Let's talk about 'Plagiarism'

*rant warning--rant warning*

Okay.. I mean to talk plainly and frankly about 'plagiarism' here. It's *my* Facebook and if you don't like what I have to say, by all means---there's the door!

Now then ... I would first like to give due credit and respects to those who are here as my friends--my Educators and fellow authors. They've all worked hard to get where they are.. and I respect that. (Incidentally--I always will!)

HOWEVER.....We have slid right across the poop deck, across starboard side and right over the edge of the plank when it comes to the topic of 'plagiarism' in today's society!

First of all--let us agree on this much: There are a whole lot of books, with a whole lot of stories, with a whole lot of characters that are set and made known by a whole lot of words--commonly known as a whole lot of letters that are arranged by various linguistic characteristics into a whole lot of dialects and languages... *whew* (oh and if any of those words are trademarked--by all means--due credit--*again*)

Alright.. books and stories filled with words. Yes. One in particular--"The Twilight" Series by Stephenie Meyer.See this link to read some background on this matter:http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/32289030/ns/today-today_books/?gt1=43001

Okay.. back? Groovy!
Alright.. plagiarism--in particular with respect to "Twilight" and its subsequent books by the very talented Ms. Meyers! Apparently a person named J. Craig Williams is threatening to sue in Federal Court, Ms. Meyers on the basis of certain 'similarities' that may (or most likely may not) exist between the relatively unknown and obscure "The Nocturne" written by a teenager and released in 2006--and Twilight.

Oh.. I'm sorry have you not *heard* of "The Nocturne"??? Oh, then I would say count yourself amongst the other millions of readers in the world that have NEVER EVEN HEARD of this story! (But of course, Williams is insisting that somehow, someway *maybe it's that Alice Cullen preternatural ability thing*-) that Ms. Meyers is guilty of 'plagiarizing' this earlier story.

So that's what really "Grinded My Gears" (oh and due credit to Family Guy for that quote!)

Plagiarism--oh dear kiddies--Once upon a time, (with due credit to whoever conceived of that nice little way to start a story) plagiarism was the act of lifting someone's words and then claiming them as your own (usually for an assignment.)

It was such a simple world then, wasn't it?
I mean.. for example: "It was a dark and stormy night..." written by Patricia Scott-Anderson, would be plagiarism of Charles Schultz's work which was the opening of Snoopy's novels...
Hmmmm.....
Wait a second...
Was Charles Schultz the first one to use those words strung together in that simple line--or did he plagiarize someone else?
Hmmmmm... in all the dawns of human history--did ANYONE ELSE STRING THOSE SAME WORDS TOGETHER...?? I wonder....

In any case, the person who plagiarized usually knew they did when they did it. Let's call it a crime of passion or...a misdemeanor of decorum... or simply an Oh S*#%t moment, when they realized that a paper was due in less than 12 hours and they had ---nada--... desperation.

However, today--apparently--you can now so fully claim a "thought", a "wondering", a "story theme" as to be able to accuse another person of having somehow lifted those right out of your brain and depositing them in the receptacle known as THEIR brain and then transmitting these thoughts via various neurosynaptical processes on to paper and ---Et Voila!--Plagiarism!

I am an author.
I am an author that is being published (complete with an ISBN even!) this very month.
I have poems that use the words 'gray' and 'pain' and 'beautiful boy'.
I hereby give any one of you permission to use those same words--cause guess what folks---
I DIDN'T INVENT THEM!

I am an author--but I do not deem myself so very, very creative as to be the first person who has ever lost a child and then written a poem about it. Shockingly enough, I'm probably not even the first parent that has ever lost a child, written a poem about it and THEN.. been blessed to have them deemed worthy enough of a publishing agreement!
Imagine that!???

With all that said---Let's cue up the elevator music and consider for a moment--the world and work of Carl Jung--who believed that there were many Archetypes that were part of a Collective Unconscious that constantly interact with humanity.Let me translate that for you a bit: We are all part of one big melting pot and nothing we do, nothing we think, nothing we feel, nothing we experience is--new. We are not inventing, anything because we control--nothing.

Huzzah!

Vampire stories. Yes.. They've been around a while--these blood drinking beings that interact with humanity in the darkness of the night. Any vampire tale, that involves a human and a vampire--is going to have the same melting pot of imagery and quite possibly words--why? Because we didn't invent them!
Anne Rice's vampires--
Bram Stoker's vampire--
Angela Carter's vampire
and yes....
Williams' vampire

They are *one and all* pulling from the same melting pot (aka the Collective Unconscious) for the imagery that forms the story. The feelings, are not new--they are part of the collective experience of all humanity. The situations--uh oh, not new there either--because people have been married and divorced, living and dead, sun up, sun down, since the dawn of humanity!

With that said---why can a person claim that they've been 'plagiarized' based on a similar IDEA??
Preposterous.
I had a teacher once tell me that it was possible to "plagiarize one's self."
Really.. REALLY preposterous if you ask me.
If I wrote it the first time, do I not have the right to reuse, refuse, recycle my own thoughts now???
Geez Louise! Everyone take a Prozac and chill the hell out!

While William's story might have fallen into the Bargain Bin never to be heard from again---how is this Ms. Meyer's fault?
So Bella gets married.Guess what? So have other humans mixed with vampires in other stories.
Bella has a baby--woo-- folks, read Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles where they juncture in with the Mayfair Dynasty and --yup-- you guessed it! We have Rowan Mayfair nearly dying from an overzealous preternatural papoose and we have Mona Mayfair become a vampire!Shock of shocks!
Utter and terrible desolation!

*rolling eyes*

And the major point here my friends---is this--- (particularly if YOU are a writer--hear me well...)YOU ARE NOT SAYING ANYTHING THAT HASN'T BEEN SAID BEFORE. YOU ARE NOT WRITING ABOUT SOMETHING THAT HAS NOT BEEN WRITTEN ABOUT BEFORE. YOU ARE NOT EVEN THINKING AN ALL ORIGINAL THOUGHT--IT'S ALL BEEN DONE BEFORE!

The battle my friends, is in WHO can say it the BEST and get the LUCRATIVE DEAL that will park an Aston-Martin along side the Benz in the garage that houses three classic mustangs, a Benz, an Aston-Martin, a Lamborghini--oh, and a partridge in a pear tree!

So Ms. Meyer's said it better than someone else.
She said it at the right time, in the right place.
She handed it to the right person and got the right contract.
She had the right kind of P.R.
She had the right kind of fans.

Bully for her! :)

People that would like to ride on the coat tails of other authors who have had wonderful success, are just annoying. And yes.. this story annoyed me.

Sooo.. that's what I have to say about that.
So now.. I will go and type my unoriginal words in a rather unoriginal manuscript on an unoriginal computer keyboard and I will HOPE--that it will meet with the same success as Stephenie Meyers' "Twilight":)