<p>and then think about what kind of college admission advisor would think that that kind of approach to writing demonstrates advanced writing ability. There is a funny-in-hindsight review of the Opal Mehta book in the current issue of Imagine magazine (volume 13, number 4, March/April 2006), which notes that Ms. Viswanathan used to publish writings in that magazine. The review says, “The story sometimes feels predictable, but that may be because it is built on a familar and classic frame: it is a story of initiation, a rite of passage.” Or that may be because the “author” stole passages from lots of current literature, don’t you think?</p>
<p>Until reading this last Crimson article and the piece in the NYTimes, I placed more blame on the packager than the author. I honestly felt that this young girl, with her youthful arrogance, had been led to believe that she was more talented than she really was and that the handling of the book by people who threw in a bunch of stock teen-chick-lit phrases was at least particially responsible for the uproar.</p>
<p>If memory serves, Blair Hornstine received some sort of an award for her newspaper writing which must have been listed on her app. to Harvard. I suspect that is why her admission was rescinded.</p>
<p>I continue to be amazed at how far some people will go to be viewed as “special”.</p>
<p>Since multiple sources have apparently been copied, maybe it’s time to stop viewing Kaavya as a plagiarist and instead regard her as an anthology editor – compiling the works of several authors into a single volume. ;-)</p>
<p>I don’t know if anyone has seen the home page of IvyWise lately. I don’t remember seeing that little caveat at the bottom of the page before with respect to plagiarism. If someone already mentioned it, sorry about that.</p>
<p>I hope all students learn a lesson from this.</p>
<p>A reader alerted The New York Times to at least three portions of “How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life” that are similar to passages in the novel “Can You Keep a Secret?” by Sophie Kinsella.</p>
<p>While the plots of the two books are distinct, the phrasing and structure of some passages is nearly identical, the Times reported Tuesday.</p>
<p>In one scene in “Can You Keep a Secret,” which was published by Dial Press, the main character, Emma, comes upon two friends “in a full-scale argument about animal rights,” and one says, “The mink like being made into coats.”</p>
<p>In Kaavya Viswanathan’s book, Opal encounters two girls having “a full-fledged debate over animal rights.”</p>
<p>“The foxes want to be made into scarves,” one of them says.</p>
<p>There are also similarities in details and descriptions. Jack, the love interest in Kinsella’s novel, has a scar on his hand; so does Sean, the romantic hero in “Opal.” Jack has “eyes so dark they’re almost black.” So does Sean.</p>
<p>“Can You Keep a Secret” was published in 2004, more than a year before Little, Brown signed then 17-year-old Viswanathan to a reported six-figure deal to write “Opal” and another novel.</p>
<p>Viswanathan did not return a call for comment Tuesday. She refused comment to the Times.</p>
<p>you guys didn’t believe me when I said this would happen: That she would be fired and her contracts cancelled. I have NEVER seen it go down another way in publishing for something like this. </p>
<p>Now what about Harvard --are they going to let her stay?</p>
<p>Thanks for the update. I think Harvard will let her stay because it was not academic plagiarism. However, it must be difficult for her to go from campus star to campus embarrassment. I feel sorry for her. I know she has to take responsibility, but I place a lot of blame on the adults in her life that were advising her and setting impossible expectations. I can’t imagine a kid having to write 50 pages a day during exam week at Harvard to meet a publishing deadline.</p>
<p>I wonder if she will decide to transfer after all this negative publicity. St. Andrews may be looking mighty good right now. I do think there is another book in her future, “How I Plagiarized, Lost My Book Contract, Left Harvard, and Got a Life.”</p>
<p>The Harvard Crimson student newspaper, alerted by reader e-mails, reported Tuesday on its Web site that “Opal Mehta” contained passages similar to Meg Cabot’s 2000 novel, “The Princess Diaries.” The New York Times also reported comparable material in Viswanathan’s novel and Sophie Kinsella’s “Can You Keep a Secret?”</p>
<p>In Cabot’s “The Princess Diaries,” published by HarperCollins, the following passage appears: “There isn’t a single inch of me that hasn’t been pinched, cut, filed, painted, sloughed, blown dry, or moisturized. … Because I don’t look a thing like Mia Thermopolis. Mia Thermopolis never had fingernails. Mia Thermopolis never had blond highlights.”</p>
<p>In Viswanathan’s book, page 59 reads: “Every inch of me had been cut, filed, steamed, exfoliated, polished, painted, or moisturized. I didn’t look a thing like Opal Mehta. Opal Mehta didn’t own five pairs of shoes so expensive they could have been traded in for a small sailboat.”</p>
<p>And what of the agent, editor and the ‘packaging company’ that worked with her? cloverdale - any thoughts on how far up the chain the responsibility lies? If someone is editing a book of a certain genre, shouldn’t they be familiar with other books of that type and wouldn’t that have prevented this from going as far as it did? </p>
<p>Vis. was wrong, but it seems to me there are others who failed to do their jobs - until undergrad journalists at Harvard pointed it out.</p>
<p>The responsibility lies with the writer for this kind of blatant and outsized stealing. Period. The agent, editor, and packaging company are not responsible for knowing everything that was ever published in the history of the planet. These other works are too obscure even if known in the chic lit genre. If they had been aware, I asure you, those things would not ever have made it to press and this ugly incident would never have occurred.</p>
<p>Never in my 25+ year history in NYC publishing have I heard anyone suggest that an agent or editor be responsible for this kind of plaigiarism. It is the writer and writer alone who committed the act and was aware of the act.</p>
<p>I’m sorry, she signed a publishing contract for $500,000, something the professional writers she stole from only dream of. It is her responsibility in full for stealing the work of other creative artists who were too obscure to have the stealing recognized by others until the book was distributed in mass.</p>
<p>I am a sympathetic person but here I draw the line --how dare anyone blame others for their own lack of ethics and their aggressive artistic pilfering.</p>