elan brown argumentative paper

8/13/2019 Elan Brown Argumentative Paper

1/4

Brown 1

Elan Brown

Professor Collin Ludlow-Mattson

English 114 First Year Composition

15 November 2013

Original Thought

Intellectual property is original, creative property that comes from onesmind such as

music, inventions, or literary pieces. The issue of plagiarism often comes up when dealing with

intellectual property on whether or not certain cases are considered stealing. Malcolm Gladwell

made the argument that when it comes to genre writing, everything is somewhat the same due to

the continued use of borrowed themes. It is true that genres often borrow themes however, if a

piece of literature doesnt contain any type of original thought, with the author adding their own

twist to it, then I would consider that plagiarism.

In Malcolm Gladwells, Viswanathan-Gate, he discusses the case of new author

Viswanathan and her teen novel, How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life,

where she was accused of plagiarizing from Megan McCaffertys Second Helpings and

Sloppy Firsts. The case Gladwell argues is that what Viswanathan did should not be

considered stealing. He believes that since they are both genre based novels of the same genre,

that being romance, then the case should not be considered plagiarism due to the fact that its

guaranteed that they will follow the same guidelines. For example, since they are both romance

novels it is expected that there may be a love triangle, someone you want to notice you, or a

girl/boy next door scenario. Gladwell made the statement that, These are novels based on novels


2/4

Brown 2

based on novels. In which every convention of character and plot has been trotted out a thousand

times before.(Viswanathan-gatepg.1), he argues that these ideas have already been created in

genre fiction so there is no longer any original thought but instead numerous cases of borrowed

themes. Gladwell also pointed out how borrowed thoughts are seen in different writing styles

such as from scholars and journalist. When it comes to journal and scholastic writings any form

of plagiarism or borrow thought would mean trouble. With scholar writings one is expected to

have done their own research and formed their own thoughts on the material and with journals

people have to be careful not to use the same phases as others to avoid being called a plagiarist

especially since journalists could be writing on the same subject.

I believe that genres consist of the same themes being used over and over again, however

the authors can still add their own originality to their pieces. With Viswanathans novel, How

Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life, I would consider this plagiarismbecause the

structure of sentences are too similar. The similarities are too obvious between the books;

Bridget is my age and lives across the street. For the first twelve years of my life, these

qualifications were all I needed in a best friend.(Sloppy Secondspg. 7), and Viswanathans

novel, Priscilla was my age and lived two blocks away. For the first fifteen years of my life,

those were the only qualifications I needed in a best friend.(How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got

Wild, and Got a Lifepg.14). Gladwell wanted to know, whether it is possible to write a teen-

lit novel without these sentences(Viswanathan-gatepg.1), it is possible to write a teen novel

without those sentences. All Viswanathan did was change words and phrases around without any

type of creativity. This case is similar to the artist Richard Prince and his use of Jim Krantzs

photos where Prince simply zoomed in on the original image or cut out the background. In

scholar writing it wouldnt be okay to borrow anything since it is expected for them to have


3/4


4/4

Brown 4

Work cited

Gladwell.com VISWANATHAN-GATE 30 April, 2006. Web. 16 November 2013.

McCafferty, Megan. Sloppy Firsts. Three Rivers Press. 2001. Print.

The New York Times A Copy Is Art. So What's the Original?The New York Times Company.

2013. Web. 16 November 2013.

Viswanathan, Kaavya.How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life.New York: Little

Brown and Company. 2006. Print.

elan brown argumentative paper

Documents