Borrowing vs. Plagiarism

[108 fountains]

This topic has come up in another thread in this forum today and seems to be worth discussion. I sometimes will conciously borrow a thought or a phrase or a passage froom another writer (always modified to some extent) in my writing, and when I do I always include a footnote or an endnote with the author, the title of the work, and the original phrase or passage. In one case, I borrowed an entire conversation. I could easily rewrite the thing so that it would be completely different, but I liked the idea (in this particular instance) of keeping close to the original passage in the very different context of my story. I really would like to hear from others if they think this is borrowing or plagiarism (again, I always include footnotes or endnotes with the original sources).

Let me paste here the conversation from my story followed by the conversation I "borrowed" from Henry James.

Excerpt from my "Goddesses"

Two young girls sitting apart from the others were playing jacks with a tiny rubber ball on a bare spot in the midst of a pleasant patch of early spring grass…

“It is time to go back now, Tanushri” said the younger girl sweetly.

“But I don’t want to go back to school, Guanyin,” replied the older girl in a pleasant pout.

“Do you have any special reason for not wanting to go,” asked Guanyin, in her sweetest voice.

“Yes,” replied Tanushri with a hint of hesitation.

Her younger companion smiled and inquired, “May I ask what it is?”

Tanushri turned her eyes upward and stretched her hands high. “Because the sky is so blue!” she cried joyfully.


Borrowed excerpt from Henry James, "The Europeans" Chapter Two

Mr. Brand went into the garden, where Gertrude, hearing the gate close behind him, turned and looked at him…

"I hoped you were going to church," he said. "I wanted to walk with you."

"I am very much obliged to you," Gertrude answered. "I am not going to church."

She had shaken hands with him; he held her hand a moment. "Have you any special reason for not going?"

"Yes, Mr. Brand," said the young girl.

"May I ask what it is?"

She looked at him smiling; and in her smile, as I have intimated, there was a certain dullness. But mingled with this dullness was something sweet and suggestive. "Because the sky is so blue!" she said.


So what do you think - borrowing or plagiarism?

[Calidore]

The body of it is rewritten enough to pass muster with me personally, but having the last line of dialogue be exactly the same gives me pause, since that's what both conversations lead to. I'd change that entirely. Just my opinion, however.

[Jack of Hearts]

Is this really a discussion about plagiarism, or is it more an expression of your feelings/insecurity about your piece?

We'll go with the former for discussion's sake. Who wants a Jack of Hearts' post? (... Hey, is that an echo in here?).

Plagiarism. The disgusting thing about plagiarism is hardly ever articulated. You might say, "Well, taking credit for someone else's work is morally wrong." And you're right about that. This reader is getting back to the topic at hand, which is plagiarism/'borrowing', but stick with it for a minute-- it needs to be reverse engineered.

You have to wonder about the intentions of whoever is doing the plagiarizing. Sometimes it's obvious, maybe the plagiarizer needs to pass fifth period English. And sometimes it isn't. Why, in the name of unholy mascarpone, would somebody plagiarize in a creative context (like a literature forum intended for sharing personal works)? You might say ego. But then, what does that mean? The plagiarizer wants to be seen a certain way by others? What about loving an idea/story so much, wanting to be near it so badly, that your very psychology is enamored of it on a pre-eminent level-- don't we call that 'influence'?

Maybe it's less about being seen as being important than it is as being seen as. This recent bout of plagiarism in the Short Story section involved a poster by the name of 'Lonesome Cowboy' or something, complete with the avatar of a cowboy, 'writing' (stealing) western fiction. We get it: cowboy.

The root of this plagiarism precludes it from having artistic merit, in that it does not express. It postures, identifies, affiliates. You tell me-- is that art? No, it's pathology.

Insomuch as 'borrowing' is a softer or milder attempt at those same ends, this reader cannot see them as categorically different. One is the more timid form of the other. To the extent you are conscious of your own intentions, you know why you're doing what you're doing. Other people can see it, too, and artistic merit will have its day by virtue of the fact that there are people who can read the signs.





J

[Volya]

I think the last few lines of dialogue should be changed really, they seem like almost exact replicas. 'Any special reason for not going?', 'Yes, Mr. Brand', 'May I ask what it is?', 'Because the sky is so blue!' are all pretty much the exact same as the original.

EDIT: If it's deliberately meant to be some kind of literary joke or inter-textual reference then that's cool I guess.

[Emil Miller]

This is an interesting subject and one that must occasionally cross the mind of many writers.
A celebrated case was that of W S Maugham's first novel Liza of Lambeth which made him famous.
Another author had written a similar book earlier and accused Maugham of plagiarism but luckily for Maugham, he won
the day. Given the multiplicity of books published, it's inevitable that certain similarities will occur without authorial intent and, in this context, I wrote a novel which had a theme similar to that of a book that has since become well known although I had absolutely no knowledge of the book until recently.
As to using quotes from published works, it's generally acknowledged that a sentence or small quotation is allowed, but other than that, it's necessary to obtain permission from the publisher. I wanted to use a quote from one of Orwell's essays in my first book but as it was quite a small one I used it without seeking permission.

[Gaurav Joshi]

If I like a poem, a story I just read it for the sake of enjoyment.

I realized the importance of originality after writing my first story, because the joy you get by completing your own story is priceless! One should be clear about his intention before writing a story. It may sound spiritual, but the fact remains that by plagiarising you are fooling yourself.

If writing comes from bottom of your heart your stories would definitely improve. My views of plagiarism are that you should better stop writing if you can't complete a story without plagarising it.

On the other hand if something you want in your story, a small scene or two can be used by giving the maker the credit for it. That would be borrowing. However you can't lift an entire sequence, which forms crux of your story by calling it inspiration or borrowing. That's my personal thought