Re: On plagiarism and source for plots
Bapa Rao (brao@tis.com)
Mon, 15 Dec 1997 10:12:09 -0800 (PST)
Legal issue aside, I wouldn't mind plagiarism ("creative adaptation")
so much if it had any quality to it. Most of the Telugu plagiarisms of
trashy English fiction adds a unique, extraordinary level of its own
trashiness to the work. The result has the effect of the writer saying
to the reader, "I know you are such an idiot that you will swallow
whatever swill I pour out, so I won't bother to be careful or creative
in my copying." I recently read a work by Yandamoori Virendranath
(something about the impending end of the world because of a cosmic
event) that was so extraordinarily bad that it has the potential to
spawn its own private genre of "tiTTu kavitvam." Fortunately I have
even forgotten the name of this piece of pollution; if I repeated the
name some misguided soul might feel like reading it.
On Virendranath--I know that he is well thought of as a master of the
language and a superior commercial writer. Having read the book I did,
I find it impossible to believe that the man has any quality or value
to his work at all. That, even making allowances for earlier, less
mature work etc. I just can't imagine him producing anything but the
most cynical, worst-quality trash.
My personal views.
Bapa Rao