The structure of a classical tragedy

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I. Introduction

‘I’ve never read a novel with an Indian-American protagonist.’

— Kaavya Viswanathan, April 26, 2006 [Link]

II. Conflict

Born Confused by Tanuja Desai Hidier, a teen novel with an Indian-American protagonist

[via Harvard Independent; thanks, Rekha]

 Opal Mehta

All day the house had smelled of spices, and now before our eyes lay the resulting combustion of all that kitchen chemistry. The feast my mother had conjured up was extravagant, and I realized how hungry I was; I wasn’t a big fan of Indian food, at least not on a daily basis, but today the sight of it was pure poetry.

Brown sugar roti and cloud-puff puris just itching to be popped. Coconut rice fluffed up over the silver pot like a sweet-smelling pillow. Samosas transparent, peas bundling just below the surface. Spinach with nymph-finger cloves of garlic that sank like butter on the tongue. A vat of cucumber raita, the two-percent yogurt thickened with sour cream (which my mom added when we had guests, though she denied it when asked; I’d seen the empty carton, not a kitten lick left). And the centerpiece: a deep serving dish of lamb curry, the pieces melting tenderly off the bone.

 … the house had smelled of spices all day, and when we sat down at the dining room table, I nearly combusted at the sight of the extravagant feast my mom had conjured up. Usually I wasn’t a big fan of Indian food, but today I was suddenly starving.

The table creaked with the weight of crisp, brown rotis and feather-light, puffy puris. A basket of my favorite kheema naan sat beside the clouds of cashew and sultana-studded coconut rice in an enormous pot. There was plump okra fried in oil and garlic till it melted like butter on the tongue, aloo curry studded with peppercorns and glistening chopped chilis, and a crock of raita, a cool, delicious mixture of yogurt and sour cream, bursting with finely chopped onions and cucumbers. The centerpiece was a deep dish of mutton curry, the meat (my mom only used halal bought from an Arab butcher in Edison) already falling off the bone.



III. Climax

‘I really thought the words were my own. I guess it’s just been in my head… I feel as confused as anyone about it, because it happened so many times.’ [Link]

On national TV last week (thanks, BEAH):

‘All I can tell is the truth.’

IV. Resolution

A Harvard University student’s “chick lit” novel has been permanently withdrawn and her two-book deal canceled, publisher Little, Brown and Company announced Tuesday… “Little, Brown and Company will not be publishing a revised edition of How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life by Kaavya Viswanathan, nor will we publish the second book under contract…” [Link]

Related posts: KaavyaGate reloaded, Innocent, Until Proven Otherwise, How Kaavya Viswanathan got rich, got caught, and got ruined, Buzzword bingo

168 thoughts on “The structure of a classical tragedy”

  1. I guess Chick Lit as a genre severly limits the range of words to choose from.

    You guess wrong, which is why there are hundreds of non-plagiarists working in the genre.

  2. From the New York Observer:

    According to William Morris sources, Ms. Viswanathan first signed with agent Suzanne Gluck, who then passed the author to a junior agent in her office. The junior agent worked with Ms. Viswanathan and eventually hit a wall in terms of developing a commercial proposal. The junior agent then suggested that the writer speak with Josh Bank at Alloy. The Opal Mehta idea emerged from Ms. Viswanathan’s conversations with Mr. Bank; once an outline was ready, it was decided that another William Morris agent, Jennifer Rudolph Walsh, would try to sell it to publishers, which she did, to Little, Brown.

    Read this post “How Kaavya Viswanathan Got Screwed“. Moore says:

    The details don’t really matter. Notice how this has everything to do with publishing, and high advances, and fancy New York agents, and “deals,” but nothing to do with writing.

  3. i don’t support the extent to which people are against KV as i believe its just scapegoating and hating just makes ya grumpy…

    but i can’t believe people are trying to say she didn’t plagiarise!

    i hate chick lit and have only read one of those kinds of books, but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t copying…

    there clearly was. whether she intended to/whether it was really her (but she still put her name to it) and whether its really such a big deal are different issues.

    but those passages are too similar for people to play devil’s advocate and bank on that 0.0000000001% chance of it bein an amazing coincidence. get real.

  4. Those still claiming there’s no plagiarism are taking a pointless stance since the author has already granted plagiarism, just not that it was intentional.

    I hope to sit across the table from y’all in a business deal some day. Innumeracy, illogicality and deep denial are useful in a negotiating opponent. I’ll take your money and send you crying home to mommy 🙂

  5. Manish (151#)

    How much variation, besides ethnic flavours, is possible in a narrative which starts with a protagonist who is a confused , angst ridden (on crossroads!) teenage girl and end with her self discovery, and which in most cases aims at heart and not at brain.

    Regards

    PS By the way I never said that KV is not an “intentional” plagiarist, I said your analysis in incomplete which is different.

  6. How much variation, besides ethnic flavours, is possible in a narrative…

    Once again around the merry-go-round. Look, Manish’s analysis is fine.

    Gaurav (and our other statistical geniuses), you weren’t dropped when you were very young, were you? Because this is so damn straightforward. This material has no emotional content: it’s very very easy to show that this was taken from that. If you can’t see that, if you can’t separate out the emotional content and see this simple statistical fact, then you should call Oxford or IIT or Northern Podunk State or wherever you went to school and ask for your money back. Cause you’ve been had.

    Innumeracy, illogicality and deep denial are useful in a negotiating opponent.

    Yo Vij, let me know when that business negotiation happens. I’m always up for a turkey shoot.

  7. “you weren’t dropped when you were very young, were you?”

    Papal, why the need for insults?

    This only adds fuel to the fire that those “against” KV are only doing it b/c they like bashing people. IMO, the facts speak for themselves, but I am curious to know the reasons behind why people still feel it was unintentional; just as Manish presented another reason in his post as to why it was intentional.

    The logic behind Manish’s analysis is correct, but the application is faulty. I don’t think the probability for coincidence is that low [in this one particular passage, before the eggheads jump me…with all the other passages, its most likely much much lower]. But even if it was lower, others will still correctly say, that you cannot prove it for a fact. You may think that is nitpicking, but people often present “mathematical analyses” that’s such garbage to support their argument.

    With the vast amount of evidence presented up to this point, for some people only the words from KV herself, ironically, will convince them of anything.

  11. Papal (156#)

    I wrote in (155#)

    PS By the way I never said that KV is not an “intentional” plagiarist, I said your analysis in incomplete which is different.

    I don’t mind insults, but please do make an effort to read the whole damn comment before you dish out your excreta on me.

  13. to all desis who support her – tell me, how many passages in your resume are copied verbatim from others’ resume? how many years have you added in fake ‘experience’ ? how much $$$ have you made from such ‘creativeness’ ?

    Now we know why you think she’s fine. helps that she’s cute for a desi, too.

    some of us would like to think that honesty and ethics and the like still are not entirely lost in this world. Not that desis are not trying..

  14. Dear Sir or Madam: The latest Literature Carnival is featuring a link to one of your posts. The purpose of the Literature Carnival is to provide a meeting place for bloggers who blog on literature. The Carnival, held every two weeks, is hosted each week by a different literature-related blog and lists links to some dozen best literature related stories of the past fortnight. We would like you to invite you to the current Carnival page here and browse through the entries. And we would like to ask you to please give us a link. Perhaps you could include the carnival address in your blogroll, or, failing that, you could make a post at your blog saying something like: The latest Literature Carnival is here. Useful links: About Literature Carnival Current issue of the Literature Carnival Submit/nominate an entry To host the next literature blog, please write to dana(dot)huff(at)gmail(dot)com. Best regards and keep up the good work. The Literature Carnival Team

  15. After all this talk about Kaavya’s plagairism, I was wondering if anyone’s ever looked at other YA/teen books to see if they have similar words and phrases, too? If there isn’t any at all, then obviously Kaavya either intentionally or unintentionally lifted words from other books. But it would be interesting to put other authors under the same scrutiny – looking for similarities – and seeing if we come up with anything. I reserve judgment until then.

    On a slightly related note, I googled “wants to be made into,” which is one of the later phrases that Kaavya supposedly copied (but insert animal wants to be made into insert product… obviously my memory is not as good as Kaavya’s)… And PETA uses that exact same phrase on its website (animals don’t want to be made into insert product). So who’s copying whom? Is it actually plagairism when multiple authors use the same phrase?

    I’m not trying to justify Kaavya entirely, or take a stance on whether what she did was intentional, but in light of all these later similarities I wonder if other authors would also be caught “plagairizing” under such intense scrutiny.

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