCafferty.
The whole thing feels damn uncomfortable. It's true, as one blogger noted that Harvard is FILLED with schadenfreude (check out this story we ran back in the day) and likely to salivate with unbecoming glee even before we hear from all sides. That's why this news makes me uncomfortable of course-- it taps into my barely-supressed schadenfreude as an aspiring writer (like everyone at Harvard), and also gives rise to a huge amount of pity and bewilderment. I feel immature and naive on a daily basis, as this blog can attest to. How can someone three years my junior be expected to stare down the pressure she has, and will? But that's how it works, sadly. Pop stars younger than she are held up to the lens of the press with even more vicious regularity. Young women in particular court publicity--and succesful, pretty young women are primary targets for tear-downs. We're still not comfortable with the heights they reach.
But there's something about being a wildly successful, precociously talented anything at a young age, that seems to go hand in hand with a certain pressured recklessness... as well as an abundance of connections, and a more-than-healthy dose of good luck. It's the first of those three qualities that perhaps leads to those yet-to-be-explained "striking similarities"... or in the case of another young Harvard hotshot recently disgraced, out-and-out fabrication.
At the end of the day, this will only inch the book up the bestseller list. But the biggest question is, how is it that we live in a society that enables this sort of thing to occur over and over again? The answer, in my opinion is the inflation of the fame-money nexus. If you have it, if you want it (or if you want it for your child/protege/client), you forget the rules. From Lindsay Lohan on down, we're so obsessed with the next hot young thing, that we forget about the young part.
PS heehee
The whole thing feels damn uncomfortable. It's true, as one blogger noted that Harvard is FILLED with schadenfreude (check out this story we ran back in the day) and likely to salivate with unbecoming glee even before we hear from all sides. That's why this news makes me uncomfortable of course-- it taps into my barely-supressed schadenfreude as an aspiring writer (like everyone at Harvard), and also gives rise to a huge amount of pity and bewilderment. I feel immature and naive on a daily basis, as this blog can attest to. How can someone three years my junior be expected to stare down the pressure she has, and will? But that's how it works, sadly. Pop stars younger than she are held up to the lens of the press with even more vicious regularity. Young women in particular court publicity--and succesful, pretty young women are primary targets for tear-downs. We're still not comfortable with the heights they reach.
But there's something about being a wildly successful, precociously talented anything at a young age, that seems to go hand in hand with a certain pressured recklessness... as well as an abundance of connections, and a more-than-healthy dose of good luck. It's the first of those three qualities that perhaps leads to those yet-to-be-explained "striking similarities"... or in the case of another young Harvard hotshot recently disgraced, out-and-out fabrication.
At the end of the day, this will only inch the book up the bestseller list. But the biggest question is, how is it that we live in a society that enables this sort of thing to occur over and over again? The answer, in my opinion is the inflation of the fame-money nexus. If you have it, if you want it (or if you want it for your child/protege/client), you forget the rules. From Lindsay Lohan on down, we're so obsessed with the next hot young thing, that we forget about the young part.
PS heehee
Labels: culchural commentation
posted by SarahMarian at 8:30 AM
2 Comments:
excellent, sensitive post on a complicated issue...it's hard to excuse the plagiarist (no one forced her to steal the work of another artist), but a lot of the fault here clearly lies with the high-pressure, super-performance-expecting culture of privilege at certain schools. there is certainly a reason why this keeps happening over and over again.
What's sad is that this writer's parents paid the equivlent of my entire year's college tuition just so that she could be sure of getting in at Harvard. Obviously, she didn't make up her book to supplement her financial aid. My schadenfraude has nothing to do with her being young, beautiful, female etc., but her financial situation. It's hard to pity the rich. It's even harder to feel sorry for them when they fail.
Her parents got her "coaching" so she would be acceptable as a writer to an agent. But it baffles me. I've never heard of anyone's parents pressuring them to be a writer. Doctor, lawyer, yes. Not artist.
Anyway, it's a shame the writer didn't take her own moral to heart. You know the one about how it's important to keep your self respect and follow your own dreams, never mind what other people pressure you to do.
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