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April 26, 2006

Half-formed thoughts on plagiarism and buggery

[Apologies in advance for my incoherence, wanted to get this down before I forgot]

Lounsbury's note (and the ensuing degenerate commentary) on Kaavya Viswanathan's chick-lit plagiarism caused me to spend a good portion of the afternoon observing blogosphere responses to the allegations. Sepia Mutiny (a desi blog) posted a useful summary of events that led to a rather lively discussion with links to new developments as they were reported. Aside from the knee-jerk schadenfreude, some pondered the impact of this scandal on the wider South Asian community, others commiserated over the "pushy-parent syndrome" that seems to afflict so many Asian cultures and a few balked at the idea of paying $10-20k to a consulting firm (IvyWise in Kaavya's case) to assist students in preparing college applications.

Now, consider the marketability of a semi-autobiographical (of course denied) work written by a telegenic, exotic ethnic type. The Kite Runner is a perfect example. Debut novel, purportedly one of the first English works of fiction written about Afghanistan by an Afghan author. I may not have any literary training, but I found the writing to be amateurish and full of cliches. I almost expected soap-opera music after each stunningly unpredictable (not) plot development. Even more annoying, the climax of the book was essentially a rip-off of Ben Kingsley's desperate hospital prayer in House of Sand and Fog. Plus there was quite a lot of buggery of small children involved, which struck me as emotionally manipulative after a while.

Still, The Kite Runner is a perennial book club favourite, more likely due to the Afghan author angle than the quality of his work.

Viswathanan's PR effort up until now seems to have the same focus: market crap book by focusing on telegenic overachieving ethnic girl author.

And now, perhaps sleep.

Posted by eerie at April 26, 2006 06:20 PM
Filed Under: Reviews , Society & Culture

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Comments

Degenerate? Bah. You've not seen degenerate.

Marketable little ethnic beauties however, well, at least the chose a southerner over a pale face. Has a certain value.

Posted by: The Lounsbury at April 27, 2006 03:11 AM

Degenerate? Bah. You've not seen degenerate.

Recall my office is primarily male.

Marketable little ethnic beauties however, well, at least the chose a southerner over a pale face. Has a certain value.

The equivalent northerners are probably too busy trying to get into movies instead (see Aishwarya Rai).

Interestingly, I'm sure Kaavya was "all Indo" when her star was rising and "a southie" once it started falling. The pale Persia princesses of the north can be quite nasty and racist re: the darkies.

Posted by: eerie [TypeKey Profile Page] at April 27, 2006 10:32 AM

dear eerie,

awww ... so nice of you to make my evening with linking to that pic ...

alf shukr! (or should i rather say "hezaar merci"?)

--raf*

Posted by: raf* at April 27, 2006 01:56 PM

The pale Persia princesses of the north can be quite nasty and racist re: the darkies

Yes, well aware of that. Solidarity, Reg.

Rather similar to the Arab dynamic. Above all in the Sham, where one finds some of the most retrograde racism.

Posted by: The Lounsbury at April 27, 2006 02:20 PM

Hey, Lebanon is a very democratic country. EVERYONE here thinks they're royalty.

Posted by: Tom Scudder at April 27, 2006 03:16 PM

Is that like Lake Wobegon, where all the children are above average?

Posted by: Eva Luna at April 27, 2006 03:51 PM

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