Kaavya Viswanathan

The parents of Harvard’s best-known chick-lit plagiarist have arrived on Fifth Avenue.  read more »

Arthur Sulzberger Jr. urged SUNY New Paltz grads to stick to their guns and have courage.

Here is a simple test of the Times courage. Stephen Walt and Kaavya Viswanathan are both Harvard authors who published the most significant writing of their lives this spring. Go to the Times site, the search box, and type in their names for the past 90 days. "Stephen Walt" : Seven results. One article, six letters. Now type in Kaavya Viswanathan : 33 results. Looks like most are articles: about 20.

Of course, Viswanathan is the 19-year-old sophomore whose plagiarized novel, called Opal something, became a bestseller, then a scandal among the chattering classes (including moi).

While Walt is the 50-year-old Harvard dean who co-authored the bombshell paper on the Israel lobby that is being passed among government ministers around the world, is the talk of the State Department, and has (even the Forward will tell you this) "triggered an escalating debate on the influence of Israel and Jewish organizations." Nope, The Times can't touch that with a bargepole.

New Publishing Mantra: Plagiarize or Perish  read more »

I wanted to buy How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life by Harvard sophomore Kaavya Viswa  read more »

New Publishing Mantra: Plagiarize or Perish    read more »

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If you want to know the facts about the Harvard plagiarism scandal, don't go to the Times' lame and protective coverage. The Harvard Crimson has thrashed the Times and all others on the Kaavya Viswanathan story.

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.)

A few weeks ago, just as Harvard sophomore Kaavya Viswanathan’s debut novel was about to appea  read more »