Another Plagiarism Case?

It looks like another plagiarism case has made headlines. While it isn't as high profile as the Da Vinci Code case where best-selling author Dan Brown was accused, this doesn't make it the accusation any less serious. This time the person in question is a first-time author.

The current case involves Harvard University sophomore Kaavya Viswanathan and her debut novel How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life, which was published in March by Little, Brown and Co. Apparently, her book has passages that resemble Sloppy Firsts, a 2001 novel by Megan McCafferty. McCafferty's readers recognized similarities in style, plot points, and highly similar passages between the two books. It doesn't look like any legal action has been taken yet. I don't think we'll see quite the circus we saw with the Da Vinci Code case if it does go to court. I can definitely see why McCafferty would be upset. The news story here mentions just one of the passages in questions, and the resemblance is definitely uncanny.

Whether or not this was done intentionally, I don't know. I don't really know enough about the case yet, but one thing I can say is that writers, fiction or nonfiction, need to be careful that the thoughts that creep into our work are our own. I understand that there are only so many plots in fiction, and there are going to be books with similarities, but this doesn't mean that you can make someone else's book the basis for your own work without suffering the consequences. Being accused of plagiarism will affect a writer for the rest of his/her career. Be careful!

All right, that was my rant on plagiarism for the night. Thanks for your patience. ;