Plagiarism and art

[rivkat]

A really interesting article by an author who found his words and ideas incorporated into a Broadway play, and began to see that they weren't necessarily "his" words at all.

Comments

[veredus.livejournal.com]

God, that article made me think until my *head* hurt.

And while I can see where the author is coming from, I still feel for Lewis. Ethically I believed that she was wronged, if not legally. And though the author argued that Gottmundsdittor is not Lewis, the affair in the play *does* cast doubt onto Lewi's own life, people will definitely wonder if she had an affair with her collaborator. And to say that Gott is *not* Lewis as if that excuses it, is like telling the jury not to remember damaging testimony after they have already heard it. Human nature just doesn't work that way. Reputation *is* perception, and people's perception of Lewis have been changed by Frozen, even if it was unintentional.

I just hope Lewis gets at least an apology and all the prints of Frozen acknowleges her involuntary contribution to the story.

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

I found it fascinating that what Lewis felt wronged about was more what was made up than what wasn't -- she wasn't complaining about her life being taken, in the end, but that it hadn't been taken enough. I agree that the playwright probably should have credited her inspiration and made clear that various events were made up. But I also found it fascinating that the playwright -- not coincidentally a woman -- seemed so devastated by Lewis's reaction. It seems likely to me that many more male artists than female artists would tell someone whose life they'd mined for inspiration to suck it up, because that's how art is made.