BUSTED! Plagiarists, Fakers & Literary Hoaxes

[chonies]

Nov 6, 2013 19:58:06 GMT -4 kateln said:

Nov 6, 2013 9:34:54 GMT -4 Carolinian said:

"Staffers and advisors" got blamed. He lost his column at the Washington Times anyways.

Rand Paul is a thief, a liar, and now a coward too.

Totally. The thing is, I teach college, and plagiarism happens, sometimes out of idiocy, sometimes out of malice. Like with all Poor Life Choices, it's how you handle the aftermath that really shows your character. Joe Biden's plagiarism accusations are probably true, but he owned up the 'mistakes' (or has better luck) and as far as I know, didn't throw anyone under any buses or challenge anyone to a duel.

Life lesson: Don't be an a-hole.

[Mutagen]

So this is a musical fraud rather than a literary one, but I wasn't sure where else to post the fairly jaw-dropping story of Japan's 'Beethoven' exposed as not actually having written some of his most famous pieces and possibly not even being deaf.

The scandal began on Wednesday, when Mr. Samuragochi publicly confessed that someone else had written his most famous works. These include Symphony No. 1 “Hiroshima,” about the 1945 atomic bombing of his home city, which became a classical music hit in Japan; the theme music for the video games Resident Evil and Onimusha; and Sonatina for Violin, which the Japanese Olympic figure skater Daisuke Takahashi is scheduled to use in his performance in Sochi.

Mamoru Samuragochi, who won fame for overcoming deafness to write music, confessed many of his best-known works were ghostwritten. Then his ghostwriter said he was not actually deaf, either.

The timing could hardly have been worse for Mr. Takahashi, a potential medalist who won the bronze in the Vancouver Olympics four years ago. He said in a statement that he would continue to skate to the musical piece — he really had little choice given all the time and work needed to prepare an Olympic routine — and hoped the revelations would not overshadow his performance.

“Takahashi and the people involved with him did not know about this incident,” the statement said. “This is a crucial time just before the Olympics.”

On Wednesday, Mr. Samuragochi expressed remorse for the deception, though he did not reveal why he chose to come forward at that particular moment.

“Samuragochi is deeply sorry as he has betrayed fans and disappointed others,” said a statement released by Mr. Samuragochi’s lawyer. “He knows he could not possibly make any excuse for what he has done.”

The reason for this sudden repentance became clear on Thursday when the ghostwriter revealed himself to be Takashi Niigaki, 43, a largely unknown part-time lecturer at a prestigious music college in Tokyo. Mr. Niigaki said he had written more than 20 songs for Mr. Samuragochi since 1996, for which he received the equivalent of about $70,000.

He said he felt so guilty about the deception that he had threatened to go public in the past, but Mr. Samuragochi had begged him not to. He said he finally could not take it anymore when he learned one of his songs would be used by the Olympic skater. He told his story to a weekly tabloid, which went on sale Thursday.

“He told me that if I didn’t write songs for him, he’d commit suicide,” Mr. Niigaki told a crowded news conference. “But I could not bear the thought of skater Takahashi being seen by the world as a co-conspirator in our crime.”

I feel terrible for Takahashi most of all.

[sumire]

The shallow fangirl part of me wants to go, "Dammit, you couldn't've waited until *after* Takahashi skated to go public with this?"

Welp, I know what I'm going to be reading about in my free time at work today.

[addison]

Feb 12, 2014 10:16:51 GMT -4 Mutagen said:

So this is a musical fraud rather than a literary one, but I wasn't sure where else to post the fairly jaw-dropping story of Japan's 'Beethoven' exposed as not actually having written some of his most famous pieces and possibly not even being deaf.

I feel terrible for Takahashi most of all.

I do too - I don't know why they couldn't have waited until after the Olympics. The other guy's statement that “But I could not bear the thought of skater Takahashi being seen by the world as a co-conspirator in our crime” doesn't really make sense - they fooled everyone, so why would Takahashi be any more of a co-conspirator?

Hard to believe the ghostwriter didn't say anything for so long and let Samuragochi get all the glory and money. I would have thought that movie about Samuragochi would be more reason to confess than the Olympics, but maybe this was just the last straw.

[Auroranorth]

That is just bizarre. Poor Takahashi.

[birdface]

I'm confused... why is this a big deal for Takahashi?

[petitesuite]

Because now he's skating to a piece of music with a huge scandal attached. It would be like if you had a routine choreographed to something composed by Woody Allen, although less morally bankrupt.

[Deleted]

I noticed when Takahashi's short program came up the only info for the music was "sonata for violin." And they didn't mention the scandal at all, at least not on the live coverage.

[birdface]

I'm not seeing the big deal, I guess (for the skater). Music is of course an important component but it's not like points will be lost because of the scandal.

[Mutagen]

Not directly, but I don't see how it's too difficult to imagine the psychological impact of having to deal with being on the periphery of a scandal when you're a week away from an Olympic competition. Like there isn't already enough pressure.