A Remarkable Coincidence
Tuesday, October 15, 2013 at 11:32PM “Plagiarize,
Let no one else's work evade your eyes,
Remember why the good lord made your eyes,
So don't shade your eyes,
But plagiarize, plagiarize, plagiarize -
Only be sure always to call it please 'research'.”
From the song Lobachevsky by Tom Lehrer
A friend of mine emailed me a link to a short video from the Rachel Maddow Show. He had just read my previous piece on the debt crisis, entitled “Nantucket Sleigh Ride.” Several days after I posted, Maddow and Co. had created a little skit about the debt crisis using an obscure metaphor from the days of whaling: the so-called “Nantucket Sleigh Ride.”
I have to admit that they took the metaphor somewhere I did not, focusing on the axe available to cut the line between the boat and the whale. It’s all about the judgment of the captain and the crew. I focused on the whale as a combination of the wounded insurance industry and the wounded conservative worldview.
Still, a remarkable coincidence.
Minor Heretic
In the wake of Rachel Maddow taking Rand Paul to task for actual verbatim plagiarism, some have referred to this piece as an accusation of plagiarism. It is not. Please note the title, the concluding sentence, the humorous quotation from Tom Lehrer, and the second paragraph. I found the coincidence amusing.
Just read the thing without the political kaleidoscope over your eye.
In plain English, for the record, I do not think that Rachel Maddow's writers plagiarized me.
Reader Comments (2)
All to the good. This coincidence reminds me of another: While working on my MFA at the Bennington Writing Seminars, I discovered a great line in Keats-- "reweaving the rainbow"--and used it in my senior lecture. Friend, and essayist, Ted Hoagland, asked me for the citation, and, don't you know, not only did he use it in his memoir, Compass Points, but another author subsequently used it as a book title. Neither of them gave their brilliant source a bit of credit. Da Bums.
And, I may have played a part in Rachel's appropriation: I posted your essay to my FaceBook page; good friend Renée Carpenter, who also happens to be a public affairs radio announcer and known to Amy Goodman--and Rachel Maddow?--picked it up, and who knows where it went from there. Other fans of yours probably did the same sort of dissemination.
You get around M.H. All to the good; nothing is lost.
In scientific research this can and does happen. An early mentor even told those in his lab it would happen. His advice - know in your heart that you were the one who made the discovery and know that you can and will make other discoveries on your own. When asked what to do about those who lifted one's idea and sometimes data.
Say a prayer for those who must get their ideas and discoveries from others as they will always struggle.
M.H. you have excellent original ideas - who knows what actually went on - if you can - look at this as expanding your audience. Thank you for your posts -
H