food for thought
at what point does inspiration turn to plagiarism? to what extent can an artist use material from an external source to express himself? i hadn't heard of wallace stegner or of mary hallock foote until i read this article in the los angeles times magazine back in march, it was foote's striking prose that made me want to go and get hold of the first book by her i could lay my hands on. stegner, for all his stellar reputation and numerous literary accolades still emerges from the story as someone who far too liberally used the material of a less well known but at least equally talented writer to pen one of his most famous novels. from the los angeles times article, consider this comparison,

"And then Helena dawned on my nineteenth year like a rose pink winter sunrise, in the bare halls of Cooper, sweet and cold after her walk up from the ferry. Staten Island was her home; a subsidiary aunt had taken me in that winter who lived on Long Island and I crossed by an uptown ferry and walked down."
-- From Foote’s description of meeting Helena de Kay Gilder, a friend whose husband later edited some of Foote’s work at Century Magazine.

"And then Augusta dawned on my nineteenth year like a rose-pink winter sunrise . . . sweet and cold from her walk up from the ferry. Staten Island was her home. A subsidiary aunt had taken me in that winter who lived on Long Island, and I crossed by an uptown ferry and walked down."
-- From the 1971 Penguin edition of “Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner

more recently was the david bowie story which made the wall street journal front page, here's a related article, and an excerpt,

In Dylan's song "Floater" from his 2001 album, "Love and Theft," the rock legend sings, "My old man, he's like some feudal lord, got more lives than a cat." Another lyric includes, "I'm not quite as cool or forgiving as I sound" and then, "Sometimes somebody wants you to give something up, and tears or not, it's too much to ask."
On page six of Junichi Saga's book "Confessions of a Yakuza," the protagonist recalls: "My old man would sit there like a feudal lord." Later, he says: "I'm not as cool or forgiving as I might have sounded." On page 182, he says: "Tears or not, though, that was too much to ask."

both stegner and bowie have of course a sufficiently large body of work not to be labeled as plagiarists, indeed, if they used material to create a work of art that reached a larger audience and was much appreciated, they, in a way, did a service to the original work. it is often not possible for an artist to keep track of all the different material he's inspired by but in both of these cases the 'inspired works' involved a sufficient degree of similarity to the original work as to deserve to be acknowledged appropriately.



posted by ubaid at 10:24 PM - 0 comments - post anonymously

more tacitus bashing
okay i'm getting into overdrive here but tacitus' is one of the better, saner right centric blogs out there and he talks real sensible most of the time, most, not all the time and it is generally difficult to make a point on the comments section there often because there are already good debates in progress and my small voice gets lost in the noise.
the magdalene sisters, an indie movie about strict catholic disciplinarians, sexual repression and appalling hypocrisy in what a wsj review calls "Magdalene Asylums-comination reformatories and commercial laundries, run by the Catholic Church, where inmates are forced to work under appalling conditions" is hitting the theatres in a limited release this week.
on 16 july, tacitus posted this,

Take, for example, the fate of little 9-year old Sanariya at the hands of her own family, and ask yourself how it makes you feel about the culture that produced such fine kin. For my part, my powers of tolerance just went down.

a review of the magdalene sisters on sfgate says, among other things,

That's the story underneath the story in "The Magdalene Sisters." Through the film, we encounter a culture, circa 1965, that reviles women and is intent on controlling their power by controlling their sexuality. It's a study in dysfunction: The lewd and sexually violent young men, the brutal, unforgiving fathers and the middle-aged women, mothers and nuns, who act as the system's henchwomen, are all children of the same lie -- that women and their bodies are inherently evil.

and from a review in the wall street journal,

It should be noted that Catholic groups have denounced "The Magdalene Sisters" on the grounds that similar conditions prevailed during the same era at Protestant-run institutions as well"

The point of this article, of course, is not to decry the irish or any other cultural/ethnic/religious group, rather it is to remind tacitus and those who agreed with his synthesis that you cannot judge a people or their culture by the most egregious actions of their worst representatives, you marvel at their greatest accomplishments and empathize with their shortcomings for you undoubtedly have your share, you enrich them and yourself with a healthy interaction and you leave the judging to those who will only sit in front of their tv sets and make decisions based on jingoistic news bulletins.

posted by ubaid at 1:28 AM - 0 comments - post anonymously

of paradise and houris
there has been some talk of how the quran is being (mis)interpreted by certain scholars who remain anonymous because of the obvious dangers such professions impose upon the individual. here's my two cents, the quran can uniquely claim to be virtually unmodified from the time it was revealed, at least that is the belief held by the world's muslim population, the bible has no such distinction, in fact, as tacitus says,

[...]
It was a pity indeed to find that, alas, Moses didn't write all five of his books; or that Genesis was cobbled together over several centuries; or that Solomon didn't write Ecclesiastes and his Song. But faith is, well, faith, and Christianity survived and adapted. The collision of rational inquiry and religion destroyed neither, and the West marched on.
[...]

Indeed, the West and Christianity did march on but with only a vestige what the actual religion preached, with modifications and changes a consistent element throughout, thus, Christianity has evolved into a widely disparate group of congregations, there is one for each subset of beliefs. A case in point is the recent controversy of gay priests being ordained. From what little I know of Christianity, homosexuality is explicitly disallowed, rather it is a fairly big sin in the eyes of God. Tacitus and fellow proponents will probably explain this away as adaptation, my question is what good is adaptation if the very character of faith is forever changed?
Again in Tacitus' words, Islam is now facing the same music as Christianity did in the 19th century, which is true, however, Islam has, till now atleast proven to be rather reluctant to adapt, it is not facing the music very well in western eyes. One fact most muslims pride themselves on is the solid belief that the quran is as today as the day it was revealed. The recent controversy is about interpretation, which to me as a muslim is entirely irrelevant. I've been given a book with certain text, I can choose to believe one interpretation or another, for neither set of scholars can claim with absolute certainity that their interpretation is perfect. Luxenberg claims the quran has been through one level of translation, aramaic to arabic, and that one translation brought about such drastic changes in its meaning, what then must have happened to the text of the bible which has gone through a far greater number of translations before it came to be widely distributed in english? A muslim will simply tell you that the Quran is the word of God and it is He who will keep it consistent through time, ravages of translations and human interpretation notwithstanding.


Going off on a tangent here, a question for those muslim readers with better knowledge and understanding, why is it that what is illegal in this life is offered as reward in the hereafter? i'm alluding, of course to the promise of houris or virgins in paradise. Also, why should the men be promised such rewards and women nothing comparable? answers anyone?




posted by ubaid at 10:16 PM - 0 comments - post anonymously