Something else bears mentioning re the Viswanathan story. Just about everyone is an Asian-American. David Zhou, the kid from the Crimson who went on national TV after he broke the story is Asian-American. Viswanathan is of course an Asian-American. So, I’m guessing, is my horse, Jon Liu of the Independent (who has teamed up with Shane Wilson on what they call Kaavyagate).
I’m late on everything—I live in the woods—but it interests me because my tribe, Jews, were the first great beneficiaries of the meritocracy: We joined the Establishment thanks to the SAT trifecta. Nicholas Lemann chronicled some of that in The Big Test, a generally fabulous work of reporting and analysis. I say some of it because while Lemann correctly identified the last Tribal Order of the Ruling Class as “the Episcopacy,” thereby identifying them not just as WASPs but as Episcopalians, he peeled away from any religio-ethnic identification on the New Ruling Class. In his book he characterized it as a fuzzy rainbow mosaic, Jews, Asian-Americans, other ethnics. That was a bail. The arrival of Jews in the Establishment was clear to anyone who went thru Harvard in the ’70s. Jews had podiumed, as they say in the Olympics, and the Jews who had podiumed didn’t want to say as much. Might bring negative attention. As if no one had noticed.
Now it really does seem that Asian-Americans have crowded the aisles at the Meritocracy Fairway, and more power to them. Maybe it’s a serial meritocracy. A You-go-next kind of thing. Maybe some day these Asian-American kids will exert some equitable influence over our Middle East policy!
once again little phillie weiss demonstrates his jewish self-hatred. replete with references to his beloved fairway, a secular temple for like minded upper west side douchebags, he extrapolates his usual bile spewing upon asian americans, and even attempts a little sideswipe on our middle east policy.
phil; please go away. you are now a 2nd rate blogger; i mean go away even further.
I find it strikingly offensive to characterize all Asian-Americans as one group. Take a look at a map — Asia is a big place. David Zhou's and Kaavya Viswanathan's ancestry and values are likely no more similar than, say, Mr. Weiss's and Hugo Chavez's.
Read the book by Kaavya first. 99.9% of the book is written by HER. There are only some passages similar (notice similar not exact) to a prior published novel. She's 17 year old and she will become a great writer in the future.
Its not about who's who or brlongs where or whatever. Its not really a big deal, at least in my opinion. Plagiarism is common in literary circles. I read somewhere that almost 80% of all literary work is indirectly plagiarized.
I hate it when Jews pit other minorities against whites. Racial tension is tight enough without the amplification. Isn't it enough that you throw your own children into this fire?
Sandeep:
Why don't you read Megan McCafferty's books as well? You'll then see that Ms. Viswanathan is guilty of literal copying from Ms. McCafferty's work, in her narrative, dialogue, right down to the descriptions of clothing worn by Viswanathan's main characters, who are copies of Ms. McCafferty's main characters. You state, "Its not about who's who or belongs where or whatever. Its not really a big deal, at least in my opinion." Trust me, if you ever invent anything, or if you decide to make your living as an artist or writer, you will want to be paid for your work– and you'll be outraged if someone steals your ideas and your words, and makes a lot of money selling that creativity of yours as if it were their own.
Hey listen,
I've tried to imagine the scenario-Kaavya with a mug of coffee beside her, Little Brown's contract on the breakfast table in her parent's palatial home, racking her brains for paragraphs to fill pages that will satisfy Little Brown, Alloy Publishing, her parents and the Harvard scout her parents bought for her. Somewhere on a bookshelf behind her, as I imagine it, lay the unworthy literary forays of the McCafferty "phenom"-stumped by writer's fog late at night Kaavya stumbles to the bookshelf, removes the McCafferty files and perusing in them her salvation, rescues herself from the grasp of the 500,000 deadline or should I say deadweight by lifting entire sentences. Thus she conquers writer's block a deadly disease for which writers through the centuries have found no cause or cure.
Hey listen,
I've tried to imagine the scenario-Kaavya with a mug of coffee beside her, Little Brown's contract on the breakfast table in her parent's palatial home, racking her brains for paragraphs to fill pages that will satisfy Little Brown, Alloy Publishing, her parents and the Harvard scout her parents bought for her. Somewhere on a bookshelf behind her, as I imagine it, lay the unworthy literary forays of the McCafferty "phenom"-stumped by writer's fog late at night Kaavya stumbles to the bookshelf, removes the McCafferty files and perusing in them her salvation, rescues herself from the grasp of the 500,000 deadline or should I say deadweight by lifting entire sentences. Thus she conquers writer's block a deadly disease for which writers through the centuries have found no cause or cure.
You live in the woods!!! You do live in the woods.