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Germany Gets Its Own Kaavya Viswanathan

Remember her? Harvard undergrad who published a chick-lit novel at 19?

UD, who’s been around forever, blogged about her back in 2006.

Everyone got all excited about this woman until much of her novel turned out to have been plagiarized.

Now 17-year-old Helena Hegemann also turns out to have cut and pasted her amazing, scandalous, about-to-be-prize-winning novel.

No one ever seems surprised by these slews of Francoise Sagans. No one thinks it odd that people just learning to insert tampons can pen tomes of astounding maturity and darkness.

Just like BHL (Europe’s hoax-quotient is certainly high lately), Hegemann’s brazening it out, lecturing us on the difference between originality and authenticity, etc., etc.

She’ll be fine. Unlike Gerald Posner, she doesn’t work for a magazine that can fire her. She’s an independent agent. Plus, the whole point of Hegemann is what a bad girl she is. Plagiarism can only help.

Margaret Soltan, February 10, 2010 3:47PM
Posted in: plagiarism

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7 Responses to “Germany Gets Its Own Kaavya Viswanathan”

  1. theprofessor Says:

    I have been waiting for some clever young’un to try the intertextuality defense.

  2. Margaret Soltan Says:

    Wait no more.

  3. Alan Allport Says:

    Just like BHL (Europe’s hoax-quotient is certainly high lately), Hegemann’s brazening it out

    This seems a bit unfair to BHL. Granted, he’s made a bit of a fool of himself, and granted, it’s not the first time. But he’s cheerfully admitted he was duped and the error seems to have been honestly intentioned, which is very different from the fraud (and the after-the-fact sophistry) practised by Hegemann.

  4. Margaret Soltan Says:

    Alan: I’m a little skeptical on this one. My study of BHL’s type of writer suggests – doesn’t prove, to be sure, but suggests – that he has a crew of people who in significant ways write his books for him. Again, if this isn’t BHL’s procedure, I apologize profusely … But he’s got the characteristics of the busy media personality who hires a squad of people to do his research, prepare drafts… And the way people like BHL get in trouble (see Charles Ogletree, but there are quite a few others) is that sometimes they don’t read with much care what’s going out under their name. Too busy with higher-profile activities.

    One reason I’m entertaining this possibility is that I actually think BHL’s an authentic, smart, philosopher, who in his pre-BHL days would have laughed off the Neo-Kantians of Paraguay as quickly as the rest of us. So perhaps he’s just not paying attention.

    In which case he’s not really an honest fraud, and remains subject to my criticism.

    ——————–

    Update: Others share my theory:

    http://crookedtimber.org/2010/02/10/bhl/

  5. theprofessor Says:

    Ogletree is trying to reform. The idea that calling Obama “a law professor” is actually racist code is so stunningly original that surely it wipes away his earlier forays into intertextuality. Not even his loopiest young acolytes from the Spartacus Youth League or the National Lawyers Guild could have come up with that one.

  6. dave.s. Says:

    Fear and Loathing in Georgetown got a fan letter: http://fearandloathingingtown.blogspot.com/2010/04/correspondence_15.html
    Somebody is out there trying to make plagiarizing tougher!

  7. Margaret Soltan Says:

    dave.s.: FLG’s response to the letter is hilarious. Thanks for sending.

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