BUSTED! Plagiarists, Fakers & Literary Hoaxes

[intlschizo]

I thought this may be a fun thread in light of the Cassie Edwards controversy, (brilliantly titled Savage Wank, Stolen Thunder). Edwards, if you're lucky enough to not know of her, is a writer of "Native American romance" - and boy, do I use that term loosely. A lot of her titles have the word "savage" in them - Savage Obsession, Savage Heart, Savage Torment, and so on. They all follow the typical scene: white woman gets kidnapped by Natives, who think she's the hottest thing around, which leads to hot sex on deerskin rugs and blahblahblah. Who knew racism could be so sexy? Anyway, turns out that she's been copying nearly word for word, using everything from Longfellow to a report about ferrets[/color]. It's so much wonderful snark, that it's best to start here.

Also, are there any books you were taken on? Any you read and halfway through, you thought, "Get the fuck outta heah!" (I'm looking at you, Honor Lost.) What is the next book that Oprah will hail that will turn out to be a hoax? Why are schools still teaching The Education of Little Tree? Can we finally put Go Ask Alice in the teen fiction category, where it belongs?

*edited to correct title spelling - thanks, jubilee!

[Deleted]

Gotta spell the title right though!

[Brookie]

I corrected the spelng on the tietle but I had to use slashmarks insted ov commaz. (Ran outta room!)

[BinkyBetsy]

I've posted about this before, but I actually had the opposite experience with GAA: I was shocked to find out that there were people who thought it was real. I filed it in the same category with other turn-of-the-decade angst like "Tuned Out" and the works of Paul Zindel, and thought it was fairly good for what it was, but why did they just write out the best friend character?

I think I was 14 when I was discussing it with another girl. She said "I think she committed suicide," and when I replied, "I think they purposely left it open-ended," she didn't know what I meant, and in fact, refused to believe it wasn't real. But it can't be, can it? Someone in in her family would have spoken to, or at least been pursued, by the media. Anyway, I'm not sure why I disregarded the "This is a TRUE STORY OMGWTFBBQ" notations, but I did, and there you are.

In fact, I had a similar experience with a book by Henry Gregor Felsen. Now, don't laugh, but the book was called "Hot Rod," and it was about this guy in 1950, in Iowa or someplace where they didn't have speed limits back then, who builds the most souped-up car you ever heard of. Lot of action sequences, which Felsen is awesome at, and pretty depressing at the end. I had no reason to think it was anything other than fiction, and then one day...I don't even remember what I was doing a search for, but I found this site. It was based on a true story! These were real people! Or at least some of them were. Absolutely incredible.

[Shalamar]

I once bought a book called Naked Came the Stranger because I'd read about it being one of the best literary hoaxes of all time. A group of people got together in the 70's and discussed the latest trend of smutty books, a la Harold Robbins and Jacqueline Susanne. They started off with "WE could write a book like that!", and they finally said "Yeah ... why don't we?"

So, they did. There were rules, not all of which I remember, but I do remember that the heroine's appearance had to change from chapter to chapter. For example, in one chapter she could be blonde, the next a brunette, the next tall, the next short ... you get the picture. And there had to be lots and lots of smut.

The book was a best-seller until the truth came out ... and then it became a SUPER best-seller!

[Britty]

The Cassie Edwards saga is definitely good for a laugh, but it also makes me a little sad because of her defenders. I don't know who these people are that were taught it is okey-dokey to copy someone else's work and use it as your own. Even if you are writing a trashy romance and you snag someone's journal article on ferrets, it's wrong! Your shame should be public, and saying you didn't know it's wrong is not good enough.

[kanding]

I got taken in by J.T. Leroy. I thought his/her background was incredible, but I bought it hook, line and sinker. It's funny how you didn't hear that much about it once the truth came out. Especially since s/he was a sweetheart of many actors. I guess if people weren't going to say they were in on it all the time, they didn't have much to say on it at all.

[Sunnyhorse]

When I was a kid, I read the romance novel Sacajawea (stop that laughing or leave the room [TM Stephen King]-- the Lewis and Clark expedition got started in my hometown, so it was a topic of interest of in these here parts, plus I was 12, people ;D ). I got partway through it and realized, to my horror and confusion, because I was 12 years old and didn't realize that people did such things, that the author had lifted at least one entire sequence from James Michener's Hawaii, which I'd read right before Sacajawea.

[Auroranorth]

Kaavya Viswanathan's book How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life stole huge chunks from Megan McCafferty, Meg Cabot, Salman Rushdie and Sophie Kinsella.

A few years back, Janet Dailey was caught plagarizing Nora Roberts' work in word for word sections.

Roberts speaks

Deadline stress, personal problems, writer's block, and so on are not acceptable excuses for stealing someone else's words. IT IS NOT a form of flattery. I can't tell you, just can't tell you, what that does in my gut when people say it to me. It's the same as being told well, your rapist must have thought you were really attractive. Jesus.

Being plagiarized is a violation, and it hits you on every possible level. Professional, personal, emotional. And this idiotic trend to feel sorry for and excuse the offender--gee, she was having such a rough time, golly, she's really a nice person, piles the stress and misery onto the victim-especially when this sort of comment comes from an associate.

In another case, Gina Wilkins was plagarized word for word:

Plagiarism is the most serious breach of professional etiquette a writer can commit - and it must never be excused or condoned. This is what we do. This is who we are. Our words are all we have to offer to our readers. To steal them from us is no different than breaking into our homes and taking our most treasured belongings. It is simply theft.

[The Brunette]

Cassie Edwards - BWAHAHAHAHA!

In seventh or eighth grade, this girl brought one of her books to pass around ("Wild Ecstasy"), but because she hated me, I couldn't have a peek. I remember when Mom took me to the mall on Saturdays and I'd hang out in the book department of Stern's looking for the "good parts" in Edwards' books.

I googled her a few years ago, and found the All About Romance site, which always gave Edwards' "works" F's. They gave up on her after seven books.

So yes, I'm absolutely delighted to hear the news!

Ah, yes, Auroranorth, Kaavya Viswanathan, the Harvard student who wrote had her name on a teen chick-lit novel.

What I find most disturbing about her story is that her parents paid thousands of dollars to a private college counselor, who set her up with a book deal. The college applications process has really grown exponentially intense - and it was soul-crushing 12 years ago when I was going through it!

Wiki says the book deal was granted after she got accepted to Harvard, although who knows what she could have faked on her application.

Here's Gawker's coverage.