Some Thoughts on Plagiarism

After some of the recent scandals involving the "p" word, I've had a disquieting feeling. Obviously, when someone steals your words and gives you no credit, that's one thing. But what about inspiration? Responding to other writers and books? Isn't that what's been going on for centuries?

So here are few things I've stumbled across that reveal some subtleties about the issue. They don't say, "plagiarism is bad," and leave it at that.

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"Early in my attempts at fiction, I was paired with a Generous Writer at a conference and had submitted, among other things, a little two-pager thing that included a paragraph describing a mom driving in the evening with two young boys in the back seat. They hit a swarm of lightning bugs. Bugs smeared under the wipers and the windshield glowed and everyone gasped, of course. I'd been inspired by a similar thing with a single lightning bug one evening.

The Generous Writer explained patiently that a lot of writers had used lightning bugs. I nodded and took note.

Some of you, at this point, may know where this is going."

The rest is here.

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"Stories don't belong to anyone. Only in America–and England, I guess—do we suffer the anxiety of influence and sue each other for traces of one story in another. Hello?! This is the way stories work."

The rest of the interview with Julia Alvarez is here.

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"Then I got a copy of the script for 'Frozen.' I found it breathtaking. I realize that this isn't supposed to be a relevant consideration. And yet it was: instead of feeling that my words had been taken from me, I felt that they had become part of some grander cause."

The rest of Malcolm Gladwell's "Something Borrowed" is here.