The Feed - News That Doesn't Hurt

Harvard sophomore Kaavya Viswanathan, who was paid the largest advance for an unpublished author, admitted to having "unintentionally" borrowed passages from author Megan McCafferty for her book How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life. What do you think?

"A Million Little Pieces was one thing, but this is outrageous. I expect teen fiction to be completely original."
 Kevin Umbehaun, Lawn Mower

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• #4 Comment from johnmac665 
  4/26/06 9:01 PM | Permalink

  1. In light of the Harvard cheating scandal the military answer is a bit different.  To gain a military diploma a soldier, sailor, or airman must live the military life, because society is too important to depend upon a few hours of classroom time with a teacher that may or may not teach the fundamental, needed issues.  Lead by example: a military axiom.  We all learn solely by experience and that means we learn our ways and means by example.  To be a good leader you need good examples of your own leadership with the downside that to be surrounded by petty twits or twits for leaders, then your leadership is seriously maladjusted and this has been seen in all parts of society.  Be blessed with good leadership, and then this also reflects in your abilities to lead.
  
  
  2. The issue of plagiarism was addressed by example by the famous Air Force flyer and teacher Colonel John Boyd who helped give birth to the F-16 and A-10 combat aircraft in the notoriously political Department of Defense who believed bombers and missiles were the only modern ways and means while being lead by the various combat bomber heroes of the Second World War.  John Boyd's own conflict theory lists the hundreds of books he used, read, and had for use or reference of the military issues where John Boyd did not invent history.  John Boyd's career is full of being a leader and alpha male who found harsh military competition, because he did not graduate an academy with lots of Second World War heroes in command: he went to regular college and university and saw some flying during the Korean War that led him into a intelligence post during the Vietnam War.  The military answer, of course, is we learn from each other, but when publishing be sure to give credit and John Boyd simply used entire books amid the political Pentagon in his reference list.  There are many military answers to society, and John Boyd lived the life and he did give credit.
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• #3 Comment from johnmac665 
  4/26/06 7:03 PM | Permalink

  The Harvard Crimson discusses the scandal.  http://www.thecrimson.com/  
  
• #2 Comment from johnmac665 
  4/26/06 6:54 PM | Permalink

  I read the story, and the attention is very disturbing for a young Harvard author who used a few passages she experienced in life to publish a book; the theory being where there is smoke there is fire where the whole construct is a copy.  This is why Hemingway went and served the First World War, so he could experience and write for himself, and why he lived in Spain in a brothel in order to understand the downside of human experience--with experience we express our world better.  We all learn solely by experience including the experience of reading, and authors unable to afford to travel and experience places should understand that anything published is grace, charity, and faith.  Teaching invention in writing is important where the writer must discover for the self how to understand, interpret, and express the world through writing with ways and means and strategies to find out how (initially through pedagogy and invention).  The sad case of the student is the student's initial abilities are solely dependent upon the teachers without all of the teacher's personal experience and with just a few moments of time in a classroom compared to the breadth of life experiences, so personal invention is critical for a future beyond the teacher.  The famous American 20th century philosopher Joseph Campbell studied for five years after he earned his MA, and he claimed that was his most productive time where he took the university knowledge and built upon it with his own self study and invented his respected understanding of philosophy and became a famous writer for it.  The so called Harvard cheater should have placed the book in the draft pile, because we must copy to learn, and then invent for ourselves.
  
• #1 Comment from banning2000 
  4/26/06 3:14 PM | Permalink

  Nail her to the library door and kick her out of school.  Give no quarter.