The Mess: A Synopsis
Gennita Low has done the Plagiarism Hoo-ra as Greek Theater.
You’re gonna laugh . . .
Addendum:
Then go read Meljean .
More than you ever wanted to hear from Jenny Crusie.
Gennita Low has done the Plagiarism Hoo-ra as Greek Theater.
You’re gonna laugh . . .
Addendum:
Then go read Meljean .
OMG! When I read Nora’s comment, “Just one damn minute! Crusie gets more play than I do. Bitterly, Roberts stalks off to boil a puppy”, I herniated something from laughing so hard! This will probably keep me chuckling all day. (Just what I need; everyone already thinks I’m nuts.)
The whole blog was just brilliant. Thanks for letting us know it’s out there.
Thanks for the link, that was a wonderful read!
Pure genius, that was priceless! And the Greek Chorus take on it is just so apt. I’m off to buy this woman’s books (I’m too far away to buy her a drink). Thanks for making my evening.
Still wiping the tears of laughter away.
Thank you for sharing - this made my day.
Fabulous. The absolute best spin on this whole awful business. That was the most fun I’ve had in ages.
Loved the Greek chorus and the spotlight effect. Much goodness there, thank you for the link.
Picked up Manhunter in a Rite Aid today (nice distribution!). Looking forward to reading it.
I can read the Brooks link but the link to the Greek Theater is gone, am I too late?
Meljean’s post was wonderful. Thanks for the link.
Both Gennita’s and Meljean’s links should be up there now. I have NO idea what happened.
But they’re both great.
Thanks, Jenny, for the links. Gennita’s humorous twist on the never ending story was great. Funniest thing I’ve read in ages. Meljean stated it so well with wanting the red shoes and resisting the temptation.
Oh, I saw this one. It’s hilarious! So much fun to read, and a not-bad summary.
Thanks. Good reading just wish I wouldn’t have had a mouth full of coffee when I was reading… I tried to google instead of taking the easy way out and waiting for you to post the links, sadly, I’m google-impaired. So thanks again!
That made me feel so much better about the whole thing. Thats what good laughter will do
still makes me* LMAO.
it’s the LOLcats in play form.
ok, i realize how obvious that sounds.
can i cue the chorus?
You know, I’d be a lonely little mushroom if I’d never discovered Jennifer Crusie and her wonder-blogs. I found out about Smart Bitches through here; I found out about LOL cats and Leet speak through SB; now I think I have two more blogs I need to bookmark — extremely funny women! Who slip the message in between the humor. Very talented.
(-: Thank you so much for posting those!
who the heck are LOL cats and Leet speak? I’m too lazy to look, would someone please post links? Also, Jennie, how do you find all these blogs?? In re: to earlier anne stuart mention, were you googling hEr?
Oh holy crap, am I laughing. That’s just an excellent absurdification of the hot writing topic of the day. Thanks for sharing.
Meljean’s article is excellent as well. Definitely covers the emotions that go along with writing.
A spew alert was needed. And now I’m in love with two more women. *sigh*
One other good thing coming out of this mess is that it is giving some publicity to wildlife conservation and the blackfooted ferrets. On SBTB there is a link where you can donate money and Nora will be matching funds up to $5000 dollars. Also a link where you can “adopt” a ferret.
Great links. Laughter and shoes, what more can you ask for!
Thanks for the links! I’ve had no time to follow The Mess, and now I feel delightfully informed.
Evesie, LOLcats and L33t are what happens when the human desire to be an insider meets the use of a keyboard. Leet (supposedly short for “elite”) started as the jargon of computer hackers and gamers and involves combining letters and numbers to make words. LOLcats morphed from goofily-typed captions for goofy cat pictures (e.g., “I can haz cheezbrgr?”)into a whole goofy tone of typing. Someone has even written books of the Bible in LOLcat (opening line: “Oh hai” –followed a few lines later by “I can haz lyte?”). The teens in our family keep us attuned–our son once begged my husband to drive a few more tenths of a mile before pulling into our driveway so the odometer would read “1337,” one of the numeric spellings of Leet.
Leet-speak was a new one for me. I’ve been doing it for years (in a very limited fashion) but didn’t realize it had a name. What comes from being a tech writer and hanging with all those engineers, I guess.
For someone who writes such killingly intense books, Gennita sure writes a funny blog. Thanks for reminding me. I wonder why I stopped going there. And Meljean, I remember her when she was “just a blogger,” before the book contract. She, too, is going in my Kinja.
Thanks, Jenny!
Now I feel completely out of it! I wondered why my nephew had 1337 on one of his MySpace photos!
I am still rolling on the floor cracking up about Gennita’s post!
MJ - thanks lots!!
I am REALLy late to this story. I read the S&D post and just took it at face value as Jenny planning on reforming (lolwtic) and did not even go further along into the SB blog, etc. In my defense I did hurt my back and have been ransacking the medicine cabinet for expired pain medications so I can’t be held accountable for what I missed. Then a friend forwarded a link to the Newsweek article which lead to the SB blog and I thought, hmmm, what does the goddess have to say about this? Duh. She was in the middle of the storm!
But now that the dust is settling (or thunder is quieting), and the extent of the material lifted growing daily, I have to wonder, what was CE thinking? Did she not think/know it was wrong to copy other people’s words? I wonder why not? She must not have felt the pinch of the shoes since she did use exact words and passages with no thesaurus at hand, when those words and passages could have been easily rephrased as her own.
Taking just the ferret passages it is mind boggling that she believed it was necessary to throw a random animal article in after the sex. Was she writing to some word count? Oh look, here is a great article on ferrets (they don’t live where the book is set, but that is okay, no one will know and look at all these free words)! Oh well, not really trying to stir up any of the Greek chorus, but I find it perplexing.
I don’t think a little blog-comment explanation can do either one justice. There’s the I can haz cheezburger site (and I’m really sorry, I can’t remember how it’s spelled right now, since it’s, ahem, irregular)for LOLcats, and wikipedia does a fine job on LEET (aka 1337). Both subjects are well worth a little google time if you love playing with the language. If you don’t particularly go for that, then maybe this is enough to know:
LOLcats are cute kitty pictures with surprising captions.
LEET is computer shorthand. If you’ve ever used MIL or BTW, then you’ve done it. There are all sorts of new permutations (and I think the key part is MUTATIONS), and you should see how elegant Japanese LEET is. (_0_) is a person bowing on the floor, begging abject pardons from you. See the kimono sleeves? OK, I stop now. Bai.
Hmmm, maybe that should be abjectly begging pardons from you. (_0_) Oh, noes.
Micki, is there someplace on the web that has a list of Japanese LEET? Because the bowing, I’m going to use that. And wait till Krissie sees it.
I’ve been following the whole CE affair with some incredulity because there are some things I just don’t get, such as
- that there are still authors out there who believe that they can permanently get away with lifting other author’s material, be it young Indian girls or mature multi-published writers
- that publishing houses are not ultra-careful, warning their authors about this or making them sign a statement so that they are aware of what constitutes plagiarism
- that some people get so emotionally involved that instead of just saying ‘plagiarism is wrong and should be punished’, they spend precious hours of their lives battling on a high emotional level at internet blogs with people they never met
So I loved Gennita’s way of summing it up. I always admire creativity like that.
OK, I found a very good article with some of the Japanese LEET used. My girls’ piano teacher is very hip, and she shows me all sorts of cute ones — but sometimes the characters require Japanese characters. And sometimes the gesture is Japanese body language. Or based on manga art shorthand. (You know, like in cartoons they have a puff of dust to show someone going very fast — in manga, they might have someone’s face with lines going down it to show deep embarrassment or chagrin.)
(-: Enough babbling; here’s the article URL.
http://www2.gol.com/users/kilburn/BU200008.htm
But I have to warn you about using this stuff — I googled the bowing one? Urban dictionary has a list of absolutely filthy ones; I think the bowing bit can also be interpreted as a, um, hoo-ha. So, I guess this *(_o_)* would be a glittery hoo-ha.
I’m still blushing.(*’o'*).
LOL. LANI is going to love that one.
Thank you, Micki!
(-: International education is my life. Who’d have thunk that obscene ascii art would be part of that? My regards to the fair Lani and Krissie.
Sorry, I can’t keep away, but I promise I’ll post this and get off the computer. Shift_JIS is apparently the Japanese version of ASCII, and there was a brief wiki article on that — including an amazing pic of a . . . well, it’s a shrine, I think, but it could possibly be a Buddhist funeral for a dog. You got any other fans from Japan who could take a look at this? Don’t take my word for it. I have an overactive imagination.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shift_JIS_art
Just noticed all the cat attendees. Definitely a dog funeral. OK, really turning off the computer now.
Uh … Jennifer, is there any reason why the bottom of your blog pages are covered with a bazillion links like “black girls cumshot” and “huge tits cumshot”? I am seeing them with Firefox/2.0.0.11 (Ubuntu-feisty) and the JavaScript blocker active.
Unless they are there with your full knowledge and consent (and you are getting a percentage of the income) I think you and your sysop need to have a heart-to-heart talk about site security.
They all go to http://thepodcastnetwork.com and various URLS on that site.
My sysop is on it. It doesn’t happen for everybody, evidently, but Mollie’s trying to track it down. Since I am clueless, I can’t tell you what’s happening there–you sound like you know a lot more than I do–but we’re not happy about it.
Great links, Jenny. I thoroughly enjoyed both of them. Thanks so much.
If you’d like to find out your own Japanese smiley you can take the quiz at blogthings:
http://www.blogthings.com/whatjapanesesmileyareyouquiz/
I’m face with glasses (^O_O^). Very clever. Love the glittery hoo-ha and blushing.
I think Glittery Hoo-ha should be a title-
Just imagine what the people would do for the large-print cover of that one!
I think I accidently sent a half-typed version. Argh! If you have a previous post from me that cuts off in the middle please delete. Second try…I get to your blog about once in a blue moon. I’ll love reading anything you write - just no time - and for a moment when I saw “Girl Genius” in a subject line I thought for one breathless second that you had blogged about the one on-line comic that I follow at http://www.girlgeniusonline.com. The graphic art was very cool, but this isn’t a comment on what you wrote, just an invitation that given the fact that Girl Genius’s tagline is “adventure, romance, mad science” and it has a great sense of humor it might just be up your alley. Besides, I would love to think I could share something back since you keep slicing off pieces of your invention and wit to share with me. I know a money exchange is involved to - I’m trying to be sincere instead of fawning.
They were both absolutely priceless! Thanks!!!