longest. post. EVER.

the kaavya viswanathan story keeps getting weirder. it now seems that she has borrowed not only from megan mcafferty's works as initially reported, but also from sophie kinsella (a book ironically titled can you keep a secret?), meg cabot (the princess diaries), and salman rushdie. interesting mix - chick-lit with a side of serious, anyone?

i'm mystified by this whole thing. when i first heard of kaavya viswanathan, she'd just been offered the contract. i was so envious - half a million, harvard education, huge deal, new york, new york - you get the drill. i imagined her to be a sassy, funny, sharp girl whose friends would all be shiny and very, very clever; a girl who lived on campus in a room just like reece's in legally blonde, but with a little less pink, maybe. basically, she had a life that i probably couldn't even imagine accurately.

when the first allegations came out, i felt the beginnings of a slow-cook panic. even though i'd protested otherwise loudly at smoky, wine-fuelled discussions about how there is no such thing as an original idea, i had an inkling things were going to get a whole lot worse for kaayva. however, i still don't get it. it just doesn't make any sense. what would make sense is this - it would make sense to point the finger straight at alloy entertainment, the 'book packager' that split the advance with kaavya. it would make sense if the book was put together by a team of faceless researchers with highlighters duct-taped into their hands, chained to desks covered in piles and piles of other people's books. that would make sense. but a harvard sophomore, borrowing paragraphs from recently published, highly popular novels, and assuming that no one would notice? like i said. makes no sense.

what was she thinking? did she buckle under the pressure of expectations of a million expectant readers (myself included), and of the (alleged) half a million in her bank account? can she even write? it seems such a waste of time and effort to have gone through all that. now the publisher has pulled her book off the shelves and issued a statement saying that the book will not be re-written and re-released. and they've cancelled their contract with kaavya.

while i stand by the belief that at the end of the day, the author is responsible for the authenticity of anything with their name on it, what is the publisher's role in all this? whenever there's a new scandal, it seems the publishers just drop the author and back away. i know that a publishing house's main focus is to make money, but at what cost? in this case, and those of norma khoury and james frey, wouldn't it have been easier all round if the publishers had hired researchers to go through the manuscripts and checked the details - could it really be that hard to organise? instead of putting something out there and waiting for readers to spot the inconsistencies, why not make a pre-emptive strike yourself, then sit back and watch the money roll in?

on a lighter note, i'm currently reading a very interesting anthology called mortification: writers' stories of their public shame. picked it up at city library the other night - it's brilliant. i was reading it on the way in to work this morning, and i kept groaning, going 'oh my GOD!' and slapping myself on the forehead. i hope i didn't freak anyone out (too much).

and at last, an update on the writing scenario. you might remember me talking about some characters i'd been thinking about writing in an older post - well, they are no more (for the moment - never say never, right?). anyway. the story i thought i was going to write has been put on the shelf indefinitely - i've come up with a new idea, most likely using the characters i created in my short story 'not really a party girl' which was in girls night in 4. i'm quite excited by the idea, though i think it's better left in my head at the moment. i tried explaining it to the husband and a friend of ours over a bowl of kumara chips and drinks at the kitten club last night, and the expressions on their faces suggested that there may have been some losses in translation. it's frustrating, because i love the idea and think it's be a really fun challenge to write it, but i can't really explain it all at the moment. or could it be that i don't really want to explain it at the moment? hmm. maybe a little bit of both.