Harvard's Plagiarism Scandal, the Deconstruction Begins
Today the Times failed to include a key statement in the case the Crimson reported, Random House's pointed charge to Little, Brown that its author Megan McCafferty, was robbed:
"We are continuing to investigate this matter, but, given the alarming similarities in the language, structure and characters already found in these works, we are certain that some literal copying actually occurred here," read the letter, which is dated April 22 and was signed by Random House lawyer Min Jung Lee.
More important, The Crimson also offers a reader the only real evidence in these cases, a comparative selection of passages . Real journalism in these cases must provide this information, and let the reader decide. The list here proves to me that plagiarism occured. The only question now is whether you believe it was "unintentional," as Viswanathan claims.
I've been hearing that defense all my life and it has always annoyed me. I think if you believe her, you could also believe that monkeys sitting at typewriters wrote Shakespeare. My friend Dan Swanson takes her side, saying that if someone is going to consciously plagiarize, they would go for something obscure. McCafferty wasn't obscure. Also, he says, the human capacity to memorize is tremendous. "Everyone in the Muslim world knows someone who has memorized the Quran. Children do it."Points taken. I'm not buying though. I think that's coddling a criminal; I have no compassion for plagiarists. I think they sweat and lay a book next to the typewriter, and copy. They don't go into trances.
(While on the subject of psychology, let me acknowledge two subtexts of this scandal. A, racism. It bugs people that an Indian-American superachiever has robbed the work of someone called Megan McCafferty. B, envy. Viswanathan got $500,000 from Little, Brown for her book deal. Am I guilty of either A or B? Not me; I am a good person who never succumbs to racial stereotyping or material jealousy.)
You wrote, "I think they sweat and lay a book next to the typewriter, and copy. They don't go into trances."
Leave alone the fame and the fall of Kaavya, I feel your above words as one who wrote and self-published six books that include three novels.
BS Murthy
Hi
You hit the A and B on the head! The forced brouhaha over the Kaavya scandal-- even down here in India-- is because a US-born Indian teenager hoodwinked a US publisher by copying some (unheard of out here) US novelist to gain some serious US dollars!!! Now we are kicking ourselves: "Why didn't *I* think of doing this first?!!"
Ironically, we first heard of Kaavya's book when a local tabloid reported inconsistencies in her Indian references. It seems Opal Mehta has a cousin named Jayanthi. This is hilarious to the point of being ridiculous. Kaavya is originally south Indian. So in her context, she spelt "Jayanti" with an H. This is something people from north India (where Opal and Jayanti ostensibly hail from) would never do. Just shows that the author is not in sync with the context she has chosen to write about.
More than Kaavya, the 6 figure advance and hastily "compiled" novel is a disgrace to the intelligence of people manning the top posts at Little, Brown and Dreamworks.
I don't see much harm coming to Kaavya as a result of this mess. As Gen-X would say, this is not plagiarism guys--- this is just McCafferty remixed!!
Jam
I think the real subtext here is class, which is the nexus of envy and "racism."
How many impoverished teenagers are offered book deals? How many poor people are ever profiled in the The New York Times except out of pity?
Viswanathan may not be "white", but she is a socioeconomically upper middle class Harvard student, which in the end grants her a certain position in our society, regardlesss of her ethnicity. Would her plagiarism be newsworthy if she herself was not deemed worthy?
In my opinion, the "coddling" coverage is a result of the natural sympathy the upper middle class have for one another.
As the writer who broke the story in the New York Sun of Kaavya Viswanathan's $500,000 book contract early last year, I'm pained to see her success disintegrate. As your other corerspondents have written -- and, indeed, as you have in your own posting -- it's hard to imagine this being an "unconscious" plagiarism. I learned -- and memorized -- parts of the Hindu epic, the Bhagawad Gita, as a child growing up in Bombay. If tracts from the Gita suddenly appear almost verbatim in my journalism, am I "unintentionally" or "unconsciously" reproducing them? Is the pope Buddhist? Is the moon made of curry? Cheers, Pranay Gupte
The trance thing--*maybe* there's something to that. A long time ago I knew (and liked) a caught plagiarist at an Ivy League school. She told me that in the course of retyping the material and rearranging it and incorporating it into her own prose, she felt as if it WERE hers. I think she knew how ridiculous she sounded, but she wanted to convey her capacity for self-delusion. Almost any anxious, desperate writer will have moments of thinking, "God, I wish I'd written that!" Only a few have the capacity to, uh, LIVE THE DREAM.
How is this Harvard's Plagiarism Scandal?
Ms. Viswanathan didn't write the book for the Harvard Press, or for a course at Harvard. Harvard had nothing to do with her plagiarism or her book deal.
Ruth Shalit is a New Republic scandal because the mag published her pilfered prose; Jack Kelley is a USA Toady scandal for the same reason.
Ben Domenech was a Washington Post scandal because Domenech was an untalented, racist twit who was unqualified for the job, which the the Post knew, even if it was ignorant of his plagiarism.
But Harvard didn't hire this woman to work for them; it allowed her or her family to pay it a hundred thou or more for the privilege of attending the school.
If Ms. Viswanathan fucked a bum while attending Harvard, would that be Harvard's Bum-Fucking Scandal?
Your metaphor doesn't quite track. It would be Harvard's bum-fucking scandal if she fucked a bum (or had her bum fucked--I'm not sure which you meant) in a dorm (or, should I say, House), or if there were organized House bum-fucking parties. But you're obviously right that Harvard didn't have anything to do with this. (Harvard does often pick flashy achievers over grinds, though, which means they wind up with people like this from time to time.)
What I think everyone is missing here is the money trail
We know Daddy wanted to get his daughter into Harvard and Hired IvyWise, an 'educational consultant'to make this happen.
Okay, what does one have to shell out to get your brat into Harvard? How many thousand are we talking about?? $10k seems too small. $20K $50K ? I mean why not?
So IvyWise's job is to grease the wheels to get her in. So next this we know they've got an agent from William Morris all hot and horny over what she's written, even though, she hadn't actually written anything? The obvious question is, whether the agent was herself receiving backhanders from daddy? IT SURE SOUNDS LIKE IT!!!
William Morris Agent puts darlin' daughter in touch with a 'packager' named 17th Street PRoductions. A twenty second web search will tell you that 17th Street, got bought up by Alloy Entertainment in 2000. They create properties of the teen lit persuasion. lite, fluffy, manufactured crap that meets a profile. So why did 17th Street get all hot and horny for darlin' daughter. Did Daddy pay them as well? Or was it Ivy Wise?
Somehow as a result of all this prep work, Michael Pietsch offers a half a mil advance for what???? An unwritten story treatment!!! Which of course gets darlin' into Harvard.
Who was it that was paying to promote the book so darn heavily???
who got snookered, besides the reader and harvard.
This whole thing smells!
Well, let's hope the young twit loses her hair and dies poor.
As for the suggested "subtexts" to this story, I think that envy is much more of a factor than racism for most people. I didn't even know the ethnicity of the author until yesterday when the story about the plagiarism charges broke. When I first heard about the publishing and movie deal last week on a program that summarizes NY newspaper stories I had no desire to learn more. It sounded like such a perfect NYT story (now that "Class" month is over): overachieving little brat wins big contract for book that sounds mediocre on subject dear to the hearts of NYT's core demographic, here, the rat race to the Ivy League. I've read some variation on that story in the NYT so many times by now that I couldn't be bothered. The fact that the author was a member of a group that often is stereotyped as a model minority just added a dollop of irony; that's not racism.
I think Leslie, who posted above, got it exactly right:
"How many impoverished teenagers are offered book deals? How many poor people are ever profiled in the The New York Times except out of pity?"
The Harvard Independent had some interesting coverage as well; in particular, a description of the packaging process. (I don't have time to look up the article to provide the URL.)
Why do you all want to pick on her? I am sure her novel is better than the white woman's ... we Indians are better than white people, which is why we go to Harvard.
Really? I was unaware that the majority of Harvard's graduating class was Indian. I have several Indian friends and students who do not go to Harvard... does that mean that they're not really Indian? My Punjabi friends would argue that plagiarism is abhorent, no matter who the plagiarist claims as ancestors.
How can you say you're beater than whit people. I meen if you thank your are beater than everyone else, you're worce than the girl.
Response to V. Singh: I'm Indian and you just pissed me off with that comment. It's people like you that initiate unwarranted stereotypes. A plagiarist is a plagiarist regardless of race. If she intentionally plagiarized, she deserves to be picked on. She took a great opportunity for granted and should suffer the consequences.
As far as social class and standing: Her position as a prodigy and Harvard student puts her near the sensational (national) news bulls eye. I on the other hand hang out in the outer ring - the realm of "nobody gives a shit about you." (She's welcome to join me with all of her money) ;-) Who thought that there were benefits to belonging to a �lesser� socioeconomic class??
Finally:
Nicholas: Dude - I hope to God you're pretending to be white - white trash, that is. Get your spelling right man! Don't give Singh the opportunity for credibility.
Surely Singh's comment was an intentional shit stirrer.
Brendan, that's an interesting theory. There's something disturbingly eery about manufactured literary stars.
Still, the media gloating over the girl's demise is a little unnerving. The Uk press here is quite harsh on the whole affair, but I guess there's something that sticks in the throat about merit on false pretences. It's uncovered with glee.
The book seems to be a load of tripe anyway. Perhaps the top cats at Harvard should be more concerned about the swill that runs through the heads of their 'superachieving' students.
Just like in the Dan Brown case, you'd think pursuers should be faintly embarrassed about owning up to such lacklustre material.
This just shows the ramifications of accepting these kids of people in Harvard. They just tarnish our reputation, culture, and tradition of excellency.
i am happy mostly - though terribly sick at times - the medicine is not a perfect fix - i think some weed would help but caant find any - Kant find any...
I think there is no way in the world these similarities could have been accidental. She wrote a book that was well written enough to get her a huge advance. I think that she probably did not need to steal the work.
I believe it not unintentional becuase the person who did the plaigarism act , i think he or she was an adult, and they know right and wrong.But they commet a mistake it is not a crime we should forgive them.It they reapet it in the future now we may take action.