The Thing about Plagiarism

Recently, the actor Shia LaBeouf got into trouble over allegations of plagiarism. Apparently, he made a short film that was too similar (too similar, that is, to be coincidental) to one of Daniel Clowes' graphic novels, Justin M. Damiano. He then made several public "apologies", including an apology in skywriting that said, "I am sorry Daniel Clowes." He also wrote several Tweets that alternately apologized and defended his actions.

Here are a few examples of how he apologized:

In my excitement and naiveté as an amateur filmmaker, I got lost in the creative process and neglected to follow proper accreditation.

Copying isn’t particularly creative work. Being inspired by someone else’s idea to produce something new and different IS creative work.

The thing is, that second statement about copying was later alleged to be plagiarized from something that someone named Lili wrote on Yahoo answers. Here's Lili's statement (which I read about on Buzzfeed.com): Merely copying isn’t particularly creative work, though it’s useful as training and practice. Being inspired by someone else’s idea to produce something new and different IS creative work, and it may even revolutionalize [sic] the ‘stolen’ concept.

So basically, after plagiarizing Daniel Clowes' work for his film, he plagiarized someone else for his apology!

(Excuse me while I go bang my head against the wall.)

Daniel Clowes expressed shock over what happened, and I'm not sure if he's going to sue LaBeouf or not. I'm a little familiar with Clowes' work; I read his graphic novel Ghost World, which I really liked and thought was very well-written. If I was him, I'd be enraged that someone stole my work and then didn't really apologize for it. I think one reason that actor is in so much trouble right now isn't just because he plagiarized; it's because he's trying to rationalize his actions.

I teach writing, so I know that sometimes people forget to credit their sources. But if they lift entire passages or even brief excerpts from other people's work and claim it as their own, that's still plagiarism. And I think that LaBeouf's claim that he was "inspired by someone else's idea to produce something new and different" doesn't really apply to his film.

Clueless is a 90s teen movie version of Jane Austen's Emma. The movie 10 Things I Hate about You is a 90s teen movie version of The Taming of the Shrew. Why didn't those filmmakers get in trouble? Because for one thing, they took the premise from those stories and really did create something new, so that the filmmakers' story, though based on those earlier works, really did become the filmmakers' own stories.

A lot of people do that. I mean, consider how often the Cinderella story has been retold and revised. The same thing goes for books like Jane Eyre and plays like Romeo and Juliet. On the other hand, I've read books that took actual characters from previously published stories by other authors and "gave them a different spin" or interpretation, which would be good if it wasn't for the fact that some (though not all) of those authors try too hard to sound exactly like the authors of those previously published stories. (One notable exception would be Jean Rhys, who "wrote a life" for the mad wife locked up in the attic in Jane Eyre; that book was excellent and Rhys didn't try to sound like Charlotte Bronte at all.)

I've never been published. But that doesn't mean I've never been plagiarized. A few times, I've seen lines that I wrote for this blog and my Twitter page show up in other people's blogs and Twitter pages (side note: I'm not talking about retweets, since at least with those they give me credit for the Tweets I wrote. And I LOVE retweets, and I often return the favor.). To say that I was angry would be an understatement. I considered confronting them and demanding that they either take down the posts where they stole my lines or give me credit. I also considered finding out where they lived and egging their cars or spray-painting the word THIEF on their houses, or perhaps finding a way to force them to watch marathons of Dance Moms AND Here Comes Honey Boo Boo! But what I really did was nothing. What could I do, when it was only a line here or there? But if someone plagiarizes me to the extent that LaBeouf plagiarized Clowes (though I must admit I haven't seen LaBeouf's film, partly because I think he took it down after the allegations surfaced), I'd fight back like one of the Dance Moms does when one of their daughters gets passed over for a solo. My writing, while far from perfect, is nevertheless something that's MINE, and I think that any writer would be upset to know that someone stole the words right out of their work.

What do you think? Have you ever been plagiarized? Even if you haven't, what would you do if someone plagiarized you?

Any Resemblance to Real People is (Not So) Coincidental

I like watching crime dramas, especially the ones that are part of the Law and Order franchise. One thing I've noticed about these types of shows in particular are their "ripped from the headlines" storylines. That is, their episodes are often based on people in real life, like the White House gate crashers, the high school girls who made the so-called pregnancy pact, and even Madonna (it was an episode about her adoption of the child from Africa).

I think that these shows are able to get away (for the most part) with portraying real-life situations because of how they change the details. It makes me wonder if fiction writers can get away with doing the same thing. Sometimes writers will admit to basing their characters on real people, but others claim that their characters are completely fictional. I think it'd be harder to create a character who bears no resemblance to anyone you've ever met or heard of.

But on the other hand, what if you were to base one of your characters on someone you actually know? What if that person you know reads your story and doesn't like the way that he or she is portrayed? What if he or she were to sue you? What if he or she were to make a voodoo doll with a picture of you stapled to it and somehow make you write nothing but cliches for the rest of your life? What if that person were to walk up to you in public and slap you in the face with your book before challenging you to a duel?

There are a lot of people I've known who have made me want to write about them. For example, when I was in junior high I was bullied by a group of boys. They called me names, knocked my books out of my hands, threw volleyballs at my face in gym class, and ridiculed me every chance they got.

One day I couldn't take it anymore. I went up to the ringleader of the bullies when the teacher was out of the classroom. Somehow I managed to knock him down, and he didn't get back up for a moment. I've never done anything like that before. I definitely don't advocate school violence, because we all know what could happen. But on that day I was just so hurt and angry that I decided to fight back. I'd like to say that what I did made him and all the rest of those jerks leave me alone. It didn't.

If I were to write about him exactly as I remember him, he'd probably deny it. (Do you ever notice how the mean kids never seem to remember what they did? I think it's because their cruel treatment of other kids doesn't matter to them. But it matters to the kids who were bullied. It matters to me.) If I wanted to write about him without getting in trouble, I suppose there are ways.

I could write a fictional story about his troubled childhood, and I could write about the way that he was bullied by stronger kids; I'd describe the way he took out his anger on other kids rather than fight back against the ones who were mean to him. Or I could characterize him as someone who was so desperate for attention that he decided to single out kids and get laughs at their expense. I could create all these new details about him and make him (almost) unrecognizable.

There are other people I've considered writing about. Once I had a coughing fit during Mass, and a woman sitting behind me was kind enough to give me a cough drop. The second time I coughed during Mass, another woman refused to shake my hand when everyone exchanged the Sign of Peace. She just gave me this look as if to say, "Get thee away from me, HEATHEN!" I thought for a moment that she was going to start flinging gobs of hand sanitizer at me.

If I were to write about her, I could portray her as a germaphobe who spends more money on hand sanitizer than she does on food. Or I could describe her as being cold and unsympathetic, the type of person who would walk around someone who fell down rather than offer that person a helping hand to get back up. I could characterize her as someone who really is nice but often gets in trouble because she reacts before she thinks.

I'm not sure how people would describe me if any of them were to write about me. It's no secret that I'm a workaholic, but people have different views of what it means to be addicted to work. Would they describe me as someone who is so wrapped up in her work that she always disregards her personal relationships? Would they describe my life as empty because I spend most of my time working? (FYI: I don't disregard my personal relationships, but I admit that I sometimes stay in to complete my work rather than go out with my friends. That's not always by choice, though. And even though I do work a lot, I don't consider my life to be empty; it always bothers me when people try to make me feel bad for being a workaholic.) Or would they portray me as someone who finds joy and satisfaction in her work because it gives her a sense of purpose and allows her to help other people?

I don't know. It's one thing if I create a character that's based on myself, because I can control how that character is depicted in the story. I don't like the idea of someone taking details from my life and my personality and putting it into his or her fiction. It almost feels like it'd be plagiarism. I remember seeing something like that happen in the movie The Jane Austen Book Club; one of the characters found out that her girlfriend had written stories about the things that she'd told her in confidence. And as someone who knows what it's like to have her writing plagiarized by other people, I know I'd be even angrier if someone plagiarized my life.

I might even challenge that plagiarist to a duel. (Would throwing water balloons count?)

How would you feel if a writer you knew based one of his or her characters on you? If you base your characters on real people, how do you portray them so that the characters become different people with their own unique personalities?

That's MY line!

As a writing teacher, I'm trained to be extra vigilant for plagiarism. Most of the time, students are usually just guilty of "accidental plagiarism", meaning they didn't cite the source correctly or they tried to paraphrase a statement but still used some of the same words. I'm usually very patient with them; what I tell them is something like this:

Me: I've got MY EYE on you, PEOPLE! Nothing gets past me! If I catch any of you plagiarizing, I'll make you write ten extra research papers and I'll put B-minuses on all of them! That's right, I said it! Take THAT! Now drop and give me fifty thesis statements!

Not too long ago, I read a piece of writing by a writer whose writing I admire. But in this particular piece, the writer used a passage that I recognized from someone else's work. The writer, however, did not indicate exactly who the lines came from, and several people have praised this person for the writing. I have to admit; it bothered me.

It wasn't a big deal. It was just a brief passage. But still. Maybe I should have sent him a letter saying, "I'm ON to you, MISTER!" Or maybe I should have photographed a picture of a notebook with several pens sticking out of it, and sent it to the writer with a message saying something like, "This notebook could be YOU."

I have heard of other more egregious cases of people "borrowing" other people's work. There was the 19-year old Harvard student, Kaavya Viswanathan, who was busted for lifting entire passages from the works of several authors, like Megan McCafferty, Sophie Kinsella, Meg Cabot, and Salman Rushdie. She got a book deal and a movie deal before she was caught; both deals, were, of course, later cancelled when the truth came out.

In one of the articles I read about her, she claimed that she had photographic memory and had read those authors' books so many times that they had just become ingrained in her head; when she started writing, those authors' words became her words. But I thought this was problematic, because if she had photographic memory, wouldn't she remember that those words didn't belong to her?

I still have a lot to learn about writing (and blogging). But whatever I write down is MINE. And maybe it's not Pulitzer-worthy, and maybe some reader's immediate reaction to my writing might be, "You insult me with your mediocrity! I SPIT on your story!" But even if the stuff I write isn't good enough to be published (at least not yet), at least it's coming from my own mind and my imagination. And that is something.

What are your thoughts on "borrowing" other people's writing? If you were in a position to say something to the writer, would you?