While surfing through editorials this morning I came upon one that was very effective at getting me riled up. I had previously heard the story of Kaavya Viswanathan, a Harvard student, "genius," and author of the young adult novel "How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life," and how she allegedly plagiarized passages from the works of another young adult author. I had heard that numerous passages were allegedly lifted from two other novels by the same author, Megan McCafferty, and that Ms. Viswanathan had issued contradictory statements regarding her inspiration from the novel, which began as "nothing" external and changed to McCafferty's works "speaking to her."
What I assumed, upon reading these stories, was that she would fail some classes at Harvard (at least those classes in which she did coursework relevant to her novel, assuming there were any), enter academic disgrace, have her money taken back, etc... but this editorial proposes that this is not at all what will happen. Rather, it suggests, she will keep her money and a movie deal based on the book, and will use the controversial publicity to promote both. The editorial author continues "But this is just another example of how people these days are only concerned about looking good, instead of being good."
Right on. These days, the appearance is the thing, and rarely do people inspect closely enough to determine whether or not appearance is reality. Perhaps one day our only protection against plagiarism will be the honor and good will of others. And that doesn't leave me sitting very comfortably.
Bookmark/Search this post with:
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
