A NYT tipster has found more lifted passages in Opal Mehta from yet another chick lit tome, Can You Keep a Secret? by Sophie Kinsella (author of Shopaholic), circa 2004.
At least three portions in the book, How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life, by Kaavya Viswanathan, bear striking similarities to writing in Can You Keep a Secret? … the phrasing and structure of some passages is nearly identical. [Link]
The structural similarities between both versions of this passage seem damning. (It is one contiguous passage):
| Can You Keep a Secret? | Opal Mehta |
|
“And we’ll tell everyone you got your Donna Karan coat from a discount warehouse shop.” Jemima gasps. “I didn’t!” she says, color suffusing her cheeks. “You did! I saw the carrier bag,” I chime in. “And we’ll make it public that your pearls are cultured, not real…” Jemima claps a hand over her mouth… “OK!” says Jemima, practically in tears. “OK! I promise I’ll forget all about it. I promise! Just please don’t mention the discount warehouse shop. Please.” |
“And I’ll tell everyone in that in eighth grade you used to wear a ‘My Little Pony’ sweatshirt to school every day,” I continued. Priscilla gasped. “I didn’t!” she said, her face purpling again. “You did! I even have pictures,” I said. “And I’ll make it public that you named your dog Pythagoras…” Priscilla opened her mouth and gave a few soundless gulps… “Okay, fine!” she said in complete consternation. “Fine! I promise I’ll do whatever you want. I’ll talk to the club manager. Just please don’t mention the sweatshirt. Please.” |
What boggles the mind is that there are people reading chick lit so closely as to be able to detect this. True, uh, dedication 
You know a story is overexposed when Paris Hilton’s relatives try to piggyback on the publicity 
But Viswanathan’s agent will have you know that when the Crown took down the Little, Brown, her client was the real victim. It’s her twinkie defense:
Viswanathan said she had read McCafferty but called herself the victim of a photographic memory. “Somewhere in her mind, she crossed an invisible line with this material and didn’t realize that the words so easy and available to her were not her own,” says her agent, Jennifer Rudolph Walsh… Walsh says, “I guarantee you she’ll graduate first in her class.” [Link]
<
p>Ruth Marcus at the WaPo criticizes Viswanathan for unoriginality by using the phrase ‘curry-scented.’ The irony escapes her:
The curry-scented slapstick that follows is more product placement (Moschino miniskirt, Jimmy Choo stilettos, Habitual jeans) than literature… [Link]
The Economic Times shows some sensitivity:
It might be pertinent to remember that some years ago, a young author was being promoted by many senior writers as the next big thing in the publishing industry. And then, exactly the same thing happened with her. That story ended with the lady committing suicide. [Link]
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p>Class, true class. The plagiary and subsequent suicide of Indrani Aikath-Gyaltsen gave rise to an interesting twist of phrase (thanks, Thalassa):‘If something comes from exotic parts, it’s read very differently’
… “there’s a phrase `aesthetic affirmative action.’ If something comes from exotic parts, it’s read very differently than if it’s domestically grown…” Friends said she turned down one dashing military officer because he spoke English with a Punjabi accent, the Indian equivalent of a blue-collar nasal rasp. [Link]
<
p>Other Indian papers struggled with the chick niche, spelling it ‘chiclet,’ ‘chicklet’ or ‘chic-lit‘ at random. Viswanathan was not amused:
“You better come correct with syntax [expletive deleted] or I’ll pop a dangling participle in your punk ass, you hear?” [Link
Meanwhile, one Boston brahmin worried the hungama might stain his silver spoon:
That may be fine for the world at large, but we at Harvard, quite frankly, are supposed to be something different. Every student here knows what it feels like to drop the H-bomb and is familiar with that tinge of pride at the recognition and respect which our institution’s name inspires… Harvard’s most recent and feted cultural contribution is chick lit written by an aspiring investment banker. We have fallen a long way from T.S. Eliot, and we should be ashamed. [Link]
<
p>This is the way the marketing machine ends, not with a bang but a whimper. But in all things a silver lining. Since many Indians don’t believe in intellectual property, Viswanathan could have a tremendous career writing for Bollywood. Why, just the other night I saw a fantastic new Bollywood trailer about a hit man who hires a cabbie to drive him around town for a night. It’s called The Killer. I suggest investing and putting up some collateral.
<
p>Viswanathan has already done what Bollyscribes do all day — lift, separate and brownify (PDF – thanks, Zai):
| Sloppy Firsts | Opal Mehta desifies it for you |
| These conversations [with Marcus] are like a shot of Schnapps with a Tabasco sauce chaser. Short, sweet, and strange… | Talking to Sean had been like eating sev mixture, the Indian equivalent to Chex Party Mix, sharp and sweet and spicy all at once… |
| [Marcus] smelled sweet and woodsy, like cedar shavings. | … [Seans’s] cologne (sweet and woodsy and spicy, like the sandalwood key chains sold as souvenirs in India.) |
| …I’ve become the subject of countless finger-pointing rumors. I heard he’s has taught her everything he knows, so she can do every position in the Kama Sutra at college. | …I was the subject of every senior’s finger-pointing, whispered rumors… “I heard the first item on your resume was being able to hit every pose in the Kama Sutra.” |
Lift kara de
Here are some of the similar passages (PDF) which most news stories haven’t yet quoted:
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p>
| Sloppy Firsts | Opal Mehta |
| … in a truly sadomasochistic dieting gesture, they chose to buy their Diet Cokes at Cinnabon. | In a truly masochistic gesture, they had decided to buy Diet Cokes from Mrs. Fields… |
| “‘Omigod!’ shrieked Sara, taking a pink tube top emblazoned with a glittery Playboy bunny out of her shopping bag.” |
“…buy me a pink tube top emblazoned with a glittery Playboy bunny.” |
|
But then he tapped me on the shoulder, and said something so random that I was afraid he was back on the junk. “Did you know that the average American spends six months of his or her life waiting for red lights to turn green?” “What?” |
… he tapped me on the shoulder and said something so random I worried that he needed more expert counseling than I could provide.
“Did you know that the words amnesty and amnesia come from the same root?” “What?” |
| “Omigod! Let’s make sure junior year rocks,” she says. “Let’s make more time for each other. Friends are forever!”
… So I say even less at lunch than usual, totally aware of how alone I am. |
“Omigod!… We have to make more time for each other. Friends are forever!” I said even less than usual, aware of how totally alone I am. |
| Scotty has gotten into the habit of substituting curses with initials. | Every curse was either replaced by its initials or had a consonant cleverly inserted… |
| Upper Crust [as most popular group in school] | Upper-Cruster [as most popular group in school] |
| Dreg [as druggies] | Dreg [as druggies] |
Related posts: Innocent, Until Proven Otherwise, How Kaavya Viswanathan got rich, got caught, and got ruined, Buzzword bingo
i am almost certain that “opal mehta” isn’t the ONLY book which could fail these tests set up by the media.
You’re almost certain? This is exactly where you’re wrong, Anna. I think it’s obvious to most observers now that packaging is one thing (and a problematic thing too), but extensive plagiarism is quite another. What you’re doing here is the equivalent of saying that Enron is not guilty of fraud because capitalism is a screwed up. Well, capitalism IS screwed up AND Enron is still guilty of fraud.
These are not “tests set up by the media,” these are real instances of deception. This is clear. It’s clear. Why isn’t it clear to you?
As for all those who are “sick and tired” of this topic, the best thing you could possibly do is to refrain from leaving a comment about how sick and tired you are. Turn off the computer. Go for a long walk.
As long as there are still defenders of a heavily documented case of literary theft, there’s still life in this old horse.
we can argue about the proper metrics to use, but plagiarism software (at least the software used by CS teachers to identify cheats) looks for structural similarity (in this context, syntactic and grammatical similarity) as opposed to literal reproduction. this passage would clearly fail a structural test.
so you think that all the other books in the chick lit genre are 100% original, with no possibility for a similar result, if someone, say, the harvard crimson, had enough of a reason to spend extensive amounts of time doing side-by-side comparisons with THEM? please.
why isn’t it clear to YOU that what i REALLY have an issue with, is scapegoating? it’s clear SOMEONE took heavy liberties with “inspiration”, what is unclear to me is why there is so much outrage aimed squarely at ONE girl, right now. why is this front page news all over the world? why are we prioritizing THIS?
enron ruined lives– did opal mehta? let’s get a grip here.
the structure in the passages are eerily similar…but then again, maybe its b/c i haven’t read that much “chick-lit”….
so can’t someone find an example of other books in this genre that hold a striking similarity as the first example in manish’s post? this shouldn’t be that hard if chick-lit is all the same and everyone does it….
oh wait… i know. this is a message from god. the end is nigh. the almighty is landing in a flying petridish in roswell.. but it must be true… it’s the subliminal mesg in the opalmehta, which is an anagram for holycornholio in the yaabaadaabadoo script known only to the choice few … and of course her name says it all kaavyavishwanathan… dont you get it… as the song of god… it is true… so many coincidences.. cant be a freak of chance… she’ll be coming round the mountain when she comes… yayayippepeyippeeyai…singingyaiayaiyippeyippeyai…
I’m sorry Anna. It is clear to me that you have an issue with scapegoating, and I commend you for that. I really do. No one enjoys being the victim of public opinion, and it must be especially hard when one is so young.
But I also insist that, sometimes, the best way to defend someone includes helping them step out of their lies. In my opinion, this “unintentional copying” business is a big lie, and it’s important that people say that. Just as creationism is a big lie, just as WMD is a big lie.
Whether or not people’s lives were ruined is not at issue here. I agree with you that she shouldn’t be pilloried, but I hope you can see that she’s still engaging in destructive untruths, destructive, in the final analysis, to her. “I was in a rush to finish the book. I stole from a number of other books to get it done. I lied. It matters.” She needs to get to that point. Until then, she’s in a hell of her own making, filled with imaginary persecutors.
of her own making or her handlers? the nightmare scenario i’m haunted by has her wanting to come clean, but being persuaded not to. it’s all well and good to pillory her for THAT, too, but that’s where my age “argument” comes in to play…i remember being that age, i don’t know if i would’ve been wise or strong enough to tell slick people to fuck off.
ANNA,
Your vociferous defense of KV seems to be fueled by passion than reason. It has been established at SM as well as word media that she was caught plagiarizing, people are outraged at the vehement arrogance than trying to out her down. May be in your opinion make a public apology is enough (even though it smells of a face saving exercise and not a least bit sincere), what defies logic is why the apology had to be timed with being caught and not self motivated. I guess her photographic memory erased traces of similarities from her mind when exposed to sunlight.
The point is that we can all argue for the sake of arguing and no there are no similarities between Enron and KV gate, someone has to be held accountable and the ultimate responsibility is the wrtierÂ’s.
.
Me too.
i really don’t under this high moral position or the utility of continued social condemnation. she plagiarized, that’s uncontroversial (or at least should be). there are legal sanctions for plagiarism, but the McCafferty decided against litigating. she’s been scorched in the blogosphere, scorched by the media, and her literary career is probably ruined. what other corrective measures need to be taken? she made a mistake, the world weighed in, and she was punished.
I question the motive behind three post on same topic.
Also I demand a joint investigation by US and India into this sordid affair (henceforth to be known as Mutinygate) of manipulation of site visits by posting stuffs like this,
I’m amused. Do you have examples of authors that confessed to plagiarism before they were caught?
I now do buy that ms visvanathan has copied
now the weight of evidence has swung the blance being held by the blind lady way on to the other side. Unless of course crabs are hanging on the heavier pan.
Looking at the superficial details of ms visvanathans book and life, which is Desi chick wants to imitate a culture that is unfamiliar to her family and wants to be accepted by both her parents her peers
So she did what others do in the so called ‘fit in’ phase, which is imitate after a while she may even feel that she has internalized something. Perhaps she truely feels like that…no one knows. If she really beleives that then she would be wrong
Jane,
I was almost a 100% sure that my comment will warrant a reaction like yours, to answer your question NO I donÂ’t have examples of authors that confessed to plagiarism before they were caught for that matter I donÂ’t have examples of anyone who confessed to any wrong doing before they were caught. You are completely missing the point, in some of the comments in this post and earlier posts KV was being sound like a martyr just because she apologized on national TV, the point I am trying to make is that the apology may not be heart felt and a well timed PR face saving exercise.
I agree that passion must be separated from reason.
Kaavya may be a wonderful kid, in fact I would bet on it. Her Mom probably makes great dosas and chutney too. Sure, she’s a real human being with a loving family and friends. She’s young, she’s a student. At one point in time, we were all her age, wide-eyed and innocent.
That does not mean we can make excuses for her.
What saddens me is that, if she comes out of this with no charges pressed against her, with her book deal and money all intact, she will be sending out a message to millions of other young men and women out there. “The way to get a book published is to plagiarize.” “Want to get into Harvard? Cheat your way in – only cheaters get in.” “Plagiarize – you can get away with it!”
It is already an unfair world. Kaavya Viswananthan comes from an upwardly mobile, well educated family. The chances of someone her age who hails from Southeast D.C. getting a book deal like that is little to none.
My point is, in a world where we are told/know that life is not fair, shouldn’t we make it our motto to make it as fair as we can?
I basically agree with not focusing one’s rage on KV. She is the front and a part of this farce. The ‘packaging’ company, publishers, agents, etc. all have a part in bringing this product to the market. They ARE part of the problem, however, they’re letting KV take the heat.
This whole situation is analogous to the pop music industry where a pretty, fresh, and young new face is brought in. She can sing OK, not the best. With top notch producers, song writers, marketing people, etc. they manufacture a hit. In this case, their hit came down in a giant flaming wreck. There are too many layers between KV and the market, especially in traditional model of publishing. Supposed ‘professionals’ whose job it is to review, didn’t (or contributed to the mess).
As Abhi mentioned earlier, isn’t this all a part of the same mess? People not coming clean and abusing the trust you put into an organization. Obviously, consequences of this vs Enron aren’t in the same league.
KV has other options. IF her handlers pushed her away from what she really wanted to write about, the internet exists. She may not get the money, but her art is still valid. If she was co-opted into that lame apology, she still thinks by saving the folks who are also partially responsible, in some way, she’s still giving her future as a writer a chance.
KV, just come clean, and try new publishing models. Atleast it’ll be the truth and people will judge your talent for what it is, not what corporations exepct it to be.
She’s 19, give her a break
So are they. Who’s giving them a break?
who’s comparing people in a war with a plagiarized chick-lit novel? way to focus your energy on what’s rilly impotent 🙂
Enron shifted wealth where it didn’t belong. Exactly the same thing happened with Kaavya
orders of magnitude different, done by people in their 40’s-60’s. let people know if Kaavya-gate causes blackouts in California
oh, i get it. so if some 19-year olds suffer, all of them should, since we can boil everything down to the same thing. dying at war = public humiliation from a mistake. plagiarism = enron. if you want to give kaavya a break, then you take away a break from an honorable soldier. gotcha. frankly, i think such comparisons are an insult to our military, who are dealing with REAL problems, not nicole richie’s laughable bitchiness.
i can be compassionate towards kaavya AND the men and women (my sister included) who put themselves on the line, when we are at war. i can’t believe how many times i’ve had to type this: compassion isn’t a zero-sum emotion. i’ve got gigatons of it to go around.
I am amazed how simplistic people have made this issue to be, to quote “let me know if KV causes blackouts in California”. This is ridiculous we need to hold people accountable for their actions, no one is trying to compare magnitudes but actions the concept of accountability is based on the premise of owning up to your actions good or bad. No wonder there have already been 500+ comments as the inane keep popping up.
People are taking different stands about this issue based on myriad POVs. I don’t see anyone making her out to be a martyr though she could may as well be a scapegoat according to a few.
Most apologies in these kinds of public/media cases where someone is caught doing something wrong are done to save face and are timed by PR. Again you are stating the obvious and I apparently am missing your point. You want her to behave differently then others in similar scandals? Her book got pulled off the shelves. What more would you like for her to do? Cry for you perhaps to believe she was “sincere” or then you might claim them to be crocodile tears. Come on now!
68 well said curious!
so are they
a canvasback duck dies when its 19 years old. who gives them a break? may be cheney, but every one else just shoots them.
malini-if millions of young writers are going to be swayed by something like kavyagate, then they have no business writing. you must be seperated from reason.
cheating, cutting corners, “packaging” are the American way (everyone’s guilty to some degree), at least cinema seems to have understood this a long time ago, don’t remember who said it but something along the lines of good films borrow, great films steal…
So all semantic polemics aside who is going to play Kaavya in “Shattered Viswanathan” if Stephen Glass (The New Republic) gets a feature, she deserves one as well, it can even have the 3 standard song and dance numbers
I expect to see this on youtube shortly.
ironically, meritocacy, however relative it was/is, is the reason America advanced in education and science, and (maybe less so) in the arts
Jane,
I applaud your clairvoyance; do you usually have a knack of reading peopleÂ’s minds or is it just me as I painfully state the obvious which by the way is a little difficult to avoid after 500+ POVs? I donÂ’t want her to do anything for me, all anyone wants is for her to own up, just to state the obvious again getting the book pulled off the shelves was not a choice but a compulsion.
way to phocuss your energies on a 19 year old chick lit author. you go!
Thats the game! KV is the writer. Her name is on the book. She has to take the fame/flame at the end of the day. The packaging company, publishers, agents, editors all have to take the financial heat as well. They had to recall the book(thats money down the tube) The editor(s) can not mention that they were part of this, they too will be looked down upon.
I for one am not for condemning the person but the actions, it is difficult in cases like these where the person is the sole recipient of half a million dollars.
She is young and is learning a harsh lesson pretty quickly in life. I will make some assumptions along the lines of that KV has probably lived a fairly sheltered life. Reality of the world is very different. I would like to know where are her parents are in this whole process? Haven’t heard a word from them. At the age she wrote this book, their support (and possibly pressure) must have been a factor. If this was happening to my daughter, I’d stand next to her and take the blame with her. Not shelter her from criticism, but atleast voice my opinion and own up to whatever (if anything) I contributed to this mess.
Hopefully, this epsiode gives her a lesson that she DOESN’T HAVE to play the game. Other options, though not as lucrative in the short term, they exist. She does shoulder a significant amount of responsibility for this boondoggle. Her name is on the book. Her publishers have felt the financial pinch. All for good reason.
Once the dust settles, I’d be interested in what the internal dynamics between author, publisher, packager, parents, etc. was. This could be as simple as KV screwing up and pulling one over like Frey, or more likely several factors playing into the process. Events like these contribute to my skepticism of ‘old media’ institutions, where content and delivery are not in the artist’s hands, but in executives.
gag anyone who refers to mentioning harvard as “dropping the h-bomb” should be prevented from communicating anything further for the rest of their life. give me a break…
Actually, there is more: http://www.gawker.com/news/kaavya-viswanathan/kaavya-viswanathan-cant-stop-the-plagiarizing-170924.php
But now, I’m even more convinced KV didn’t write any of the books. Either there was a poorly paid, overworked ghost writer or KV sat down with a bunch of chick-lit books figuring out how to write one. But really, it’s enough now. I feel bad for the poor girl.. She should’ve just been allowed to write the “dark” Seabold-y stuff she wanted too…
Well I think she was old enough to know better. her editors and book company older and wiser and should have done better
Why bring her parents into this. There is no need to hide behind parents… She did the right thing by going on the record alone.
I too want to know more about those dynamics. But i dont think wer are going to here much from any one else.
Please stop this inane speculation and conspiracy mongering. Publishing is an industry, and just because the process isn’t covered in the pixie dust and moonbeams doesn’t mean it’s grasping and venal. Little, Brown lost a LOT of money by trusting this girl.
But sure, if you have more questions, fire away.
By the way, profit and loss is a zero-sum game.
The money lost in Kaavya-gate (advance, printing, marketing, publicity, legal fees, recalling fees, remaindering fees) means less money for the next young first time author, at least if the publsihing company doesnt’ want to go out of business.
Gawker digs up an interview Kaayva gave The Hindu on the very day that The Harvard Crimson broke the plagiarism story:
Right. Bet you do.
Thanks publishing lifer,
you place blame at the feet of Kaavya, walsh, packagers…or a third each? Will this change industry attitudes towards packagers as a whole…? Young writers?
1) What is your opinion on packaging companies sharing copyrights? Does it, in your eyes, reduce the value of said author’s work?
2) Does the editorial/publishing process have a specific review that looks at other works in the same genre to see where the work ‘stands’?
I’m going for a third each. I felt shocked and slightly nauseated when I first heard of this deal – seemed like such a bad idea. Even for some writing prodigy, she had no previously published work!! Not even a poem, as far as I know! (Student magazines don’t count.)
Agents are a slippery breed, and while I don’t know this story well enough to comment on Walsh, her statements to the press have been rather overdramatic. Didn’t she say this book was 1000% Kaavya’s at one point? And now she’s expressing faith in Kaavya’s next book, I believe. Maybe she just really believes in her author….it’s been known to happen more often that you’d think!
On a personal/non-professional level, I blame the way Kaavya was raised…to set goals and reach them with no regard to how she got there. This is, of course, speculation on my part, but it’s a larger issue that I generally have a problem with.
Re: industry attitude toward packagers. I hope so. Packagers are fine, really, when it comes to serials like those billion Mary-Kate and Ashley books, or the Sweet Valley stuff. Do the tweeners who read them really care about an ‘author’s voice’? But what’s really sad about Kaavya-gate is that she was presented to the public as this literary prodigy, then asked to write chick-lit! A string of bad decisions there.
As for young writers…not so much. Publisher’s will be more careful, hopefully, about throwing money at untested authors, but I’m not going to hold my breath for long. Foolish desisions are easy to make, and the lure of a young, attractive author is really strong these days. But I am concerned about a slight (if temporary) backlash against young South Asian authors.
1.Yes. But here’s the catch: work that is ghostwritten, or “as told to,” or “written with” or commisioned off to a work-for-hire writer (I’d be surprised if Jack and Suzy Welch really had side by side typewritters and wrote every word of Winning. I’m guessing they had assistants, dictaphones, professional ‘book doctors’ etc.) really isn’t counted on some imaginary graph of literary merit. Nabokov isn’t Jenna Jameson, and it’s not fair to either to even compare the two. There are entirely different standards, so the idea that Nabokov was “packaged” is far far more shocking, devaluing, than imagining the same for Jenna Jameson.
Do you honestly believe that her parents willingly or unwillingly pushed her to be dishonest? I think you definitely have a point there because I have seen overachiever desi kids growing up who wouldn’t think twice about cutting you down and running you over with a truck to get what they wanted if you stood in their way. Competitiveness is a very common Indian trait but I’m skeptical about the level of deception that is involved in it.
This is the first thing I thought about when this story broke. I think it will certainly open up future south asian writers up to more scrutiny and make everyone look closer.
Sadly all this plagiarizing business brings back annoyed memories of some of my own stuff sitting out there on the net for eons that some desis have gleefully taken as their own and given their name to. I seriously have no discourse. Hell I once had a personals ad that was copied verbatim by someone and simply posted as theirs. That was the weirdest and saddest thing ever. I was the one that was forced to change mine because it was so embarrassing. When I sent her a note stating the obvious she sent me a simple “F**k you” back in a lovely email!
No, that’s not at all what I said or meant. For me, personally, there is something disturbing about a larger culture that accepts ambition and goal-oriented striving to the point that a little deception is seen as ok.
That it’s not ‘deception’ really…just ‘talking up’ or ‘padding’ or ‘something that everyone does.’ I’ve never lied, padded, stretched, or overstated a damn thing on my resume and I’m always shocked that people assume I have because, well, ‘everyone does’!
(it’s not even impressive, so I’m all the more baffled!)
Was anyone unclear on this? Because if there ARE people out there who were confused enough to need that reminder, allow me to be ultra-blunt about my use of the term earlier: my compassion does not = some publisher’s cash. the latter is zero-sum, my feelings are not.
that’s b/c your xerox-like “admirer” didn’t:
a) go to Harvard b) get 500k (which apparently isn’t even true) c) wasn’t telegenic.
i love selective justice.
(JoaT, my heart aches for you, I had it happen to me once, still remember how outraged I was. So unnecessary and lame.)
Wow. That is weird and sad. A personals ad? That person must really have nothing going for them if they’re stooping that low, copying another’s description of their persona.
Lifer,
Would any of the sanctimonious set explain what Enron actually did that was fraudulent?
Hari,
lit…the SEC comes after you with heated tongs (unless you happen to be friendly with….oh yunno the drill)
There’s more. (From http://www.thebookstandard.com/bookstandard/news/author/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002426259):
The Harvard Crimson, which first reported the similar passages in Opal and the McCafferty books, reported that Opal also contains passages similar to some found in Meg CabotÂ’s The Princess Diaries….
In The Princess Diaries: “There isnÂ’t a single inch of me that hasnÂ’t been pinched, cut, filed, painted, sloughed, blown dry, or moisturized. […] Because I donÂ’t look a thing like Mia Thermopolis. Mia Thermopolis never had fingernails. Mia Thermopolis never had blond highlights. Mia Thermopolis never wore makeup or Gucci shoes or Chanel skirts or Christian Dior bras, which by the way donÂ’t even come in 32A, which is my size. I donÂ’t even know who I am anymore. It certainly isnÂ’t Mia Thermopolis. SheÂ’s turning me into someone else.”
On page 59 of Opal: “Every inch of me had been cut, filed, steamed, exfoliated, polished, painted, or moisturized. I didn’t look a thing like Opal Mehta. Opal Mehta didn’t own five pairs of shoes so expensive they could have been traded in for a small sailboat. She didn’t wear makeup or Manolo Blahniks or Chanel sunglasses or Habitual jeans or Le Perla bras. She never owned enough cashmere to make her concerned for the future of the Kazakhstani mountain goat population. I was turning into someone else.”
Yes, there’s something weird and interesting going on here.
Geoffrey Pullum over at Language Log has raised a point that most have missed. Can you remember the actual italicization of a commonplace word in a sentence, even if the sentence speaks to you in a very profound manner? This is what I’m referring to.