BUSTED! Plagiarists, Fakers & Literary Hoaxes

[chonies]

I read that excerpt yesterday, and although in retrospect it seems somewhat obvious, but just...wow.

I know one person who has a MPD diagnosis, and I kept thinking about her while reading the article.

[Deleted]

Jul 21, 2011 13:08:52 GMT -4 Peggy Lane said:

I wrote something recently and was quite pleased with a turn of phrase. When I reread it I realized it didn't quite sound like me, so I Googled it. Turns out it was from a book I read about ten years ago. At what point does pastiche evolve into plagiarism?

A little late, but Peggy this has happened to me as well. When I write for school or work, I am always nervous about doing this because of the way my mind and memory work. I even talked to my academic writing prof about it and he said to do what you did -- to google something if it seems 'not me.'

[chiqui]

I read Sybil at age 13 and even fantasized I had multiple personalities. In retrospect, it took an awful long time for it to be debunked.

[huntergrayson]

I also read Sybil as a young teen/tween and didn't fantasize about MPD, but I did start to call my mom 'Hattie' when she was being all bitchy and controlling.

Of all the plagiarism/hoaxes/etc, this might be one of the most damaging, considering the effect it had on mental health issues and treatments. I bet a lot [/i] of people with other mental health issues might have thought they had MPD and been misdiagnosed/drugged/etc. I know nothing of DID outside of United States of Tara - what is the psychiatric community's current stance on it and what are treatments like?

[Smilla]

I know nothing of DID outside of United States of Tara - what is the psychiatric community's current stance on it and what are treatments like?

Well, my experience with it comes only from reading about it and living with someone who had a DID diagnosis, but as far as I can tell, the psychiatric community still accepts the reality of dissociative personalities. Not sure how the unveiling of the Sybil hoax could affect that. It's that whole repressed/recovered memories of abuse aspect of it that's controversial* from what I can tell (has been for a while, IIR--decades?)

Uh, treatment? I never asked my ex-roommate about his treatment. I've heard that some can find relief through something called...integration? Supposedly, this involves trying to integrate the alternate personalities into the primary personality. I have no idea how they do that, though.

*Not saying repressed memories aren't real or that it isn't possible to recover them, it's just that from what I've seen, not every mental healthcare professional agrees.

[chiqui]

Of all the plagiarism/hoaxes/etc, this might be one of the most damaging, considering the effect it had on mental health issues and treatments. I bet a lot of people with other mental health issues might have thought they had MPD and been misdiagnosed/drugged/etc. I know nothing of DID outside of United States of Tara - what is the psychiatric community's current stance on it and what are treatments like?

My older brother was disagnosed with MPD - multiple personality disorder - in the early 1990s when it was fashionable among the psychiatric set. But in retrospect, I think he was bipolar, with psychosis. A cousin has also been diagnosed as bipolar, and I believe my older sister is also, though she has not seen a psychiatrist. I'm not talking simply mood swings here either -- I mean large disassociations from reality. It's clear it runs in the family. I never saw my brother thinking and acting like different people or saying he was different people. He was most definately psychotic and hallucinating.

Back to the thread. The Three Cups of Tea author is facing a civil suit.

And I wanted to re-post here the Fifty Shades of Grey brouhaha. I cannot for the life of me see why either Stephanie Meyers or her publishers are not taking legal action. As in meediate legal reaction when the $$ and the downloads first started to climb. I can only assume they are still sorting things out, or have decided to let it go ahead (perhaps with a settlement for a cut of the profits orchestrated behind the scenes) for publicity's sake, or to avoid alienating the fanbase.

[Gigiree]

For starters, what’s considered “good” writing in fanfic is different from what constitutes good writing in professionally published books. The FSoG books are garnering bad reviews from real reviewers because *gasp* they’re not written that well. Complaints have ranged from incorrectly portrayed BDSM elements to robotic and cliché writing.

This made me laugh because, of course, the original Twilight books were so well written, and they contained absolutely no instances of "robotic and clichéd writing."

Not having read this "fanfic," I can't say whether or not it crosses the line; however, isn't tapping into an existing fan base what most media tries to do? Look at all of the books about vampires and werewolves that have come out in the last few years--each of them tried to tap into the Twilight fans using the original books as inspiration, so is that wrong?

[NappingAthena]

Apr 19, 2012 11:16:40 GMT -4 Gigiree said:

For starters, what’s considered “good” writing in fanfic is different from what constitutes good writing in professionally published books. The FSoG books are garnering bad reviews from real reviewers because *gasp* they’re not written that well. Complaints have ranged from incorrectly portrayed BDSM elements to robotic and cliché writing.

This made me laugh because, of course, the original Twilight books were so well written, and they contained absolutely no instances of "robotic and clichéd writing."

Not having read this "fanfic," I can't say whether or not it crosses the line; however, isn't tapping into an existing fan base what most media tries to do? Look at all of the books about vampires and werewolves that have come out in the last few years--each of them tried to tap into the Twilight fans using the original books as inspiration, so is that wrong?

I think its because the author basically only changed the names when she moved it from fanfic to original fic. Some of the people on Jami Gold's website have interesting points about it-that in order to write the fanfic the author basically made Edward's "Big secret" that he's into "BDSM" (in quotes because its not like, actual correct BDSM) instead of that he's a vampire, and a lot was similar as far as relationships between characters and whatnot. For instance, Edward is adopted, the romantic parings end up the same, James is the bad guy, Jacob likes Bella, and so on. Instead of maybe changing certain thigns to make it less Twilightly, James left them in-she basically only changed the names and a few details, rather than editing and changing things in the story so it was more original.
Someone had an interesting point that in fanon, there are always certain tropes that show up in fanfic a lot, and they showed up in Master of the Universe, and therefore in Fifty Shades of Grey.

[chiqui]

Not to mention Fifty is set in Seattle while the original was in Forks. If Fifty was set in San Francisco, or, say, London (the author is British) the glaring similarity would be less.

[NappingAthena]

Apr 19, 2012 12:44:35 GMT -4 chiqui said:

Not to mention Fifty is set in Seattle while the original was in Forks. If Fifty was set in San Francisco, or, say, London (the author is British) the glaring similarity would be less.

Chiqui I feel like I'm stalking you around the board talking about this! But, the thing is, its Seattle because its a Twilight fic. In the All-Human AU world, one of the "Shorthands" people use so you still know its Twilight is to have the story in Seattle, Chicago, or Arizona, because those are important cities in the story. (Forks in Washington, Edward being from Chicago, Bella growing up in Phoenix) By not changing that, to me, is just another way James is showing her lack of editing and lack of...ethics? I guess that works.