How Opal Mehta Got Caught, Got Publicity, and Got a Little Fortune
You could claim the title is plagiarized but no one would care because I am not as famous as Kaavya Viswanathan, her novel How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life or her publisher Little, Brown and Co.
A friend of mine, Ranjana (stillmotion.blogspot.com), sent me this link earlier this month(requires log in):
A friend of mine, Ranjana (stillmotion.blogspot.com), sent me this link earlier this month(requires log in):
The New York Times was full of praise for the young and upcoming writer and her two book deal with Little, Brown and Co for a reported half a million dollars, followed by a movie rights deal with DreamWorks.
The reason Kaavya caught my attention was not just because she was a curd-rice loving third or fourth Tam-Bram cousin of mine (it’s possible), but because the theme of her novel was something fresh, contemporary, and something I could relate to.
It is hardly two weeks since and we find her being slapped ruthlessly and led up the sacrificial pyre.
The reason Kaavya caught my attention was not just because she was a curd-rice loving third or fourth Tam-Bram cousin of mine (it’s possible), but because the theme of her novel was something fresh, contemporary, and something I could relate to.
It is hardly two weeks since and we find her being slapped ruthlessly and led up the sacrificial pyre.
Ok, so what's the big deal in copying, that too blatantly, a few paragraphs from somewhere else? After all there is the remainder of the big novel to be cherished. What’s the big deal if she did imitate, in style, the writing of one of her influential authors - Megan McCafferty?
Imitation is basic human nature. It starts from mitotic cell divisions, to the baby learning to speak, and the young adult getting the same hair style as his or her Bollywood idol.
"For God sake man, be original!" they scream. What they really mean is: imitate so many different people that we can’t put a finger on any one!
Imitation is life preserving. We see, experience, and learn to imitate simple day-to-day acts that ensure we are alive and well at the end of each day. Just imagine – if Mowgli chose to be original and protested from suckling the motherly vixen's teat – would there be a Jungle Book?
Imitation is time saving. And this might have been one of the reasons why Kaavya plagiarized parts of her novel. Time pressure imposed by school work, and more so, by the demanding publishers who need to get their product out in the market when the buzz is going around. What was the editor doing, btw? And don’t they use sophisticated software to run submissions through databases of copyrighted material of similar genre?
Imitation, some say, is a good way to improve your skills. Does any one remember the movie Finding Forrester? William Forrester (Sean Connery) helps Jamal Wallace (Rob Brown) improve his writing skills by giving Rob the title and the first paragraph of his own older works and asking Rob to give it a new twist and life. Chip Scanlan says it’s a great way to improve your writing skills! For example my poem – Strangers – has strong roots in Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken. My inspiration would have withered without Frost’s help on structure and rhyme.
What Kaavya needs for her folly is a good spanking (from Mamoo, a good friend and a self-acclaimed top-class spanker). Good spanking and nothing more. For, I see her as a little kid who got into the wrong company - too soon. Central to this whole saga is just pure money. Offer Ms. McCafferty a certain percentage of the book royalty and all will be well. People will move on.
Instead people are making it very personal for Kaavya – from questioning her writing skills to what effect it'll have on her career.
And this is where I see the other basic human nature – thrill seeking from seeing another human being disgraced and shamed. Thrill in seeing people fall, people suffer and people die.
When people make mistakes we go all out to get them and burn them alive (think Bill Clinton, think TT Durai). When faceless corporations make blunders, at times intentional and with profit driving the decisions, we give them a cursory glance and move on (think Union Carbide and Bhopal).
I don’t know how the events around Kaavya will unfold. We'll all see in the following weeks. One thing is sure, the publicity received, though negative, is bound to result in increased demand for the "original, un-cut" version, as well as the new and upgraded version of the book.
The publishers will capitalize on the shaming of a human and make a good fortune. Hopefully some of that fortune flows down to scapegoat - for, in this world, all wrongs can be righted with a few wads of green.
Iyer