PLAGIARISM

I once asked a writer who holds strong opinions on most things a searching question on how much a writer can borrow from another writer. There is no doubt that this happens and on a grand scale, all the time. There is no doubt that borrowing is natural and as much conscious as it is subconscious. So I wanted to know… how much can you take? This writer, Vanessa Gebbie, said she did not know. I know she borrows sometimes: images, characters, plots… conceals them enough that they might be said to be hers. I also know she openly condemns this borrowing if it is not concealed and a person is caught out. It seems to me there is something seriously unresolved here and so it is no wonder that

a) writers sometimes fall foul of the undefined rule,

b) that the public, not understanding, are so quick to be led to condemnation of the borrower/thief.

But the question, I think, is a real one and one that needs answered. And once it has been answered then we need to shout it from the rooftops… so everyone knows and understands. That seems reasonable. But that is unlikely to happen. Instead we have the wicked witches sticking pins into the backs of the unwittingly condemned and undermining the credibility of writers who may or may not have done wrong, but even if they have done wrong have done only what the great and the good in the literary canon have done and always done.

I have read a lot of articles on modern writers who have had to defend themselves from the label of ‘plagiarism’, but I read something recently that had something serious to add to the debate: Houellebecq, a French writer from the current crop of good writers, told an interviewer that lifting passages word for word was not theft, so not plagiarism, so long as ‘the motives were to recycle them for artistic purposes’. He was offended by the use of the term ‘plagiarism’ to describe what he had done. But the important thing he said was: "This is a skilled insult. Using a big word like plagiarism... always causes some damage. It will always do lasting damage, like accusations of racism." I don’t think the witches are ever mindful of the serious damage they do with their free use of such labels. The accused is as much a victim as the person who feels their work has been borrowed from, more so if we consider that there is so much sympathy and support given to the one who has been borrowed from and who protests their hurt.

I have been called a plagiarist by some people who I know ‘take’ from other writers in their own work. These people cannot give a definitive explanation of what can and cannot be taken, what exactly is plagiarism. They continue to ‘stab me in the back’ in secret, writing to places where I have work accepted to discredit who I am… and all because they have decided I plagiarized two years ago. I have made apology to these writers; not because I admit to doing wrong because I don’t, but because I have hurt their feelings and I would never want to inflict hurt… that’s not who I am. I am a fierce defender of the act of self reflection and I have looked deep into what I did… I read widely on the subject, trying to understand what I did that was so wrong. I do not now take inspiration in what I read, not any more, and I have avoided doing anything of the same since 2009, but I still write. I am no nearer understanding what is allowed and what is not, given that the writers who shout loudest against me do themselves say things like: ‘I have been struggling with a story but I read a story today that gives me a structure that I think will allow my story to be told’! (This is a paraphrasing of what Tania Hershman said in a blogpost, and yet she feels so wronged by someone borrowing from her story!) But now, at least, I am more careful.

When a person does wrong, breaks the law (and I haven’t done that… have never stolen another person’s words and passed them off as my own) we, as a society, support the notion of rehabilitation. We forgive the thief and the criminal and the wrongdoer… so why is my reputation still attacked when no one has been able to say ‘he is still doing it’ (and they can’t say that, because I am not!)?

Last year I sent three flashed pieces to a site looking for contributions to help a charitable cause (100 Stories for Haiti). All three of my pieces were accepted and then, because someone had secretly and threateningly written to the organization and the publisher, two of my pieces were withdrawn, and then after another spite-filled communication the third was withdrawn… I am not even allowed to do good.

And this week my work was removed from a blog because the owner had obviously been contacted by someone who felt that my voice should not be represented… what kind of censorship is being endorsed here?

I am a good writer and even if you think I have done wrong, I have paid the price for that, a high price. How long does a person go on having to pay? I’d like to know. I know my blog is read, and I know it is read by some of those who 'are keeping an eye on me' and so I appeal to them to give me some kind of answer to what I ask here - and they can do it anonymously... or they can continue to hide behind an unattractive and nasty cowardice and say nothing.