"An author’s online essay on why she used plagiarized material in a novel pulled earlier this year has itself been removed after editors found she had again lifted material"https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/authors-plagiarism-essay-pulled-plagiarism-found-84601217
― Tsar Bombadil (James Morrison), Monday, 9 May 2022 23:32 (two years ago) link
feel like i have to respect it
Author’s plagiarism essay pulled after more plagiarism found
NEW YORK -- An author's online essay on why she used plagiarized material in a novel pulled earlier this year has itself been removed after editors found she had again lifted material.Jumi Bello's “I Plagiarized Parts of My Debut Novel. Here’s Why" appeared just briefly Monday on https://lithub.com. Bello's debut novel, “The Leaving,” had been scheduled to come out in July, but was canceled in February by Riverhead Books.“Earlier this morning Lit Hub published a very personal essay by Jumi Bello about her experience writing a debut novel, her struggles with severe mental illness, the self-imposed pressures a young writer can feel to publish, and her own acts of plagiarism,” the publication announced. “Because of inconsistencies in the story and, crucially, a further incident of plagiarism in the published piece, we decided to pull the essay.”
Jumi Bello's “I Plagiarized Parts of My Debut Novel. Here’s Why" appeared just briefly Monday on https://lithub.com. Bello's debut novel, “The Leaving,” had been scheduled to come out in July, but was canceled in February by Riverhead Books.
“Earlier this morning Lit Hub published a very personal essay by Jumi Bello about her experience writing a debut novel, her struggles with severe mental illness, the self-imposed pressures a young writer can feel to publish, and her own acts of plagiarism,” the publication announced. “Because of inconsistencies in the story and, crucially, a further incident of plagiarism in the published piece, we decided to pull the essay.”
― mookieproof, Monday, 9 May 2022 23:35 (two years ago) link
jinx
― mookieproof, Monday, 9 May 2022 23:36 (two years ago) link
the plagiarized material concerned passages about the history of plagiarism
It's uh... meta-textual, yeah!
― jmm, Monday, 9 May 2022 23:38 (two years ago) link
Maybe this person needs to rethink what it means to be an author, because they seem not to have grasped the most basic essentials, yet.
― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Monday, 9 May 2022 23:42 (two years ago) link
come on, man
This is the carceral system at work within the literary field. The centering of Jumi Bello’s indiscretion as opposed to the systemic harm of the industry on the mental and physical wellbeing of marginalized authors. https://t.co/DBlzkZ3EIv— Mx. Faylita Hicks (@FaylitaHicks) May 9, 2022
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Tuesday, 10 May 2022 00:43 (two years ago) link
lol
― mookieproof, Tuesday, 10 May 2022 00:46 (two years ago) link
Defund Literature!Oh, already done
― Chappies banging dustbin lids together (President Keyes), Tuesday, 10 May 2022 01:07 (two years ago) link
"The lights are growing dim...I know a life of crime has led me to this sorry fate. And yet, I blame society. Society made me what I am." *coughs blood, dies*
― but also fuck you (unperson), Tuesday, 10 May 2022 01:12 (two years ago) link
Dear Mx. Faylita Hicks, it only required a cursory five second web search for me to discover Jumi Bello's author photo, in which she looks to be a black woman, and so might be considered a "marginalized writer" simply because black women authors are traditionally very under-represented.
However, the same cursory five second web search revealed this brief bio: "A fiction graduate of the Iowa Writer's Workshop... she is a Black Mountain Institute creative nonfiction PhD fellow at the University of Las Vegas" and her debut novel was accepted for publication by a division of Penguin Books before it was pulled for plagiarism.
If this is a writer being shoved to the margins, then I'm thinking there are a great many aspiring writers who'd be quick to sign up for that kind of marginalization.
― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Tuesday, 10 May 2022 02:02 (two years ago) link
I want to know more about the university administrator who thought, "This magazine's editor-in-chief embarrassed one of our donors by doing a Zoom call in the bathtub. Well, I'll show them. I'll sell the whole magazine to a sex toy company!"— Caleb Crain (@caleb_crain) May 11, 2022
― deep luminous trombone (Eazy), Wednesday, 11 May 2022 03:00 (two years ago) link
Big Brass Eye wanking senator vibes from that double plagiarism story
― very interesting piece by (Bananaman Begins), Wednesday, 11 May 2022 07:54 (two years ago) link
lmao christ, american discourse is so fucked
― imago, Wednesday, 11 May 2022 08:05 (two years ago) link
Even if Bello isn't a textbook example of a marginalised author (although I really have no way of confirming that), I don't see the problems with Hicks's tweet beyond its portentous phrasing.
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 11 May 2022 11:07 (two years ago) link
I mean, it's a funny story and it's okay to find it funny (double plagiarism!) but it's also okay to accept there some are systemic, dysfuntional inequalities and pressures in publishing that make this sort of thing more likely. And that doesn't have to be a slight against authors who are capable of writing with plagiarising wildly.
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 11 May 2022 11:10 (two years ago) link
*without plagiarising wildly
i feel like this is some kind of perfect idpol rorschach test
― imago, Wednesday, 11 May 2022 11:11 (two years ago) link
It’s a crap tweet because its argument is absolute bullshit.
― we need outrage! we need dicks!! (the table is the table), Wednesday, 11 May 2022 11:13 (two years ago) link
going a bit deeper, i feel like copyright is kinda bullshit and people should be able to plagiarise as much as they want, but i also feel like publishing companies should also be able to withdraw from publishing agreements if it becomes clear the writer is just lifting their content from elsewhere without credit, the story should really end there, with an added lol for the double plagiarism
― imago, Wednesday, 11 May 2022 11:15 (two years ago) link
Why is it bullshit though?
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 11 May 2022 11:15 (two years ago) link
I guess I just think lolling at the double plagiarism and comprehending the possibility of the systemic dysfunction that might put pressure on people to plagiarise are not mutually exclusive
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 11 May 2022 11:16 (two years ago) link
any sort of idpol angle is astonishing nonsense, die on this hill, there are so many ways to not plagiarise, including above all CITING SOURCES
― imago, Wednesday, 11 May 2022 11:17 (two years ago) link
plagiarism is not a singular sin unaffected by the world around you - nothing is
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 11 May 2022 11:18 (two years ago) link
I think it is in poor taste, at the very least, to compare someone who got a publishing deal, got caught plagiarising their work and then got the chance to write an article about that to the conditions that ppl facing the US carceral system face.
Obv ppl from marginalized backgrounds face greater challenges in publishing as everywhere else but to hold an instance of a person who was given far more opportunities than 99% of ppl currently struggling to work in the sector up as an example of that is grotesque imo.
― Daniel_Rf, Wednesday, 11 May 2022 11:19 (two years ago) link
I always thought this was a fun essay on plagiarism https://archive.harpers.org/2007/02/pdf/HarpersMagazine-2007-02-0081387.pdf
― corrs unplugged, Wednesday, 11 May 2022 11:19 (two years ago) link
but find the tweet nonsensical, unnecessary apologetics
― corrs unplugged, Wednesday, 11 May 2022 11:21 (two years ago) link
well no, most writers are usually under enormous pressure, but there's no excuse for plagiarism, it is a failure of writing and an aesthetic sin of the first order
the fact that plagiarism was committed in an article that offered excuses for plagiarism is the lol, and it almost pushes the whole affair into the status of successful artistic experiment
― imago, Wednesday, 11 May 2022 11:21 (two years ago) link
that was xp to CT
successful artistic experiment that J Lethem has already performed, lol
― imago, Wednesday, 11 May 2022 11:22 (two years ago) link
Daniel_Rf completely otm obv, got it in a nutshell
― imago, Wednesday, 11 May 2022 11:24 (two years ago) link
Patronizing bullshit at that. It essentially implies that marginalized writers couldn’t possibly have free will or a sense of what plagiarism is or isn’t— it is, in its essence, a parody of progressive hand-wringing that ends up making marginalized people into children. Aimless’ post hints at another element that is bullshit: the very idea that the author is some kind of outsider to the rules of plagiarism because she is marginalized. Horseshit— the author went to Iowa. She was at the top of her game, in other words, and then willfully threw away her opportunities by engaging in plagiarism…. and it’s somehow the industry’s fault? Spare me
― we need outrage! we need dicks!! (the table is the table), Wednesday, 11 May 2022 11:24 (two years ago) link
xpost
I don't think it's grotesque. We really know nothing about Bello and her life and income and her mental health. We're basing our thoughts about her based on our need for schadenfraude (especially when we get the rare chance to direct that schadenfraude at a black woman) and our assumption that plagiarists are singular dolts who deserve special punishment. I mean, she is clearly a dolt, and what happened to her is funny and probably deserved, but it's okay for there to be more to the story too.
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 11 May 2022 11:26 (two years ago) link
essentially implies that marginalized writers couldn’t possibly have free will
no but it does imply that there isn't a level playing field
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 11 May 2022 11:27 (two years ago) link
yeah but...obv ppl from marginalized backgrounds face greater challenges in publishing as everywhere else but to hold an instance of a person who was given far more opportunities than 99% of ppl currently struggling to work in the sector up as an example of that is grotesque imo.
― imago, Wednesday, 11 May 2022 11:31 (two years ago) link
or perhaps you could say that inequalities run deeper than you might expect, to include who might superficially appear to have had "more opportunities"
again, this is not to excuse plagiarism but to be a bit more empathetic about why fuckups fuckup
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 11 May 2022 11:37 (two years ago) link
*to include people
Well, speaking as a professional writer...fuck plagiarists forever, no excuse is acceptable, end of story. Fuck outta here, someone else gets your spot now.
― but also fuck you (unperson), Wednesday, 11 May 2022 11:40 (two years ago) link
I don't really see why plagiarism is the only inexcusable crime, unaffected by systemic inequality. And I'm a former professional writer fwiw (which is nothing).
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 11 May 2022 11:45 (two years ago) link
We really know nothing about Bello and her life and income and her mental health
But we know that she got a publishing deal, and we know that after fucking that up she got a chance at writing about that for a popular publication. If you don't think that's a position of privilege I don't really know what to tell you.
Tbc I couldn't care less about getting schadenfreude from this, what I do care about is that situation getting compared to ppl in prison. It's the pomposity and dishonesty of the tweet I'm reacting to, not the original writer's infractions.
― Daniel_Rf, Wednesday, 11 May 2022 11:51 (two years ago) link
yep
― imago, Wednesday, 11 May 2022 11:55 (two years ago) link
I get no schadenfreude from it, ftr. I hope Bello finds what she is looking for!
But cosign with Daniel’s post— she was certainly in a position of relative privilege, and she violated rules that would get any author nixed. I know that many of us have friends who are part of marginalized groups who are brilliant writers and who would absolutely be over the moon to have the advantages that Bello was afforded. There is nothing carceral about what happened to Bello.
The real carceral thinking in publishing is related to the legibility of marginalized voices to an assumed white readership— those who do not write to satisfy the white gaze (in its many forms) are either sidelined or punished when they attempt something different.
― we need outrage! we need dicks!! (the table is the table), Wednesday, 11 May 2022 12:16 (two years ago) link
I hope Bello finds what she is looking for!
Well, she does know how to use Google
― Halfway there but for you, Wednesday, 11 May 2022 12:57 (two years ago) link
not really a direct response to the above, but some of these issues are why I'm looking forward to Olúfemi O. Táíwò’s new one: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/olufemi-taiwo-identity-politics-elite-capture.html
― rob, Wednesday, 11 May 2022 14:59 (two years ago) link
not really a direct response to the above, but some of these issues are why I'm looking forward to Olúfemi O. Táíwò’s new one: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/olufemi-taiwo-identity-politics-elite-capture.html🕸
― we need outrage! we need dicks!! (the table is the table), Wednesday, 11 May 2022 15:33 (two years ago) link
― Halfway there but for you, Wednesday, May 11, 2022 5:57 AM (three hours ago)
hahahahahahahahahah omg lol
― sarahell, Wednesday, 11 May 2022 16:48 (two years ago) link
Not exactly literary but while we're talking comical acts of plagiarism
https://www.dukechronicle.com/article/2022/05/duke-university-commencement-student-speaker-2022-similarities-harvard-2014-speech
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Wednesday, 11 May 2022 18:07 (two years ago) link
copyright is kinda bullshit and people should be able to plagiarise as much as they want
this reads as if you think the work that writers produce is functionally indistinguishable, as interchangeable as the labor required to string popcorn using a needle and thread, except you are stringing words into sentences.
― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Wednesday, 11 May 2022 18:36 (two years ago) link
I meant legally rather than aesthetically or morally! But yeah, language should be free to use. It may have professional or social consequences, but I don't like it being a matter for the courts.
― imago, Wednesday, 11 May 2022 18:42 (two years ago) link
the legality comes in with the concept of just compensation for work performed. if something has no recognized value or no no known owner, you can take it without fear of legal liability, but if it has both a recognizable value and a known owner, then the taking of it without just compensation transforms into theft.
― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Wednesday, 11 May 2022 18:48 (two years ago) link
this is an interesting topic and I wish I had a better handle on the theory, but it feels like the balance, legally speaking, is too heavily weighted in favour of the 'owner' of the copyrighted work, although I appreciate that academic plagiarism is a different and probably much more serious offence than fiction plagiarism
― imago, Wednesday, 11 May 2022 18:59 (two years ago) link