While Bostonist constantly struggles to get you the latest news here in the city, we like to think that we’ve got our act together (somewhat)…that is until we read about someone much younger who has accomplished something that we some day hope to. Last week, we read an article from the A.P. Wire about a Harvard student, Kaavya Viswanathan, who at age 17, signed a two-book deal with publishing house Little, Brown for a reported $500,000. Her first book, How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life, hit bookstores on April 4 and has been getting tons of positive press and climbing up the New York Times Bestsellers List. The book’s plot has the main character, Opal Mehta, getting rejected from Harvard despite her straight A record because she never took time to have a social life; so, Opal does just that and learns how to acclimate herself with the life of trendy teens.
There are a few similarities between the author, Viswanathan, who is now a sophomore at Harvard, and her literary alter ego, Opal; today the author is in some hot water due to similarities between her own book and two of Megan F. McCafferty’s novels, Sloppy Firsts and Second Helpings. A fan of McCafferty’s work e-mailed her recently and pointed out some strong textual support of similarities between the books; McCafferty’s publisher, Random House, got involved and contacted the legal department of Little, Brown last week to inform them of the potential plagiarism problem.
We have all heard of books that are similar to other books already out there (isn't all "chick lit" basically the same plot?). Dan Brown, author of The Da Vinci Code, was in a heated legal battle earlier this month to see if the book’s plot was stolen from the 1982 book, Holy Blood, Holy Grail (the court ruled it was not). Yet, the Harvard Crimson paper goes into great depths by giving a side-by-side comparison of the text in question, and we must say that it isn’t looking too good for this Harvard sophomore and her writing career. Of course, you be the judge and let Bostonist know what you think.
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Great debate and links over at Metafilter. This thread started up early yesterday and is still going strong. http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/51136
The consensus seems to be in favor of throwing the ...(ahem) book at her, with which sentiment I couldn't agree more. Writing chick lit is bad enough as it is - getting caught plagirizing chick lit is just plain embarrasing...
I think Ms. Viswanathan's half-hearted admission of her actions is completely pathetic.
It is obvious to anyone who reads the passages from the two texts that she copied the precise phrasing, merely changing incidental details to make the work appear original.
I don't care how old she is, there is no excuse for plagarism and her response is indicative that she will never accept responsibility for her actions and or learn her lesson.
Anyone who buys that book is wasting their money. Her advance should be returned to the publisher and I would hope that any option she has with Dreamworks will lapse.
I work with writers who spend their entire lives trying to get a novel published or a screenplay produced. If she manages to achieve even a modicum of success after this, then that says precious little about the values in our society.
a book called "sloppy firsts" spoke to her? is that a porno novel? seriously, are people missing the reference, or is that kind of title acceptable?
Let's all meet in the quad
How Kaavya V Stole From Another Author Just to Be Able To Get Into Harvard; Cheated a Major Publisher Out of Half a Million Dollars; and Lied About to Millions of Americans.
Lord help whoever works for her when she gets out of Harvard. Their ideas don't stand a chance.