Kaavya is Innocent, Until Proven Otherwise

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Dear Kaavya,

This is your Akka writing. The fact that you have never met me is immaterial; we are brown and we don’t live in the land our parents were born in—that alone means that you probably have relatives you’ve never met, just like I do, so Akka it easily is.

Paavum Kaavya (letÂ’s call you PK for short), there is something I want you to know, but before I disclose that, I have to admit a fault of which I am rather ashamed, a fault which I hope youÂ’ll forgive your imperfect Akka for.

I was jealous of you.

Just a bissel, but it was enough to make me loathe myself for a few minutes. Green looks fabulous on me, but envy surely does not flatter. Wait, don’t frown—I promise that once I was aware that I was being a twat, I earnestly called myself out on it and owned my jealousy. Long before I admitted that my “unlikely-fantasy-if-wishes-came-true” job was acting, I cherished what to me seemed an even more far-fetched aspiration: to write. Getting a book deal seemed like the greatest thing which could possibly happen to someone. To get paid to write? Wow. And that you did, with a stunning advance, which everyone bandies about ad nauseum, since it makes your “fall” all the more violent.

Sigh. How I wished that my parents had been savvy enough to enroll me in an Ivy-League-Prep-Camp-Thing. Where my counselor, who just happened to be a published author, would discover me as if I were some naïve starlet in a ‘40s era soda shop and then pluck me out of the sweaty, freaked-out ranks of cloned overachievers and marvel at my genuine uniqueness. My parents made me turn down Columbia for U.C. Davis. My parents are SO not your parents. Your parents gave you everything, including an inadvertent star-making opp that made me want to howl. You’re nearly half my age. It’s like watching your little sister get married before you do. It’s a little humiliating to endure, in this obsessed with chronological-milestones culture we share.

So, whenever this group blog of mine did a post about you, I’d look down and notice that my skin suddenly looked wayyy more olive than usual. Then I’d take a deep breath and tell myself that you deserved it. That you had hustled for it, working on your writing when in comparison, 17-year old me probably would’ve been brooding over which Smiths or Ultravox LP to spin next. My skin would go back to the shade my mother calls “irrantharam” and I’d exhale with relief. It felt good to be silently proud of you.

Here’s the thing my little PK: I still am. And I’m a little appalled at how many people are crowing elatedly about your alleged toppling. The first thing I thought of when I read the “Crimson” writing on the blog was that tragically accurate, snarktastic story about the pet shop with international crabs. You’re looking at me blankly. I’m sure you haven’t slept. Tut-tut. That won’t do. You know brown girls are predisposed to developing those nasty under eye circles. Take a benadryl, bachi. Your skin and, well, everything will thank you. Hell, take a nap right now. I’ll dispel your probably non-existent curiosity about crabs for you, like a wee bedtime story.

So, there was this pet store and it was renowned for carrying the most exhaustive selection of crabs aroundÂ…there were specimens from Mexico, Japan, RussiaÂ…almost everywhere, really. Each tank had a very secure looking cover to hold in the precious crab-cargo. All, but one, that is. Perplexed, a customer pointed to the open cage and asked the pet store proprietor why it didnÂ’t have a lid.

“Oh. Those are the crabs from India. A lid isn’t required, because as soon as one of them climbs up, all of the others furiously yank it back down. So they never get out.”

Look at you, almost asleep. And I haven’t even come to my main point yet! No wonder you got the book deal and I didn’t. We hadn’t met, so I have no way of knowing if we have this in common, but something tells me we just might—you see, I have a near photographic memory for all things useless. Didn’t help me with German vocab, but it does help me recall conversations I’ve had almost flawlessly, even if it’s been some time since the words were originally spoken (as you can imagine, this makes me a terrifying girlfriend, since it’s exceptionally easy to destroy my boyfriends in arguments…but we won’t go there, in case your parents are reading. Wha-? OH. Hi Viswanathan Uncle and Auntie! I promise I’m a virgin who’s never conversed with men, even ones I’m related to—I’m totally safe to keep around Kaavya!) Whew, that was close.

Anyway, I remember lots of other things as well. I can remember what my very best friend Eileen Perfume was wearing the day Los Angeles exploded in to riots over the Rodney King verdict. (Maroon boucle turtleneck sweater, black crinkle skirt with blood red roses here and there and black knee-high boots, which she had folded down slightly. She had her hair half-up and half-down, eyeliner on the lower lids, ruby lips and no other makeup.) Like you probably are, I’m a devoted bibliophile who can’t bear to be without something to read at all times. My memory kicks in here, too, since as edifying as Gita Mehta or Vikram Seth might be, knowing what either of them wrote at some point ain’t gonna get me an “A” on anything.

So this memory of mine, which I suspect you got too—sometimes, it is almost dangerous, yes? I can remember being in graduate school (has it already been five years since I graduated? Mein Gott.) and being so exhausted, because I worked full-time (as required by my program) AND took all my classes from 7-10 pm each night. I’d read books and articles throughout the entire day and then sit at my computer around 1 am, after the dinner dishes had been washed and my then-boyfriend had been tended to like some entitled Maharajah who keeps asking for “pani!” when he’s supposed to be asleep. Then, exhausted to the point of sleeping mid-keystroke, I would type. And sometimes, I’d go back and see a sentence and think, “weird”.

I’d feel that odd tingle that unmoored recognition evokes. And then slightly horrified and suddenly awake, I’d realize that I had typed, almost verbatim, something I had read earlier in the day. Sometimes, what I had borrowed wasn’t even brilliant. I’d shake my head then. I was terrified of getting caught, since I was certain that one day I’d turn in a paper that contained a sentence that I hadn’t “re-recognized” in time. “Dear Lord, please don’t let it be something craptacular…if I get in trouble, at least let me parrot something genius.” But that’s not how my little universe works, PK. When I was in third grade, my dramatic ascent up the Spelling Bee ladder was destroyed when I misspelled a word so simple, I’m too ashamed to even type it. It’s always the little things that I trip over, in the end.

I donÂ’t believe that you are the torment-deserving fraud that many of my fellow pajamahadeen think you are. I donÂ’t think you copied those words, that youÂ’re a plagiarist. I think that either one of two things occurred, neither of which is really your fault:

1) You pulled an “Akka” and regurgitated something that was playing on your mind. Like the number “170”. Even if this is true, I blame your handlers for not vetting a manuscript that had received sooo much attention, in this post-Frey era. Perhaps I am mistaken, but aren’t they supposed to read, re-read and triple read what they’re hawking? I can’t help but believe that this is quite common in terms of the writing process, this borrowing a phrase or voice. If this public flogging hasn’t happened often to other writers, then I feel like some critical step was missed in this entire process. Even if I’m wrong, and the process allows that manuscripts DON’T get vetted as carefully as a cabinet-level appointment (WTF?) I think you didn’t intend to lift such craptacular writing. If you were pushed over the ethical edge by exhaustion, pressure and your Ivied obligations, I think you would’ve chosen someone better to borrow from.

2) And this one is the more sinister, more galling and I think, most possible. I keep reading that your book was initially quite different. Darker. Truer. Kaavya-er. I heard that THAT manuscript wasn’t “marketable”, not with a pinkish cover and some strappy stilettos. I heard that lots of Kaavya disappeared and in its place, fluff was stuffed in to Opal Mehta. I don’t know if you’re being set up (that would be even MORE sinister! Perish the thought!) but I do think that someone else did that heavy lifting, dear girl. And I think you’re the one who’s getting marched up to Golgotha for it.

Speaking of Golgotha, perhaps the reason I have so much faith in you is because I suddenly have a lot in me, quite literally. I spent enough time in church last week to qualify being religious as a part-time job, potentially with bennies, if itÂ’s like Starbucks. I emerged from my week of holiness, calmer, stronger, fortified with light. Buoyed by hope and a renewed determination to see good everywhere, in everyone, in all things. If I can have faith that bread and wine when consecrated by a priest, become the body and blood of my savior, I can give my PK the benefit of my doubt. Let people trash and thrash you, Kaavya. Blogging has thoroughly taught me that the bile which they spew (my sinful self included, natch) indicates more about them then you, anyway. You deserve to be innocent until proven otherwise. And I believe that you might just be exonerated of these heavy, back-breaking charges which lay now on your similarly irrantharam shoulders. And if you should fall, while on your way, no matter what causes you to stumble, you will have my prayers and support. We are all human, pots and kettles the lot of us and we all deserve a little bit of compassion.

Sincerely,

Anna-akka

564 thoughts on “Kaavya is Innocent, Until Proven Otherwise”

  2. On Nina:

    Now she gets ID’d and dragged into this? The internet is such a clusterf*ck.

    Oh. My. God.

  3. Deepa,

    I can appreciate your call to infuse our general approach to this story with some compassion. Where you lose me is when you appear to lump all critical posts/comments on this issue into the same box and label it “personal attacks fueled by hate/jealousy/schadenfreude” in a short sentence or two following the call for compassion.

    and “indie”

    I agree!! Criticism is healthy and human. Although ANNA’s post should have people examine what their true intentions are, even if their true intentions are not so pure of heart, they still have a right to voice their opinion.

    Please don’t put words in my virtual mouth or misinterpret my intentions. I think I was pretty clear in the following comment I made, upthread:

    anyway, i don’t think anyone is skewering people who are barbecuing her, at least i’m not. disagreeing about issues is normal. pleading for tolerance is normal. expecting teens to behave a certain way just b/c some company was stupid enough to throw a lot of scrill at them? abnormal. and not wise.

    where am i making this a zero-sum approval game? where did i lump? it is not my intention to lump. i dislike lumps. they put me off cream of wheat. i don’t have a problem with what you both are implying i have a problem with. let me as blunt as possible, i can sum up the gist of my post and viewpoint in four significant, meaningful words:

    don’t be an asshole.

    almost all of the people here are not being that way and i’m massively proud of that…elsewhere on the web…not so much. but that’s not my problem to solve or my place to grace. this, however, is partially MY house and i take out the trash, i don’t want to invite it in…the mutiny will not be corroded by haterade, not while i’ve still got the keys to it tied to my kanjivaram sari.

  4. So she (mowglisambo) has been pretty much verified. With the racist name, she likely has racist intentions in slandering KV. Now that’s jealousy.

  5. On Nina: Now she gets ID’d and dragged into this? The internet is such a clusterf*ck.

    she would appear to deserve it. talk about agency. and the top research interest she lists is “moral cognition…”

    the material just writes itself!

  6. Rani,

    “Common sense, maturity, and control of one’s own ego should be the best guides”…and this is what i think should have guided KV…

    Correct (although considering how young she is/was, exactly how much “maturity” can one expect her to have ?), but my overriding point is that this should also guide the way we respond to her (admittedly ill-considered) actions.

  7. the mutiny will not be corroded by haterade

    No, but the intellectual lynching she deserves is welcome on my earlier post. At least until she properly repents. 🙂

  9. from the article that was linked above, the sole comment in response, which has some interesting additional 411:

    From the time her book deal was made public, people have reacted to Kaavya’s success with jealousy, bitterness, and snide comments. People were dying to see her fall on her face. From kids in the dining hall to a “congratulations” message on David ZhouÂ’s wall to the disparaging remarks of a resident affiliate I chatted with the day after the book came out, peoples’ reactions have really disgusted me. When I saw that message board comment from Strohminger last night, I could hardly believe that a TF would say such terrible things. Thanks for rooting out which TF had the gall to do such an awful thing, and thanks for writing about it. Stromingher’s comments are disgraceful; that a TF would bash a student and her writing in a public forum is absolutely appalling.

    i agree about the TA whose metafilter handle sucks tampax. oh, and david zhou is the h-bomb reporter who dropped the story, he was interviewed on TODAY this morning.

  10. Re: “…I think I was pretty clear in the following comment I made, upthread..”

    oops! Missed that comment out of the 205+ already posted. I agree with both Deepa and ANNA. It’s not cool to lump and it’s not cool to be an asshole, but people still have the right to an opinion. while i guess it’s not cool to post those types of comments on this particular post, i wonder what the line between criticism and a too-mean comment is.

  11. oh, and david zhou is the h-bomb reporter who dropped the story, he was interviewed on TODAY this morning.

    So Zhou gets to make a career out of this? Yuck.

  12. she would appear to deserve it. talk about agency. and the top research interest she lists is “moral cognition…”

    Don’t forget the illustrated book she’s writing, “The Lecture on Human Values”. Sounds like a nail-biter 🙂 Anyone that lists ‘social psychology’ as an interest will get the same snark from me, the same y’hear!

  13. No, but the intellectual lynching she deserves is welcome on my earlier post. At least until she properly repents.

    She should “repent” due to her own internal realisation of her wrongdoing, not because a bunch of strangers on the internet may be trying to bully her into doing so.

    The public embarassment, uproar amongst her family members and social circle, and (especially) the legal ramifications of her actions will be punishment enough, I think.

  14. If I skewer and e-lynch her without knowing all the facts, will I be skewered myself? Or will you all be compassionate towards me due to my age?
    if i DID know how old you were and you were talking mad trash, YES, i would feel some pity for YOU, too. i feel the same for the very young idiots who talked trash about me for blogging about my past…livejournal, anyone?

    Very young idiots. Now THAT’S compassionate. 🙂 And compassion is replaced by “pity”, with all the condescension that implies. There’s a big difference between the two, and I’m sure if I said, “I have pity for this Ms. Viswanathan” it wouldn’t go over well. Anyway, rather than having compassion for my youthful indescretions, I am (or would be) lumped with trash-talking young idiots whom it would appear you have issues with. No ruling on my appeal?

    In any event, whatever good will she may have been entitled to was descimated with her explanation, which is the stereotypical excuse that a long, LONG line of plagiarizers have fallen back on. We’re sorry for the UNINTENTIONAL error, but we INTERNALIZED the books and then they somehow MATERIALIZED on our pages. Maybe, maybe… but it’s the same exact explanation nearly ALL caught plagiarizers use (when they’re not outright denying it). It’s as if the plagiarizers plagiarized each other! I would have more compassion and pity if she didn’t so easily fall back on that same explanation they all use, which makes whatever she says suspect.

    Anyway, she’s lucky the work in question wasn’t written for a class. The Harvard Administrative Board and the Dean would not be very compassionate when it comes to disciplining the student. And since everyone is saying “I’m not saying what she did was right. She should not have done it”, I assume we agree that they should not be. Seven paragraphs is a lot of unintentional materializing.

  15. We’re sorry for the UNINTENTIONAL error, but we INTERNALIZED the books and then they somehow MATERIALIZED on our pages…

    My thoughts exactly. Sounds a lot like: “Honey, this is not what it looks like” when caught cheating on one’s spouse.

    M. Nam

  16. while i guess it’s not cool to post those types of comments on this particular post,

    prithee, fair monarch of indie, what particular post WOULD it be cool to post asshole-y comments on? 🙂 i think the line you ask about is usually determined by whether or not the criticism is constructive, personal, etc. you can criticize a person’s choices without criticizing the human who made them.

    it took me three decades to realize that i am NOT my mistakes. i think that epiphany is part of why i came out like this. diss kaavya’s apparent mistake, not kaavya herself, that’s all i’m saying. it’s when people do the latter that i feel the haterade spray.

  17. It would be scary if Stromingher becomes a full-fledged prof one day. Most of my professors were great, pretty open-minded and insightful, but I did experience the wrath of a particularly racist prof. Very hard to prove, so I had to live through it. I was distressed about the situation, so I talked to a prof of Indian background and he made me feel alot better and assured me I wasn’t crazy. It was also interesting that without prompting other students would voice the same concern. If only we could’ve worked together to remove the prof….

    I’m really glad that Nina (mowglisambo) was outed even more than KV being outed. Obviously racist, and no wonder she gave KV “low grades” on her assignments – she’s biased! This is a person who is going to affect the young people she interacts with through her teaching position. An IP check should confirm her identity, if the overwhelming evidence isn’t enough. I was a TA onceuponatime, and if I recall correctly, I’m pretty sure I signed a confidentiality agreement regarding student grades and students themselves.

  18. Jai,

    as i stated before, the fact that she’s young or “more young” b/c she’s brown holds no water with me…at 17, you know the difference between right and wrong…

    sorry to sound like broken record…my only point is i don’t see why we have to be so compassionate and understanding towards her…other than a few scathing comments (which is a given on any post) over on abhi’s post, no one said anything so terrible…which is why i questioned anna as to her intent w/ this post b/c i still feel like i’m missing something…

    anywho…i think i’ll join evil abhi over on the other post and continue to “eviscerate” her

  19. Indie Princess,

    i wonder what the line between criticism and a too-mean comment is.

    When the criticism and overall “tone” become disproportional to the transgression, and are driven by egotism, sanctimoniousness and sadism.

    If you start to enjoy admonishing others a little too much, you’re going too far.

  20. Technophobicgeek,

    This is turning out to be another Toral Mehta thread.

    This is exactly what I’ve been thinking, although it’s not quite as vicious as the Toral thread (yet).

    The desi tendency to jump on the bandwagon and lynch perceived “offenders” is interesting, whether it happens on-line or in the real world. And I don’t mean “interesting” in a positive way.

  21. Re: “prithee, fair monarch of indie, what particular post WOULD it be cool to post asshole-y comments on? :)”

    Any post that allows it. People ALWAYS have a right to an opinion, however mean-spirited or horrible that opinion is. Since this is your post, you took the power to call it out, which is fine by me.

    alas, i’m not really a monarch, although if you visit indie sometime; i’ll throw an indie banquet.=)

  22. Jai,

Sadism is a hallmark of humanity..did I go too far?

 We're SA we love admonishing others..

Kaavya is scum simple and plain...along with 17th street and alloy, a mini ken lay with a lotta paris hilton...I only wish

    tina brown could have been dealt with in simm fashion pre New Yorker…

    Now the question is...will Arundhati Roy write fiction again? I hope so..
  23. A N N A: if i DID know how old you were and you were talking mad trash, YES, i would feel some pity for YOU, too. i feel the same for the very young idiots who talked trash about me for blogging about my past…livejournal, anyone?
    SY: Very young idiots. Now THAT’S compassionate. 🙂 And compassion is replaced by “pity”, with all the condescension that implies. There’s a big difference between the two, and I’m sure if I said, “I have pity for this Ms. Viswanathan” it wouldn’t go over well. Anyway, rather than having compassion for my youthful indescretions, I am (or would be) lumped with trash-talking young idiots whom it would appear you have issues with. No ruling on my appeal?

    the idiots i refer to deserve a far worse insult, since they chose to dissect a first person account of sexual assault because it read like “third-rate veronica mars fan fiction”. because that’s what you do when a survivor tells the harrowing tale of a crime, you vivisect the victim by criticizing the style in which they deliver their account. these LJers were overwhelmingly very young, i comforted myself and many others tried to comfort me with that fact when i agonized over their heartlessness. so yeah, sometimes youth IS a sturdy explanation to lay your tears and disappointment on.

    i don’t think feeling pity means i’m condescending. i also don’t discern as much of a difference between the two words. i google defined both:

    PITY: commiseration: a feeling of sympathy and sorrow for the misfortunes of others; “the blind are too often objects of pity” -an unfortunate development; “it’s a pity he couldn’t do it” -compassion: the humane quality of understanding the suffering of others and wanting to do something about it -feel for: share the suffering of
    COMPASSION: a deep awareness of and sympathy for another’s suffering the humane quality of understanding the suffering of others and wanting to do something about it.

    look, i have no quarrel with you. 🙂 i define and clarify because i want there to be no mistake about where i stand.

  24. other than a few scathing comments (which is a given on any post) over on abhi’s post, no one said anything so terrible…which is why i questioned anna as to her intent w/ this post b/c i still feel like i’m missing something…

    Perhaps this very post is the reason that people haven’t been as terrible as they were to Toral. Maybe that was her intent, to set a tone for mature discussion, free of slander and stupidity.

  25. Metric – I agree – the TA chick is a lot scarier and potentially damaging than KV. On SM, why is there so much focus on the drawbacks of various desis, and not the underlying racism of the western societies most of us live in? This Nina Nazi is a menace and all too typical. If you don’t believe me, check out the threads on Teaching English Overseas websites. That’s where you see what most white Americans, Canadians, Brits, Australians really think…

  26. The desi tendency to jump on the bandwagon and lynch perceived “offenders” is interesting, whether it happens on-line or in the real world. And I don’t mean “interesting” in a positive way.

    c’mon y’all. there’s actually a pretty interesting conversation going on here about authorship and publishing. no need to turn it into some kind of dissing-people-for-dissing-people infinite loop, desi tendency or otherwise.

  27. From page 213 of McCafferty’s first novel: ‘‘Marcus then leaned across me to open the passenger-side door. He was invading my personal space, as I had learned in Psych class, and I instinctively sank back into the seat. That just made him move in closer. I was practically one with the leather at this point, and unless I hopped into the backseat, there was nowhere else for me to go.’’

    From page 175 of ViswanathanÂ’s novel: ‘‘Sean stood up and stepped toward me, ostensibly to show me the book. He was definitely invading my personal space, as I had learned in a Human Evolution class last summer, and I instinctively backed up till my legs hit the chair…Â’Â’

    no, there will be no pity or compassion from me. enough said.

  28. Nina Strohminger and her racist handle reflects a Caucasian tendency to conflate hatred for another race with a particular individual’s merits/demerits, whether it happens on-line or in the real world. And I don’t mean “interesting” in a positive way.

  29. “Nina Strohminger and her racist handle reflects a Caucasian tendency to conflate hatred for another race with a particular individual’s merits/demerits, whether it happens on-line or in the real world. And I don’t mean “interesting” in a positive way.”

    i think it’s more of a human tendency — part of our baser, but, sadly, all too easy to resort to, nature — to do that, whether it’s race, religion, ethnicity, nationality. on has only to look at some of the yahoo comments on this story to see how some people cannot separate their criticism of Miss Vishwanathan’s alleged/apparent plagiarism from their bigoted views on indians.

  30. if you’re producing teenage chick-lit (or whatever other genre it might happen to be) on an industrial basis it makes sense that you would establish a production chain that looks like an assembly line rather than a writer’s colony. all kinds of consultants and outsourcers and in- and out-of-house efficiency enhancers can then come into play

    Siddhartha, her agent decided her work was “too dark” and contacted the packaging company to make it “more mainstream.” The publishing company, afaik, didn’t have anything to do with it, so please don’t generalize. Those work-for-hire writers don’t get copyright, and their names aren’t emblazoned across the book.

    The fact that she split the copyright with the packaging company makes it seem more and more like she really didn’t write much of this at all, despite her name being on the cover. And whether you think that excuses her, or is even more reason to criticize, depends entirely on how you feel about reponsibility and authorship.

  31. Gotcha – Sorry! Didn’t see the smiley 😛

    Anna – I got fired from a news job in school because I forgot to paraphrase. It was traumatic, even when the only people who knew or cared were my parents. So yes. I agree with you on that aspect. KV will be a press kill for a couple of weeks but hopefully people will have short memories and perhaps the only good that will come out of this controversy; publishing houses will be careful about how and who they push to the limelight. And Anna, I don’t think anyone has e-lynched her. It has been a betrayal of sorts if you think about it. A 17 year Harvard freshman to have snagged a $500K book deal — splashed over newspapers for a year.. is bound to build some expectations….

    Btw. William Morris agency is notorious for latching in on a clients “star” value. Nadine, the jolieinnyc.com blogger who got fired for blogging about the magazine business was immediately snapped up by William Morris agents. KV, may have been a similar target….

  32. Siddhartha, her agent decided her work was “too dark” and contacted the packaging company to make it “more mainstream.” The publishing company, afaik, didn’t have anything to do with it, so please don’t generalize. Those work-for-hire writers don’t get copyright, and their names aren’t emblazoned across the book.

    cicatrix, i don’t think we disagree. to make myself clear, i’m saying that there is an industrial/commercial logic behind the apparition of all these various intermediaries in between the author’s idea and the publisher’s product on the bookshelves. i don’t mean to pre-judge who exactly played what role in this particular case, but ultimately they all (author, agent, publisher [and within publisher, the editor and the sales people, who may have different takes], consultants, ghostwriters, packagers) all have interpenetrated interests, especially when it comes to potential blockbusters. know’m saying?

    as for responsibility, i think i outlined where her responsibility lies now in my opinion. she needs to step up and say what her role was and was not, and why in her view things got to the point they have done, and what her plans are next. we can then judge on that basis… and no doubt we will…

    s

  33. well, i read some of the yahoo news comments. one of it, for example, says “she should be deported”. well, i can see what anna was reacting to. that still does not mean i have sympathy for her plagiarizing (all the she was young, we all make mistakes, etc stuff).

    i agree she is going to bring out all the closet racists, who usually wait for something like this to happen to show their colors. agree with dq too that they are fairly common.

    if you make it to a prominent place especially in the arts or social sciences, i believe you have to deal with all kinds of bs like this. it is probably the reason immigrant communities tend to gravitate towards “boring stuff”, harder for people to hit out gratuitously at you in the sciences. remember the korean scientist who faked the stem cell research? he was put on trial, his research discredited, lost his position everything. but no other scientist attacked him personally. most others didn’t care enough to come out with pitchforks.

  34. Whose God is it anyways

    i think it’s more of a human tendency — part of our baser, but, sadly, all too easy to resort to, nature — to do that, whether it’s race, religion, ethnicity, nationality. on has only to look at some of the yahoo comments on this story to see how some people cannot separate their criticism of Miss Vishwanathan’s alleged/apparent plagiarism from their bigoted views on indians.

    Have you got any examples/links of those racist comments?

  35. “Nina Strohminger and her racist handle reflects a Caucasian tendency to conflate hatred for another race with a particular individual’s merits/demerits, whether it happens on-line or in the real world. And I don’t mean “interesting” in a positive way.”

    oh, the irony!

  36. BBJ:

    here are a couple of unoriginal insults:

    Dotheads write about drinking cow urine by:shamal_diya_al_din (M/My profile) That’s what they do. They think it’s a cow’s twat is a fountain of youth.

    Re: Indians TRACE everything! by:spirit_ranch 04/25/06 12:20 pm Msg: 36 of 234 VERY VERY TRUE. i USED TO WORK WITH SOME OF THEM AND FOR THEM. THEY ARE FACSIST, GREEDY LIARS

    there are of course the usual sexist comments on indian women and curry and vulgar references to the private parts of indian women (and a couple of comments on indian women being beautiful). most of the time i resist reading any of the yahoo comments, but unfortunately this time i was curious as to what the responses would be, and lo and behold, they are predictable.

     

  37. i agree she is going to bring out all the closet racists, who usually wait for something like this to happen to show their colors. agree with dq too that they are fairly common.

    Heck yeah, bytewords. And BTW if the yahoo boards are representative of American sentiment towards browns, we are all in trouble. Any article with even the most ancillary reference to India brings out hordes of religious fundamentalists, the disgruntled outsourced class, atavistic haters who long for the good white days, whenever those were, and people who think brown men have short dicks, skinny dicks, or limp dicks. And then some Hindutvavadin will start in with the “fuck you India rules” bit and the mass of haters will instantaneously swell tenfold.

  38. I forget who said it, some Jewish guy I think, that we (and the Chinese) are the new Jews. We don’t riot, we don’t bomb, we quietly assimilate. And perhaps deceive ourselves that the majority embraces us.

  40. All said and done…wheres the (BROWN) MEN IN BLACK (i think its time for vakil saab to take control of the adalat and help the mulzim) there must definitely be some one hidden there….to make the wrong look right or right the wrong..

  41. I haven’t seen this dumping on Indian writers people speak about. In fact, I’ve loved much of the stuff I’ve read and told other Indians to read it.

    I’m probably much older than most of you (40s) and have kids of my own. Honestly, I would feel than I had failed as a parent if my daughter plagarized or represented herself as something she wasn’t (the author). Both are morally dubious at best. It’s never okay to cheat.

    Plus, the amount of money involved (by all parties) makes it a real crime and speaks more to naked greed than anything else. I read about the “I had to write 50 pages during finals at Harvard” and thought “Why? Why didn’t she get an extension so she could write in the summer?”. But who knows — probably this little scandal is planned, too, to sell more books and to build up momentum for the movie. (Cynical me).

    Meanwhile, I’ll save my sympathy for people for Jean Valjean. Or for people whose problems won’t go away if they just tell the truth and return the money.

  42. Btw. William Morris agency is notorious for latching in on a clients “star” value. Nadine, the jolieinnyc.com blogger who got fired for blogging about the magazine business was immediately snapped up by William Morris agents. KV, may have been a similar target….

    True, but jolieinnyc had already made a name for herself before she was signed, same with that Bachelor guy. They actively jump for any of those American Idol/Nashville Star peeps, too. But KV had zero star power and 100% integrity when WMA signed her, AFAIK. I would honestly opine that Suzanne Gluck and Jennifer R-W legitimately had some feelings for KV’s writing, and passed her to the packaging house to help her create a more saleable work.

  43. and Anisha Nagarajan. They dogpiled on her, when she stole my job landed the role of Priya in “Bombay Dreams” Broadway.

  44. Anna, it was really kind of you to reach out to Kaavya. I actually thought of you, and how gleefully everyone jumps on the bandwagon with the first critic and loses all sight of the benefit if the doubt, especially in a medium such as the internet where no one has to wait to see their diatribes in print.

    Kaavya has spoken with great respect for the author from whom she lifted passages from and denied intent quite convincingly IMO. If she does indeed have a photographic memory, it would be so easy to do this. I know I imitate the style of whomever I am reading when I write. If I could memorize passages without supreme effort I would certainly transpose them into my writing.

    I also question what was wrong that this was missed in the editing and publishing process of a similar genre book by such a young author. It sounds like everything went too fast, with too many dollar signs blinding those who stood to profit, and not JUST the author. But hey, I was someone who felt sorry for Frey when Oprah gutted him. Good storytelling never happens on an island, nor is it ever just true.

  45. Anna,

    You HAVE to be kidding about the additional 411 and bolding the comment on David’s facebook wall. What is wrong with a friend leaving him a message congratulating him on breaking an extremely newsworthy story that will likely advance his journalism career (if he chooses to have one)? Should it have been put up on his wall for everyone to see? Perhaps not. However, I sincerely doubt that this is indicative of a hatred of Kaavya rather than justified happiness for an important break in a friend’s career. I do agree that the TF thing is ridiculous and should have never happened.

  46. From the time her book deal was made public, people have reacted to Kaavya’s success with jealousy, bitterness, and snide comments. People were dying to see her fall on her face. From kids in the dining hall to a “congratulations” message on David ZhouÂ’s wall to the disparaging remarks of a resident affiliate I chatted with the day after the book came out, peoples’ reactions have really disgusted me. When I saw that message board comment from Strohminger last night, I could hardly believe that a TF would say such terrible things. Thanks for rooting out which TF had the gall to do such an awful thing, and thanks for writing about it. Stromingher’s comments are disgraceful; that a TF would bash a student and her writing in a public forum is absolutely appalling.


    i agree about the TA whose metafilter handle sucks tampax. oh, and david zhou is the h-bomb reporter who dropped the story, he was interviewed on TODAY this morning.

    crimsonite:

    just WHAT exactly do i HAVE to be kidding about? i stated nothing about david zhou other than a sentence to provide context for what i quoted. also, when i read “wall” in the above quote, you should know that i pictured, literally, graffiti on his wall for all to see, which seemed rather egregious. where the hell does facebook come in to this? is “wall” a special facebook feature or term? dios mio, this entire debacle makes me thrilled to be old.

  47. “just WHAT exactly do i HAVE to be kidding about? i stated nothing about david zhou other than a sentence to provide context for what i quoted. also, when i read “wall” in the above quote, you should know that i pictured, literally, graffiti on his wall for all to see, which seemed rather egregious. where the hell does facebook come in to this? is “wall” a special facebook feature or term? dios mio, this entire debacle makes me thrilled to be old.”

    You have to be kidding that this is some sort of example of the egregious behavior demonstrated in the wake of this entire saga. Haha, whoa–graffiti on a wall? Okay, that would be taking it to another level. The author of the quote took something utterly meaningless (in fact, as the wall commenter says on another post, “recognizing my hardworking roommate’s hours of devoted work last Friday, Saturday and Sunday which have now paid off is a sign of jealousy, bitterness, and snideness …”) and turned it into another example of the hatred for Kaavya.

  48. One crap book and 248 comments later I’ve realised that a better word than CRAPTACULAR is TESTICULAR

  49. Well the quick judgement of the facebook dude and his friend who broke the story just goes to prove that there can be two extremes to this whole issue. and a whole lot in between (as evidenced by 248+ posts!)!!

  50. I’m probably revealing my ignorance here, but what does that “moglisambo” mean, and how is it racist?