There are so many things wrong with this story I don't know where to start. Kaavya Viswanathan, a 19-year-old sophomore at Harvard, is being accused of plagiarizing another novelist's work for her own brand new novel, How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life.
Apparently, there are 29 passages that almost exactly match passages found in Megan F. McCafferty's 2001 novel Sloppy Firsts and 2003 novel Second Helpings. The Harvard Crimson has examples here. An investigation by both authors' publishing companies has begun. (They were tipped off by an anonymous fan of McCafferty.)
Viswanathan admits to having been a big fan of those books in high school, yet has the nerve to dismiss any similarities between the books as "unintentional and unconscious." She then goes on to explain, "I wasn't aware of how much I may have internalized Ms. McCafferty's words."
According to a New York Times profile, Viswanathan had completed a large novel about Irish history while still in high school. Her parents hired her a specialist in college applications, and when the specialist read Viswanathan's work, she was so impressed that she passed it on to the William Morris Agency. The Agency led to an agent, which led to a book-packaging company, which led to her publisher, Little, Brown. By the time she was 17. Viswanathan had a two-novel deal for $500,000 based on four chapters of the novel and an outline. A movie based on Opal Mehta is already in the works.
It seems some people have theorized that the passages in question are the result of "cryptomnesia," in which one's brain incorrectly attributes remembered information to the wrong source. I understand this idea (I occassionally attribute a previous conversation to the wrong friend) but it seems like a stretch to apply it here.
Even if Viswanathan's talented, smart and hard-working enough to get into Harvard, that doesn't mean her writing talent is worth half a million dollars. I don't know everything about the publishing industry, but half a million dollars for only two books by an inexperienced teenager does not make any sense to me. Even before these plagiarism allegations came out, this deal made no sense.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Lavern
I wholeheartedly agree! I love her new excuse..."I have a photographic memory." I only have one question: How can someone with a photgraphic memory read a book 4 times and still not remember any lines from it? ...as she's writing them??
What concerns me more is the amount of people writing in to say, "Why can't you people give her a break? She said she was sorry."
These people have watched too many Brady Bunch reruns. It doesn't matter how morally bankrupt you are, so long as you say you're sooooooor-ryyyyyy. I'm concerned for our future.
If Ms. Viswanathan had submitted a plagarized short story to a student competition that awarded the winner a gift certificate to Target, THEN I would say fine; send her on her way.
However: She took $500K for a story that was half written by someone else (40 "borrowings" have been counted), and she's making a sizable profit from a movie deal - again, off of stolen material.
Do you get to keep the money if you're caught selling a stolen car?
2 - Dave Nalle
I can understand getting ideas from someone else's work, but doing it in such a clumsy way as to get caught for blatant plagiarism is just idiotic. Clearly she wrote some of the book herself, so how hard would it have been to take the parts she borrowed and rewrite them in her own words so that they would remain similar to the source, but completely original in how they were expressed? That might be cheesy, but it would not be plagiarism and she wouldn't get in trouble for it.
In fact, this is such a stupid thing to do that it almost argues in her favor. Given how easy it would be to avoid looking like a plagiarist, one could argue that the plagiarism must be inadvertent.
Dave
3 - Bliffle
Cheating is the New Work Ethic. We should expect young people to cheat because they see it as accepted in politics, business, marriage and school.
4 - heloise
I heard that they found more like 40 plaigarized passages. I just wrote a book and if I used even a half a phrase I credited the author. If you read "Team Of Rivals" about Lincoln it is 800 pages of a million credits to authors. Even if a half a sentence is used verbatim then you must credit it!!!
This is the same as folks not understanding the "Illegal" in illegal aliens.
Heloise
5 - Sarah
While I agree with most of the things you said, I do take issue with a couple of points. First, it is certainly possible to have time to work on a novel while at Harvard. Many Ivy League students have to work while they are in college -- we aren't all rich legacies -- and can maintain good grades while working 10-20 hours per week. With her advance, this girl obviously wouldn't be needing to work a part-time job, so she could easily spend that time working on her novel.
As far as your comment about the New York Times, I can see your point too. But I've worked at a newspaper, and the bottom line is that given deadline pressure, you're going to go with an easy story. The Times does have links to many of the prestigious schools from hiring alumni, etc. Reporters have to start somewhere... if you want to see Rea Frey profiled, you should try sending NYT a press release or some other information.
Finally, the lack of college response isn't just a Harvard thing. I don't think most colleges have policies to expel or discipline students for activities unrelated to their college life (unless it actually involves criminal proceedings). Similarly, most people don't get in trouble at work for things they do at home that are not work related. There's just a degree of separation.
This is not to say that what the young author did is by any means OK. I deal with plagiarism issues very frequently at work, and it's serious business. I'm sure she's pretty much killed her writing career, closing off that option when she is only 19. Rough stuff.
6 - Mark Saleski
weird story...i was thinking almost the lines of what dave said when i first read about it yesterday.
i mean, here's a kid going to harvard. is it possible that she's actually stupid enough to think she would have gotten away with this?
7 - Eric
Sarah,
The comments about the Harvard Students and the NY Times are just examples, not the "bible truth." I think that some people read these blogs on here as the hard and fast truth. These blogs are almost always opinions.
As far as not being punished at work for something you did at home, I have a bone to pick. I am taking this to the farthest extreme. A person get convicted of child molestation. It just so happens that this person is a teacher. They would be fired. This girl is a student. If she would plagiarize something in one of her classes, she most definately would suffer some sort of repercussion. So the fact that she is doing something in the "real world," makes it alright to do something she would be "punished" for in school?
Just my thoughts.
8 - Anna
Honestly, what an excellent publicity stunt. The book just came out & is flying off the shelves. Kaavya is clearly a very bright young woman, and it is extremely unlikely that she would do something like this by accident.
Great publicity for both her and McCafferty. & it it will not damage her writing career - doing ethically reprehensible things makes you a celebrity these days.
9 - Brian Sorrell
I desperately don't want to be cynical, but I've heard this and countless other excuses from college students regarding the theft of others' works. So I don't doubt that she's lying; it's too consistent with normal reactions to such accusations.
Some years ago, when I was reading far too many student essays and papers (at a respected public university in California), I transformed myself into the local plagiarism police. None of the cases that I reported were pursued to the full extent of university policy, and in many cases, my judgement to fail the students for the course was overriden.
It's debatable whether Harvard should or could legitimately do anything, but if she showed up in one of my classes, I'd be combing her papers for evidence of dishonesty. I have little doubt that she has, at some point in her tenure at Harvard, stolen words and ideas.
If she had any class, she'd give back the half million, or use it for scholarships or something -- for students who don't engage in academic theft.
Plagiarizers deserve no sympathy, no credit, nothing. Oh, they make me so mad!!
10 - Nancy
If she had any class, she wouldn't have plaguarized the books in the first place, so I guess that takes care of THAT point about her. What shocks me is Harvard's attitude, and the publisher's. Granted I went to school a long time ago, but when I was in college, plaguarism was grounds (at UMASS, Amherst) for dismissal. Period. And it was that way at most other colleges, too. If they don't have enough honor to drop this little thief & back away, then hopefully McCafferty & Random House will restore a sense of the Real World to all of them via a whopping huge court case?
11 - Brian Sorrell
Yes Nancy, there was a time when ripping off ideas was grounds for dismissal. My hypothesis is that the trend in university administration has been to treat schools like businesses, so to dismiss a student is to dismiss revenue. That's the best I can come up with for why they don't just kick out the thieves.
And that's my point about recent trends at this UC: more plagiarism, less kicking out. It doesn't make sense to me.
And you're spot on about her having even a modicum of class.
12 - Jen
Great post.
What complete and utter nonsense all this is--and sickening.
Sarah, do you really think that it's "rough stuff" that this young woman has perhaps--perhaps, mind you-remember, no publicity is bad publicity--ruined her career at 19? How did that happen? Unfairly? No! SHE did it, herself, with bells on. And the very fact(I'm going about 2 inches out on a limb here and saying it's indeed fact that she consciously plagiarized another author)that she did this shows me she's not very bright at all; that she got good grades at an approved elite school(a no-brainer, indeed), and got into Harvard as so many others have: by virtue not of a superior literary ability (whatever her other attributes) but as a result of her parents hiring a 5-figure Ivy League fixer company to get her in. They, incidentally, were the start of this whole write-a-packaged-novel scam, too. And this isn't "The Lovely Bones" we're talking about, this is a chick-lit "novel" that is the sort of thing written quickly as light entertainment, yet beyond making the heroine an indian-american girl like herself, she couldn't apparently bring anything special to the table--anything original? Not just "passages" but the entire plot was stolen. Yes, a lot of these plots are similar, but in this case she admits that she read this simple, silly novel she ripped off "3 or 4 times"? Whew...definitely Harvard material!
As for the theories that she might have put her name to a ghost-written manuscript(no less contemptible, if you read her immense posturing in interviews): if that's the case, I can't believe she'd rather admit she'd read the books she plagiarized from, "has them on [her] shelf at home", rather than come somewhat clean and offer that she had help with certain passages...no, she would rather try and convince the public and press that she has a "photographic" memory! Yet her incredible memory works so poorly she couldn't connect the word-for-word passages with the books on her shelf. Right, sure. A thief and a liar as well as a spoiled brat.
She deserves every single brickbat thrown at her. She's loved the attention of being a "winner" in this publishing game, now let her get what she really deserves--being branded a "loser", for the time being at least.
13 - Don Baiocchi
Sarah, you made some really good points. In my haste to publish this (those pesky deadlines even apply to us bloggers) I didn't listen to my instincts and edit out what was unneccessary to the story. So I took out the line about Harvard students and their lack of time because that's not really the point (and added the aside at the end where it belongs).
And I'm not convinced she killed her writing career. Since she's so young, by the time she's 25, 26, or 27 some future employer could write this off as a youthful mistake and give her another chance. I'm not saying that's right or wrong (it's not like she has to crawl under a rock for the rest of her life), I'm just saying it's a possibility.
14 - nugget
i think you're all missing the point here. Why would a 17-year-old girl write a friggin' novel in the first place? Shouldn't she be playing hop scotch or making porn? i mean seriously.
15 - Thomas M. Sipos
She'll make lots of money, perhaps a movie deal, and gain even more celebrity status (a valuable comodity that can always be used to generate more income in many a field -- reality show, talk show, infomercial, game show, etc.)
As with so much else in life, if you're a Pretty Young Thing you get away with lots of crap that would have felled an Ugly Old Fart.
16 - Nancy
Somebody still has a sense of legality & honor, apparently: according to WTOP radio this morning, Little,Brown is yanking the book off the market.
What's appalling is that this thieving tart has no shame whatsoever for what she's done, and neither do her parents. What the hell is wrong with people like this? If this had been me, my parents would have handed me a rope & told me to expunge the shame I'd brought to the family & myself. No, they wouldn't...they wouldn't have had to; I'd have done it myself first, without being told. No, I wouldn't ... because it wouldn't have occurred to me to do it in the first place.
17 - John D
Shouldn't Harvard get involved and do something (i.e. take action against the girl). I mean they did it against another Harvard girl who plagiarized when she wrote for her local paper.
"In the summer of 2003, Harvard reversed its decision to admit applicant Blair Hornstine to the Class of 2007 after Hornstine was found to have plagiarized material in articles that she wrote for her local New Jersey newspaper." From thecrimson.com
(Halfway down the page)
18 - Michael J. West
No, Harvard shouldn't get involved. There's a difference between this case and Hornstine's: Hornstine violated Harvard's policy for the admissions process. Once a student has already begun a Harvard curriculum the admissions process is no longer in play, so its policy no longer applies.
In this case, the book was extracurricular by an already-current student. Harvard would be best advised to stay the Hell out of it.
19 - Don Baiocchi
Michael, there are two parts to what you're saying: one, that the difference is because Harvard's admission policy to potential incoming students and their attitude towards current students; two: that since this work is extra-curricular it doesn't apply to Harvard's rules anyway.
I understand the logic behind the second part - even though she pocketed a ton of money based on a sham, it was for her "after-school" job.
But don't you think it's ridiculous to think that Harvard expects more from kids who aren't even their own students (remember, that kid who didn't get in? That plagiarized work wasn't a part of Harvard, either, just like Ms. Viswanathan's) than from those actually attending their school? Where's the logic in that?
20 - Michael J. West
Well, frankly, Dan, I think it's ridiculous that they rescinded Hornstine's admission. I think that they overreacted in that case, not that they are underreacting here.
It would be different if, say, Hornstine had attached those plagiarized newspaper articles to her application for consideration by the admissions board, but as far as I can tell she didn't.
21 - Michael J. West
My apologies, Don. I actually knew that, I just get into a zone when I'm typing...
As to your question, the latter. I do not think that plagiarism is an overrated offense--quite the opposite (as a post I wrote today will show if it ever gets out of pending). But the plagiarized articles had absolutely nothing to do with Harvard in any way. It's between her and the newspaper. Frankly, if she'd been a student and caught plagiarizing in the Harvard Crimson, I don't believe she'd have been expelled (although hopefully fired from the Crimson).
22 - Elvira Black
Isn't it true that Little, Brown is going to re-edit the book and re-publish it? That's what I think I read--though it was hard to believe.
23 - Don Baiocchi
It's cool. I get a lot of Dan, Tom, Jon, etc.
I see your point about if she worked at the Crimson, but I still think non-curricular activities can and sometimes should apply to school policies. If I have a felony on record (I'm not saying plagiarism is a felony, but work with me here) I could potentially not be admitted to a college even if the context of that felony had nothing to do with my school work.
Should colleges focus EXCLUSIVELY on what the student presents about him/herself without taking into consideration anything else the student might have (conveniently) left out of their application?
Elvira, it's unclear right now. First, that's what they said they would do. But now they're pulling her book out of stores entirely. But I don't know if they intend for the book to never be sold again in any version or if they're recalling the book until they can get the new version out.
24 - Michael J. West
When we're talking about posing a danger to others, Don, then yes, noncurricular activities can and should apply to school policies.
But what we're really talking about in this case is concerns about students' academic potential. I might even be more understanding of Harvard's position if we were talking about an aplication to enter the School of Journalism. But here we're talking about acceptance into the General College. The student's plagiarism did not in any way reflect on her academic successes, which HAD to be pretty close to flawless if she got into Harvard of all places. Does plagiarized articles in the local newspaper negate a polished academic record?
25 - Don Baiocchi
OK, OK, forget "felony." How about "non-violent crime"?
My point is, are grades the ONLY measure of a person? Aren't colleges (supposedly) looking at, I don't know, character? Values? Ethics? Is an academic record the singular statement you can use to judge someone's potential?
Plus, if she was caught plagiarizing in the local paper (or in a extra-curricular novel), doesn't that imply that maybe her near-flawless academic record could also be marred by plagiarized material, even if her over-worked, under-paid teachers didn't notice?