Helene Hegemann is a precocious author who at 17 is one of the most popular authors in Germany. Her novel “Axolotl Roadkill” is currently the fifth bestselling book in Germany right now.
Unfortunately, it turns out that much of the novel is plagiarized word for word from other works. According to the NYT, Hegemann is less than apologetic, and actually sees her plagiarism as something innovative:
Although Ms. Hegemann has apologized for not being more open about her sources, she has also defended herself as the representative of a different generation, one that freely mixes and matches from the whirring flood of information across new and old media, to create something new. “There’s no such thing as originality anyway, just authenticity,” said Ms. Hegemann in a statement released by her publisher after the scandal broke.
I don’t think there is anything “different” about Hegemann’s generation and its relationship to plagiarism when compared to the history of art over (at least) the past two millennia, and it is hubristic to claim otherwise. Her generation is not doing anything that is different from what Shakespeare or Milton did. To claim that Hegemann or Girl Talk came up with the idea of combining sources into one work is ridiculous; it’s to take something basic to the artistic process and hold it up as though its some kind of new innovation.
There is a great passage in Northrop Frye’s Anatomy of Criticism (quoted in Mark Rose’s Authors and Owners) that is relevant here:
Literature is elaborately disguised by a law of copyright pretending that every work of art is an invention distinctive enough to be patented. The state of things makes it difficult to appraise a literature which includes Chaucer, much of whose poetry is translated or paraphrased from others; Shakespeare, whose plays sometimes follow their sources almost verbatim; and Milton, who asked for nothing better than to steal as much as possible out of the Bible.
There is a line between borrowing from earlier sources and a straight copy and paste approach, and the latter should not be lauded as innovative or spectacular. All artists borrow from their predecessors. The relationship between the author and his inspiration is a delicate one that requires finesse and tact to navigate. Ignoring the complexity of the situation and just relying on “this is what my generation does” is no way to approach the problem, and in all likelihood will not produce great art without some degree of innovation on the part of the artist.
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