Which is worse?
Writing a memoir which contains passages of events that never happened or exaggerates real events to make them more “interesting” (a la James Frey).
Plagiarizing three four other novels when writing one’s own novel (a la Kaavya Viswanathan, who recycled text from the novels of Sophie Kinsella, Meg Talbot, Megan McCafferty, and Salman Rushdie).
What’s your vote? The rationale for your choice is also welcome.
Which is worse? Plagiarizing. Lie about yourself if you must. It’s your life after all. Make your life more dramatic–that’s what we want, isn’t it? Hey, reality TV isn’t reality. But don’t steal from somebody else’s sweat and tears.
Which is worse? Biographical lying. Of the myriad of philosophical ideas or story kernels floating about in the cosmos, are any truly original anymore? Even the recent one about a ‘new take on Judas’, wherein Judas may not have sold out Jesus isn’t actually new. I’m reading a book that posited this theory in the first half of the last century. If you’re going to take the idea, you might as well take the words (unless you can improve upon them).
Tough call. Plagiarizing is theft. Biographical lying is fraud. I’d probably go with theft being worse than fraud in this case, in the same way I think a burglar should do more jail time than a kid who present a false ID to get beer.
Interesting question, though!
Be well,
Dave H.
Why is it a choice? Both are equally dishonest.
Missing from much of the discussion of the Viswanathan book is the role of agents, editors, and publishers who abetted the plagiarism either because they were poorly informed or turned a blind eye.
Interesting question. Both acts are indeed dishonest, but I think they’re distinguishable. Fictionalizing a memoir is still fundamentally creative, and so in my mind at least marginally redeemable. Were it badged as fiction, there would be no controversy. But there’s nothing creative about plagiarism – it’s simply theft.
And as an aside, Viswanathan’s protestations about any similarities being “unconscious and unintentional” are disingenuous at best. Perhaps she was “abetted” by others, but if she wrote the text, she’s ultimately responsible for the content. She may be young, but she’s no amateur at professional writing; she authored a dozen or more articles for her local paper as an intern (which they’re now vetting to ensure they don’t have their own Jayson Blair incident).
If the work is a novel, it is assumed to be full of creative un-truths; if the novelist uses ideas from others, these other authors should be at least acknowledged in the Acknowledgements or the Preface. If the work proports to be a true rendition of a life, like a biography, the facts must be accurate but the presentation of them will be in words chosen by the author, including author bias. Author judgements of the facts in a biography should be couched in terms making it clear that it is an opinion of the author….
Bill
Good question! Probably plagiarizing because it’s stealing.
But exaggerating or lying like Frey did is equally disgusting. I’ve attempted to write my own memoirs and getting the courage to tell the truth keeps holding me back. So I’m personally offended when someone lies about their memoirs. It cheapens it for the rest of us.
They are both wrong — the plagiarizing has more legal penalties but it doesn’t change the impact …
For me – I will not read or purchase books from either of them.
I think they’re both awful, but I suppose if I had to pick one, I’d say exaggeration in memoir is less vile. Even though that moves it from memoir to fiction, at least it’s not stealing someone else’s words. No excuse for that, in my book.
Sackinger put it most succinctly… Fictional memoirs should be a category.
I feel swindled by authors who lie to me – either by plagiarizing or embellishment.
Both are repreprehensible but I’d say plagiarizism is a little worst since you are commiting two “crimes”. You are stealing from someone else and lying by saying it is your own. Making up “facts” about your life is just lying.
Both ar wrong, but if I have to put a value on the two choices, plagiarism is worse. That’s theft. It hurts other people. But, I agree with H.A. Page–fictional memoirs should be a genre, but —
I suppose as an artist I have a different take on “plagiarism” that involves borrowing sections from other works and placing them in a new context. In the visual arts, and in music, this is not typically viewed as an ethical problem, although it can be an aesthetic weakness in the artwork if some areas are not as well developed as others, or if there is not any contribution of meaning added by the borrowing artist. I don’t know what a good dividing line is. Perhaps a test could be whether the added element is integrated fully into the work, and somehow recontextualized so that it doesn’t have the same meaning. I certainly hear snippets of classical music reused in pop music all the time! And sampling has been more or less protected as fair use. Just musing, no real answers. If nothing else, it’s in poor taste.
I do think a book presented as factual should stick to the facts, and that if it contains invented elements, it should be billed as fiction. That is a bigger deal to me.
Interesting question.