Indians on Indians: Tackling Kaavya Viswanathan - Gawker Comments

Indians on Indians: Tackling Kaavya Viswanathan

Monkey — Mon, 01 May 2006 17:26:20 EDT

neel's analysis, so dead on.

Indians on Indians: Tackling Kaavya Viswanathan

clawker — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 01:12:37 EDT

Wouldn't it be awesome if the plagiarism was the ghost-writer's bid for either post-publication publicity (driving up sales) or for discrediting the real author, whose overprivileged existence offends the ghost-writer's blue collar upbringing? Okay. I'm done now.

clawker

Indians on Indians: Tackling Kaavya Viswanathan

HuntGrunt — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 20:20:33 EDT

I'm not convinced that Kaavya wrote the book at all. I would bet someone ghost-wrote most of it and the packager put her name on it. An Indian Harvard student (exotic, young, brainy) is much more compelling and marketable than any ordinary author of YA chicklet lit. She is probably responsible for no more than 1/3 of the book.

HuntGrunt

Indians on Indians: Tackling Kaavya Viswanathan

Arch Noble — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 17:43:51 EDT

I hate how her plagiarism is being intellectualized. Kaavya's just the standard story of a hard-working student who got caught doing something really wrong. I don't understand why she has to be bailed-out by apologists elevating her mistake to an argument about cultural determinism...that it is a distinctly middle-class Indian experience to have to deal with hyper-responsibilty and entitlement. This analysis wasn't culturally specific at all. Unless you're counting the ironic "brown kids should stick to" comment, which sounded (at least) elitist and (at most) racist. I'd say something about the (hypothetical) probability of a poor, State-schooled student being afforded this "birthright" defense but I don't want to assume anything about the cultural make-up of Gawker interns.

Arch Noble

Indians on Indians: Tackling Kaavya Viswanathan

Janine — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 17:29:14 EDT

I sometimes have complete lines from things I've read years ago suddenly come back to me. Thought it was a common "people who like books" thing.

Janine

Indians on Indians: Tackling Kaavya Viswanathan

ZiggyStardust — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 16:51:16 EDT

Um, Janine, how was it her voice knew every single word from something she wrote several years before? That's some killer recall...

ZiggyStardust

Indians on Indians: Tackling Kaavya Viswanathan

neel — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 15:01:13 EDT

Leave my parents out of this! Oh, I brought them in? carry on.

neel

Indians on Indians: Tackling Kaavya Viswanathan

Zulkey — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 13:51:44 EDT

What! Neel is Indian? I just thought this parents had mispelled "Neal."

Zulkey

Indians on Indians: Tackling Kaavya Viswanathan

Janine — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 11:42:19 EDT

For some reason, I kind of believe her claims that she didn't steal on purpose. When you've got so many people's voices echoing through your head, convincing you that that their desires are yours maybe you have trouble distinguishing your own voice from others'. Especially when you're a kid (she's a baby in my grizzled 28 yr-old eyes). That doesn't excuse her, but it's sort of sad. And yes, eyes can be grizzled.

Janine

Indians on Indians: Tackling Kaavya Viswanathan

Muk — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 11:23:09 EDT

Ugh, so true it hurts. Neel, turn this into a book and you'll put Jhumpa Lahiri out of business. Personally, I have always wanted to put together a book called The 100 Greatest Lies Ever Told by Indian Parents. #14 - "Ranjini was accepted to Harvard, but decided to go to Penn instead."

Muk

Indians on Indians: Tackling Kaavya Viswanathan

Simpatia — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 11:01:52 EDT

It's pretty sad how little things snowball into mayhem and chaos. On the other hand, I went to public school (in a Third World country - I know, so totally weird how brown countries actually have higher education institutions, it still amazes me), never took any prep courses and my parents had no idea what I was doing in school ("Oh, my son? I think he is in high school. Is it true, dear? Oh, oops, I guess he has already finished it.") Yet, I got into Princeton. Without any book writing contract. Shocking. I should write a book about it. Maybe Kaavya could (ghost) write the preface?

Simpatia