How Opal..
I just read that book a coupla days ago (is it wrong to buy the pirated version of a plagiarised book? I suppose it's wrong to support either piracy or plagiarism, but oh well.) I have a coupla things to say.
First - Lady, it's NOT possible to turn cartwheels in a sari, lawn or not.
More importantly, I think the whole situation was extremely unfortunate, seriously. I myself recognised several passages and incidents without the aid of newspaper reports containing comparitive passages.. I'm actually surprised nobody figured out before it went into print, I cannot believe the copy editors were either that thick or that narrow in their field of fiction (forgive me the far-fetched pun..) Or perhaps they figured Brit chick-lit wasn't worth their time..?
Don't get me wrong, I think outright plagiarism is absolutely deplorable. But I do feel that it was a terrible pity - all those passages came towards the end of the book, and it seemed more to me like she was trying to wind it up quickly, borrow plotlines and dialogues just to string the story-so-far together into a cohesive conclusion. It's all the more sad because the rest of the book is actually quite original, quite entertaining, and not just slightly inspiring. She killed all of that by making a very silly mistake with very serious consequences.
The only plagiarist I truly appreciate is Shakespeare. He just made existing things much better, and made them his way. sigh.
(PS: note the very lemony-snickety user icon :D )
First - Lady, it's NOT possible to turn cartwheels in a sari, lawn or not.
More importantly, I think the whole situation was extremely unfortunate, seriously. I myself recognised several passages and incidents without the aid of newspaper reports containing comparitive passages.. I'm actually surprised nobody figured out before it went into print, I cannot believe the copy editors were either that thick or that narrow in their field of fiction (forgive me the far-fetched pun..) Or perhaps they figured Brit chick-lit wasn't worth their time..?
Don't get me wrong, I think outright plagiarism is absolutely deplorable. But I do feel that it was a terrible pity - all those passages came towards the end of the book, and it seemed more to me like she was trying to wind it up quickly, borrow plotlines and dialogues just to string the story-so-far together into a cohesive conclusion. It's all the more sad because the rest of the book is actually quite original, quite entertaining, and not just slightly inspiring. She killed all of that by making a very silly mistake with very serious consequences.
The only plagiarist I truly appreciate is Shakespeare. He just made existing things much better, and made them his way. sigh.
(PS: note the very lemony-snickety user icon :D )