It’s looks like Kaavya Viswanathan’s dream debut might not bring her the fame that she intended to attain. Sepia Mutiny feels that her literary career is over.
Banished Soul is not too impressed with her finished book, “How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life� either [hat tip: Gautam G].
Update#1: Speculation is rife whether the plagiarism charges might stem from jealousy from her Harvard colleagues. Blog baap Gawker has also picked up the story.
Update#2: Kaavya V has admitted to ‘involuntarily’ copying other works and has apologized saying that she will revise the novel for future printings. I guess, I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt. Gladwell defense or not, she is definitely guilty of lifting huge chunks that cannot be explained away by “internalizing”.
Comments
2 comments. Leave your comment »
Vulturo
Apr 25th, 2006 at 10:47 am | #
After comparing the offending material, it comes across as anything but “involuntary”
Patrix
Apr 25th, 2006 at 3:54 pm | #
Often intention to cheat is considering as a reason to formally accuse someone of plagiarism. I don’t think she intended to do so. But I hope this has given her a lesson in being more careful.
I may have forgotten to mention that those updates were made by me so Kaps didn’t make those comments.