Busytown: A turn-up for the books
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CK Stead weighs in very critically on both Ihimaera but most especially the university that employs them both.
Excellent points well made by Stead, but to be a little pedantic he took early retirement from Auckland University, with the title of Professor Emeritus, in the 80's. (Either just before or after the publication of All Visitors Ashore, I believe.)
Still, as I said elsewhere, I don't think Stead would say that plagiarising sections of his novel Mansfield would be any less serious an offence against literary probity than plagiarism in a scholarly essay or in his edition of Mansfield's journals and letter.
And I know someone who was one of his students back in the day, and yes, let's just say he was someone who'd never give a 'gentleman's pass' to a shoddy piece of work. She said that Stead could be intimidating -- and even a bit of a prick -- but you'd never question that he took literature and his teaching extremely seriously. If he was a hard arse, it was because he thought you could handle it and the ideals and standards of scholarship really mattered.
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Yes, sorry, I should have said where they are both emeritus professors. Or is it emeriti?
Only Peter can get away with phrases like "poltroons of pusillaniousness" ...
Especially since it should be pusillanimousness. Seems appropriate to link to the post which is here.
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Especially since it should be pusillanimousness.
Thanks for that. His typo corrected.
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More from Peter Wells here
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Wonder how the Arts Foundation peeps feel about the use of their laurete prize money to buy back and pulp this novel? Sure, maybe Ihimaera isn't using their money per se, but that's how it looks from this vantage point.
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Scott A:
It sure doesn't help the Arts Foundation's brand, to coin a phrase.
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he Trowenna Sea: top-selling NZ fiction book for the last two weeks running. I dunno, people. Are you buying it?
No, Ihimaera is though. Sounds like this run will sell out!
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In order for the Arts Foundation to award this prize required the suspense of reality, and the destruction of their own credibility.
We all know it was wrong & so too the Arts Foundation, prior to the award. They awarded Witi anyway.
When Hans Petrovic, the film critic for The Press cut & pasted from the Guardian. That was the end of his job there.
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I always lower students' grades and explain why if I find plagiarism. I also show them how easy it is to acknowledge sources. And it is. First years get a sermon and a slap, but after that you're in trouble.
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When Hans Petrovic, the film critic for The Press cut & pasted from the Guardian. That was the end of his job there.
birds can do it, bees can do it
even Garth George can do it...
let's do it, let's plagiarise -
gio.....
making a song fit a situation- fun.
suggesting Garth George and educated fleas are interchangeable - Gold!
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Giovanni - what happened over Garth George?
I also saw on the link the assertion that growing glaciers are a sign to disprove climate change.
Not so.
Current thought is that warming has increased melt so the glacier extends further down hill. -
Giovanni - what happened over Garth George?
Take it away Hot Topic. Not a hot topic enough for the Herald editors it seems - GG is keeping his job.
suggesting Garth George and educated fleas are interchangeable
I don't recall saying educated.
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Sadly, no copies have yet come up for sale on Trade Me.
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The Arts Foundation selection process has a spelling mistake in it, but aside from that I know nothing about the process.
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Bought the last copy at my local book shop this morning. Assistant had to ring up to see if she was allowed to sell it but all OK. Will be my Christmas treat reading.
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Anything Goes...
birds can do it, bees can do it
even Garth George can do it...
let's do it, let's plagiariseGio - a great looney
poltroon tune...
or is it a timiditty? -
From the incomparableTom Lehrer:
"Plagiarise
Let no-one else's work evade your eyes
Remember why the Good Lord made your eyes
So don't shade your eyes and
Plagiarise, plagiarise, plagiarise" -
My name in Dnepropetrovsk is cursed,
When he finds out I published firstAre just about my two favourite lines in any song ever.
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So, just how stupid does he think we are?
I don't think that's it. It's not that he thinks we are stupid instead he is just unable to say
"Sorry I fucked up, I never should have done that, you all have my sincerest apologies and the book will immediately be withdrawn."Some folks just can't bring themselves to admit a failure and need to find weasel words to avoid feeling at fault themselves.
The end result is the same, the book is off the shelves and hopefully will make good compost and Prof I. can pretend to himself he has done nothing inherently wrong.
And the U of A can pretend they have standards.
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Hang on though, who's the victim of Ihimaera's crimes?
The authors of the books quoted? Have they sued for copyright infringement? Or is a quote (especially of reported historical dialogue) fair use, even if unattributed?
The readers and purchasers? Does the fact it isn't Witi's work make the book less enjoyable?
The greater NZ public? For thinking he's smarter than he really is?
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The integrity of the process?
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Hang on though, who's the victim of Ihimaera's crimes?
The authors of the books quoted? Have they sued for copyright infringement? Or is a quote (especially of reported historical dialogue) fair use, even if unattributed?
I dare you to open one of these "what-is-plagiarism-and-why-is-it-a-crime?" cans of worms at this stage. I write as a veteran of last weekend's PA plagiarism wars ...
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I think it's worth pointing out that Lobachevsky was in no way a plagiarist -- Lehrer just like the way "Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky was his name!" scanned.
Pro tip: if you're going to baselessly slander a mathematician in your humorous song, pick a dead one.
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Thomas Pynchon it is not.
Interestingly, Pynchon has been known to make extremely elaborate use of others' work, but in a genuinely imaginative way. Eg the North Africa bits in V apparently owe a lot to an old Baedeker he'd picked up; and, equally apparently, heaps of the historical and rocket-science detail in Gravity's Rainbow can be traced to a couple of books he kept at his side during writing. But what he did with that material was, like, creative.
Note the "apparently"s above: these are my somewhat vague memories from things I've read.
And a bit of Mason & Dixon is lifted almost entirely unaltered from Charles Mason's journal, but it is credited as such by the narrator. Wow: no need for a footnote, just, um, prose.
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