Plagiarism

It's been unclear whether the whole Ian McEwan kerfuffle--he's been accused of borrowing a little too liberally in his novel Atonement from the memoirs of a British romance novelist, who worked as a Nightingale nurse during WWII--would turn into a highbrow Kaavya Viswanathan situation, or would be quietly swept under the rug. In the Kaavya corner, we've had, well, no one. In the other corner, critics and authors (including Thomas Pynchon!) are practically tripping over themselves to defend McEwan. But just before the bell, here's Slate crusader Jack Shafer to tell you that no, we should not be sweeping this under the rug, and Ian McEwan is a very, very bad man. Oh, and all those critics and authors defending him? They're elitist fucks. Sayeth Shafer:

As a long-time magazine and newspaper editor, I'd have no trouble firing McEwan for writing as he did if he worked for me ... But McEwan's defenders mustn't judge him by the rules of mere journalism. He links to his champions on his home page, where his own explanation can be found. The defense goes like this: He's a novelist, operating in a world of make-believe, and storytellers have always been allowed to pilfer and pinch from other writers with impunity.

Daryl Cagle takes to his blog to defend Kathleen E. Breeden, the Harvard student accused of plagiarizing his cartoons. Cagle refers to the Yahtzee ("a term I coined to refer to times when five or more cartoonists draw the same gag at the same time") and says the fault is not with Breeden, but with editors:

When editors all want the same thing from a cartoonist, and the cartoonists are all drawing on the same topics at the same time, it is no wonder that we come up with the simple, easy, first-gag -that-comes-to-mind. That is what I see in this poor, besieged Harvard cartoonist - easy, Yahtzee gags - and that should be no surprise given that she is just a student, and her editor clearly suffers from editorial group-think. The other gags the cartoonist is accused of plagiarizing include one from Walt Handelsman (who shares my views on this issue) showing Bush saying something, and a Democratic donkey standing next to him with a sign and arrow pointing at him that says, "not." Readers of our site know that the t-shirt or sign pointing at something with a comment ("I'm with stupid") is a recurring Yahtzee theme.

It's a pretty good point. We salute the editors at the New York Post, who clearly always want something different.

HARVARD CARTOON "PLAGIARISM" [Daryl Cagle, October 30 entry]

Earlier: Down By the Banks of the River Charles: Lovers, Fuggers, Thieves, Plagiarists

At left, a cartoon published on October 12 by Newday's Walt Handelsman; at right, a cartoon published in the Harvard Crimson by Kathleen E. Breeden on October 25. As the Crimson reports, there's a "noticeable similarity" between the two. "Further review of other cartoons drawn by Breeden has yielded three other examples of similarities among her work and editorial cartoons featured on Daryl Cagle's Professional Cartoonists Index, a Web site that lists and organizes editorial cartoons from around the world." This incident follows the suspension of a column by the Crimson'sVictoria B. Ilyinsky after Ilyinsky was found to have ripped off material from Slate. There's an easy Kaavya Viswanathan joke here, but at least Kaavya plagiarized from an actual book; stealing stuff from the Internet seems so much more lazy. What are the odds that both these girls' claimed to "build large suspension bridges in my yard" in their admission essays?

Crimson Cartoonist's Work Bears Similarity to Others' [Harvard Crimson]

The kids at IvyGate take a break from their non-stop Aleksey D. Vayner coverage to note the return to print of ur-Vayner Kaavya Viswanathan. Kaavya's got a profile of 85 Broads founder Janet Hanson in a magazine put out by Harvard Undergraduate Women in Business. The piece is pretty flat, but, as the Gaters note, there is a particular poignance to the passage below:

Also a good packager. Those guys can make a world of difference.

EXCLUSIVE: She's Baaaaack! Kaavya's First Post-Plagiarism Writing [IvyGate]

In the continuing theme of Fake Writer Day, this one's a stretch: certain passages in Daniel J. Boorstein's high school history textbook A History of the United States are identical to those in another textbook, America: Pathways to the Present, which was written by multiple authors. The catch is, the big names on the books' spines aren't necessarily responsible for everything in the text, as textbooks, with their constantly changing editions, are mostly written by a slew of uncredited writers. So while Boorstein and the big names from Pathways likely did not plagiarize, there are writers beneath them who may very well have lifted passages or "internalized" words from other texts. If a hip teen packaging company were involved, it might not be that unlike the case of Kaavya Viswanathan. And if those 1000-page textbooks were used for anything more than a doorstop, this all might matter.

Schoolbooks Are Given F's in Originality [NYT]

• Meghan Daum is still finding ways to make money off of having lived in Nebraska. [Salon]
• It's been a year since Judy Miller went to jail, and ain't a damn thing changed. [HuffPo]
• Shock magazine review. Apparently it's for illiterates. [WP]
• Whether or not she's a plagiarist, alleged plagiarist Ann Coulter should be careful about picking a fight with The Post, which could show her picture alongside an embarrassing heading. For example: "45-YEAR-OLD PLAGIARIST." [Political Cortex]

Alleged serial plagiarist Ann Coulter, 45, went on the attack against The New York Post, after that paper became the latest outlet to note that Ann's deranged ravings might actually be the ravings of other deranged people. (Those charges have resulted in an investigation by Universal Press Syndicate, the organization that distributes her column, "Crazy Bitch Screaming.") Coulter, in a paragraph she may very well have written herself, says:

"Once considered a legitimate daily, the Post has been reduced to tabloid status best known for Page Six's breathless accounts of Paris Hilton's latest ruttings, and headlines like 'Vampire Teen -- H.S. Girl Is Out for Blood.' How crappy a newspaper is the Post? Let me put it this way: It's New York's second-crappiest paper."

Really, Ann? That's the best you can do? Accusing a tabloid paper of, um, being a tabloid? You must really be rattled. Listen, Gawker's written its fair share of nasty stuff about The Post in the past: We invite you to go back through the archives, pick out what you like, and use it in your next column. It'll be our little secret.

Coulter's Syndicate Requests Report From Plagiarism Prober -- As She Hits Back at 'NY Post' [E&P;]

Upsetting news for fans of Goebbels- impersonator Ann Coulter: The New York Post, a paper which knows a thing or two about plagiarism, has advanced the ball on the "does she or doesn't she" question, at least if that question regards whether or not the 45-year-old's comical hate speech has been ripped off. Seems that "John Barrie, the creator of a leading plagiarism- recognition system, claimed he found at least three instances of what he calls 'textbook plagiarism'" in Coulter's latest opus, I'm Glad That Your Husbands Died in Those Towers, You Whores, in addition to other "borrowings" in Coulter's syndicated column, which, depressingly, appears in over one hundred newspapers nationwide. Following close on the heels of earlier charges, this represents the all- important third accusation, which means that even Appropriating Annie's staunchest defenders will have to take note. Coulter herself was unavailable for comment, but she might have just been standing sideways.

Copycatty Coulter Pilfers Prose: Pro [NYP]

Earlier:Possible Plagiarist Ann Coulter May Have Been Plagiarizing As Far Back As 1997 (When She Was 36)
Shit Coulter Full Of Not Even Her Own

We're not going to get on our high horse to condemn plagiarism. (That'd be just so predictable.) But may we get on our high horse for a moment to condemn stupid plagiarism? The News gleefully notes today that the Post suspended reporter Andy Geller for a month "after the newspaper discovered he copied massive sections of an article." And where did he find the article from which he plagiarized? In the Times. On the same fucking day.

Cheaters this dumb are the worst kind: They take all the sport out of catching them.

Copycat Postie Put on Ice for a Month [NYDN]

Kaavya Viswanathan, the Harvard sophomore who was caught plagiarizing her highly-publicized, studio-optioned debut novel, has wisely disappeared into relative obscurity since her little kerfuffle. But just because she destroyed her "writing" career and can no longer make a dime on her name doesn't mean that someone can't make a profit off of the whole thing:

CHILDREN'S: YOUNG ADULT
Jamie Michaels's KISS MY BOOK, story of a teen writing sensation who gets caught plagiarizing her debut novel, but finds redemption and romance when she escapes to a small town, to Krista Marino at Delacorte, by Michael Bourret at Dystel & Goderich Literary Management (World).

Surely DreamWorks is considering optioning this, if only to get back at Viswanathan for screwing them over the first time. No studio exec is above exacting revenge on a teenager. Now, does anyone know who reps that Bend It Like Beckham girl?

Earlier: Gawker's Coverage of Kaavya

• Times Baghdad bureau likes 'em young; Times Mag editor Gerry Marzorati likes 'em late-30-something and in business. [NYO]
• And James Wolcott likes 'em monocled and on a compiliation DVD set. [New Criterion]
• Seth Mnookin says Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown is a plagiarist, if not necessarily by the legal definition. Brown says Mnookin is a pain in his ass, if not necessarily by the legal definition. [NYT]
• Huffington Post launches a media blog, "Eat the Press." Clever, eh? [HuffPost]
• Laddie McLadlad Greg Gutfeld also launches a blog, "The Daily Gut." Clever, eh? [Jossip]