
Two Starkly Similar Novels and the Puzzle of Plagiarism - apollinaire
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/14/books/dan-mallory-plagiarism.html
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novia
If you haven't read The New Yorker expose yet, I highly recommend it.
Something missing from this NYT article is the fact that Dan Mallory worked as
an editor, and would have access to lots of manuscripts through his job. When
reading The New Yorker article it was natural to wonder if he really did pen
the successful book himself.

[https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/02/11/a-suspense-
nov...](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/02/11/a-suspense-novelists-
trail-of-deceptions)

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soneca
That happened with "Life of Pi".
[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/nov/08/bookerprize200...](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/nov/08/bookerprize2002.awardsandprizes)

The author who stole was very arrogant admitting he stole the premise because
he didn't want to leave it to a _" lesser writer"_

~~~
whack
Here's the whole essay where he made the _" lesser author"_ comment:

[https://medium.com/@Powells/how-i-wrote-life-of-
pi-6ffe1c017...](https://medium.com/@Powells/how-i-wrote-life-of-
pi-6ffe1c0177ac)

He made that comment as a hypothetical in the context of a really bad book
review. He even said in the very next sentence that the book may possibly have
been very well written. I don't think he's trying to make any personal attack.

My personal opinion on plagiarism is that everything is fair game as long as
it's clearly acknowledged upfront.

~~~
zaksoup
Isn't that called quoting people?

~~~
whack
In the most extreme form, yes. And no one should be shamed for quoting someone
with attribution.

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casefields
Mirror: [https://outline.com/FnfVMe](https://outline.com/FnfVMe)

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hopler
Classic plagiarism on plagiarism: [https://harpers.org/archive/2007/02/the-
ecstasy-of-influence...](https://harpers.org/archive/2007/02/the-ecstasy-of-
influence/)

