My questions about the latest plagiarism scandal
I’m late to the party on the Kaavya Viswanathan scandal now unfolding at Harvard. Long story short — a Harvard student who published a teen chick lit book — How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life — has been discovered to have cribbed from another chick lit writer, Megan McCafferty. Click ...
I'm late to the party on the Kaavya Viswanathan scandal now unfolding at Harvard. Long story short -- a Harvard student who published a teen chick lit book -- How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life -- has been discovered to have cribbed from another chick lit writer, Megan McCafferty. Click here for examples of the plagiarism. Viswanathan has now copped to the "unconscious" plagiarism. However, if this Newark Star-Ledger story by Vicki Hyman is accurate, Viswanathan must have been really unconscious when writing her book: In a statement issued by her publicist yesterday, Viswanathan said she read and loved McCafferty's novels "Sloppy Firsts" and "Second Helpings," but said she was "very surprised and upset" to learn about the similarities between the two works and her debut. "I am a huge fan of her work and can honestly say that any phrasing similarities between her works and mine were completely unintentional and unconscious," said Viswanathan, who signed a two-book deal with Little, Brown and Co., reportedly worth $500,000, following her high school graduation from Bergen County Academies in Hackensack. She plans to revise the novel with publisher Little, Brown and Co. to eliminate the similarities, and apologized to McCafferty and to readers who felt misled. Viswanathan could not be reached directly yesterday. But when asked in an interview with The Star-Ledger last week about what books may have helped inspire "Opal Mehta," Viswanathan said, "Nothing I read gave me the inspiration." And, naturally, there's been some bizarre quasi-blogging behavior on this point as well. While all of this makes for dishy reading, the fact that both my lovely wife and I focused on was the fact that Viswanathan got a two-book, $500,000 contract while she was in high school." Here's my question about this scandal: why, exactly, would Little, Brown throw that much money at a young, unpublished author? Why would any publisher do that? I know the teen and chick lit markets are booming, but dear me, that seems like a lot of money to throw around.
I’m late to the party on the Kaavya Viswanathan scandal now unfolding at Harvard. Long story short — a Harvard student who published a teen chick lit book — How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life — has been discovered to have cribbed from another chick lit writer, Megan McCafferty. Click here for examples of the plagiarism. Viswanathan has now copped to the “unconscious” plagiarism. However, if this Newark Star-Ledger story by Vicki Hyman is accurate, Viswanathan must have been really unconscious when writing her book:
In a statement issued by her publicist yesterday, Viswanathan said she read and loved McCafferty’s novels “Sloppy Firsts” and “Second Helpings,” but said she was “very surprised and upset” to learn about the similarities between the two works and her debut. “I am a huge fan of her work and can honestly say that any phrasing similarities between her works and mine were completely unintentional and unconscious,” said Viswanathan, who signed a two-book deal with Little, Brown and Co., reportedly worth $500,000, following her high school graduation from Bergen County Academies in Hackensack. She plans to revise the novel with publisher Little, Brown and Co. to eliminate the similarities, and apologized to McCafferty and to readers who felt misled. Viswanathan could not be reached directly yesterday. But when asked in an interview with The Star-Ledger last week about what books may have helped inspire “Opal Mehta,” Viswanathan said, “Nothing I read gave me the inspiration.”
And, naturally, there’s been some bizarre quasi-blogging behavior on this point as well. While all of this makes for dishy reading, the fact that both my lovely wife and I focused on was the fact that Viswanathan got a two-book, $500,000 contract while she was in high school.” Here’s my question about this scandal: why, exactly, would Little, Brown throw that much money at a young, unpublished author? Why would any publisher do that? I know the teen and chick lit markets are booming, but dear me, that seems like a lot of money to throw around.
Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast. Twitter: @dandrezner
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