Meta: Plagiarism and Generation Me!Me!Me!
Houston, we have a plagiarism-scandal. This time in Germany, and the culprit is a 17-year old called Helene Hegemann. Critics whipped out the thesaurus and showered her book "Axolotl Roadkill" with praise, rolling in superlatives like pigs in mud. That's not unusual; critics love wunderkinder. I have no doubts that there are 17 year olds who write decent books, but their age shouldn't be more important than the content. And their books should be, you know, written by themselves.
However, Helene Hegemann isn't a wunderkind. She's like many other annoying brats who grab whole paragraphs of other people's writing (in this case of blogger Airen), juggles the words, mixes them with her own thoughts and sells the end result as, like, totally her own. In this case, she helped herself to a novel called "Strobo". The only difference is really that a plagiarist of fanfic ends up on on fandom wank, while Helene keeps editors of big newspapers busy. Right now, her publishers look like idiots, the critics look like idiots - but what about Helene, who launched the thousand ships of editorial praise?
I translated parts of her "apology". It sheds some light on a shift in the perception of "right" and "wrong" that seems to have its roots on the internet.
(Disclaimer: I'm not a linguist; I translated to my best ability but don't claim this is word-per-word 100% correct. Her wording breaks my brain):
"(...) So those are these accusations of plagiarism - now, unfortunately I don't know how things are, legal-wise. Content-wise, I think my behaviour as well as my work method are totally legitimate and I don't feel guilty, maybe cause I'm coming from a place where one approaches also the writing of a novel more like an act of directing, helping oneself everywhere one finds inspiration. Originality doesn't exist, anyway, only authenticity. (...)"
"(...) Those are wordings and world views and also simply certain phrasings which form me and advance me with the things I'd like to say and communicate, and when it comes to that, I totally relentlessly rob my friends, movie makers, other authors and also myself. If there's read (into my novel) again and again that what I have written is a representative novel for the noughties, then it has to be recognised that the creation process is connected with this decade and the approaches in this decade, means with the separation from the whole copyright excess through the right to copy and transform."
I know, I know, head -> desk -> rinse -> repeat. But isn't this a view shared by many people on the internet? If it's there, I can use it? I wonder if she can really be fully blamed for her views. She's the poster child of Generation Entitlement and seems to have grown up with this "me!me!me!" culture of the internet, and nobody bothered to kick her backside. Even now, she doesn't see anything wrong with her actions, because hey, it's what everybody does, right? She transformed other people's work, so now they are hers and she can make money with it. Plagiarism is self-fulfilment, dontyaknow.
The cherry on the top of this mess is the publisher's statement, though. "Unprofessional" doesn't even begin to cover it - please keep in mind that this is a big publisher, not Uncle Henry printing his niece's book in the garden shed. Read and weep:
"Of course we've asked Helene Hegemann before printing if she had used sources or quotes."
We've asked her.
We've asked her.
We've asked her.
What is this I don't even... but wait, it's getting better:
"One may argue about the responsibility of a young, talented author, who grew up with the "sharing" culture of the internet."
Yes, Dr. Bublitz, we may argue about it, but you better not try to use this as an excuse for not having done your job. The responsibility of a publisher goes beyond "printing and selling". Next time you try to throw something edgy on the market: try this.
German-speaking readers can read the full story here: Alles nur geklaut?
And if you're in the mood for head-desking: The author's fauxpology and the publisher's yaddayadda.
Edit: statement of the publishers of the original novel - miaow! Snarky! And they're damned right.
However, Helene Hegemann isn't a wunderkind. She's like many other annoying brats who grab whole paragraphs of other people's writing (in this case of blogger Airen), juggles the words, mixes them with her own thoughts and sells the end result as, like, totally her own. In this case, she helped herself to a novel called "Strobo". The only difference is really that a plagiarist of fanfic ends up on on fandom wank, while Helene keeps editors of big newspapers busy. Right now, her publishers look like idiots, the critics look like idiots - but what about Helene, who launched the thousand ships of editorial praise?
I translated parts of her "apology". It sheds some light on a shift in the perception of "right" and "wrong" that seems to have its roots on the internet.
(Disclaimer: I'm not a linguist; I translated to my best ability but don't claim this is word-per-word 100% correct. Her wording breaks my brain):
"(...) So those are these accusations of plagiarism - now, unfortunately I don't know how things are, legal-wise. Content-wise, I think my behaviour as well as my work method are totally legitimate and I don't feel guilty, maybe cause I'm coming from a place where one approaches also the writing of a novel more like an act of directing, helping oneself everywhere one finds inspiration. Originality doesn't exist, anyway, only authenticity. (...)"
"(...) Those are wordings and world views and also simply certain phrasings which form me and advance me with the things I'd like to say and communicate, and when it comes to that, I totally relentlessly rob my friends, movie makers, other authors and also myself. If there's read (into my novel) again and again that what I have written is a representative novel for the noughties, then it has to be recognised that the creation process is connected with this decade and the approaches in this decade, means with the separation from the whole copyright excess through the right to copy and transform."
I know, I know, head -> desk -> rinse -> repeat. But isn't this a view shared by many people on the internet? If it's there, I can use it? I wonder if she can really be fully blamed for her views. She's the poster child of Generation Entitlement and seems to have grown up with this "me!me!me!" culture of the internet, and nobody bothered to kick her backside. Even now, she doesn't see anything wrong with her actions, because hey, it's what everybody does, right? She transformed other people's work, so now they are hers and she can make money with it. Plagiarism is self-fulfilment, dontyaknow.
The cherry on the top of this mess is the publisher's statement, though. "Unprofessional" doesn't even begin to cover it - please keep in mind that this is a big publisher, not Uncle Henry printing his niece's book in the garden shed. Read and weep:
"Of course we've asked Helene Hegemann before printing if she had used sources or quotes."
We've asked her.
We've asked her.
We've asked her.
What is this I don't even... but wait, it's getting better:
"One may argue about the responsibility of a young, talented author, who grew up with the "sharing" culture of the internet."
Yes, Dr. Bublitz, we may argue about it, but you better not try to use this as an excuse for not having done your job. The responsibility of a publisher goes beyond "printing and selling". Next time you try to throw something edgy on the market: try this.
German-speaking readers can read the full story here: Alles nur geklaut?
And if you're in the mood for head-desking: The author's fauxpology and the publisher's yaddayadda.
Edit: statement of the publishers of the original novel - miaow! Snarky! And they're damned right.