I’m just reading through this now.
Details in a few moments.
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The story hasn’t hit the English language yet, so the following quotations are my translation from various French sources. Joseph Macé-Scaron, an important member of the French literary community, recently published a novel, a satire about the world of contemporary journalism in Paris, Ticket d’entrée (Ticket). It has just received a high-profile award.
A few days ago, a woman named Evelyne Larousserie happened to read the French novel just after having read the Bryson, and the copying “immediately jumped out at me.”
The author prefers the term intertexuality. Who wouldn’t?
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An attempt at a defense.
August 24th, 2011 at 4:06PM
Interrogé hier par Laure Daussy, journaliste à Arrêt sur images, Joseph Macé-Scaron, par ailleurs directeur adjoint de la rédaction de « Marianne » et directeur de la rédaction du « Magazine littéraire », a déclaré que c’était « une connerie » de sa part. Il a expliqué prendre « habituellement en note sur un cahier des éléments que je lis, qui me semblent intéressants ou drôles », ajoutant « à l’origine, je ne pensais pas me servir de ces extraits » mais qu’il aurait dû en « indiquer la provenance ».
It’s what they always say. When they’re students, we suspend them for a year. When they’re famous writers . . .
August 24th, 2011 at 5:15PM
Witness a typical French situation: the same person is an author, and has important positions in several media. Such practices seem rife for conflicts of interest: it must be very difficult for a magazine or newspaper to speak ill of a book written by the editor in chief… and even if the link is not so direct, there are possibilities of quid pro quo.