Genrewonk

January 14, 2008

Cassie Edwards’ plagiarism that is?

Well I tried an experiment. I decided to spend part of my evening hunting down some CE sample text, look through it, and see if I can Google a lifted passage. I decided this at roughly 7:30.

It is now 7:47. The seventeen intervening minutes was spent as follows: Fifteen minutes launching Amazon in my browser, searching for Edwards’ work, finding a random book of hers that allowed the “search inside” feature, and scanning the pages for likely candidates. Two minutes punching a few phrases into Google.

I got a hit.

From Savage Intrigue by Cassie Edwards, Leisure Books 2007 p4-5

Wakan Tanka breathed life and motion into all things, both visible and invisible. He was over all, through all, and in all. Great as was the sun, and good as was the earth, the greatness and goodness of the Big Holy were not surpassed by either.
The Dakota could look at nothing without seeing Wakan Tanka; they could never evade his presence, for it pervaded all things and filled all spaces.

From Land of the Spotted Eagle by Luther Standing Bear, Bison Books 1978 p179

Wakan Tanka breathed life and motion into all things, both visible and invisible. He was over all, through all, and in all, and great as was the sun, and good as was the earth, the greatness and goodness of the Big Holy were not surpassed. The Lakota could look at nothing without at the same time looking at Wakan Tanka, and he could not, if he wished, evade His presence, for it pervaded all things and filled all space.

So in less than half an hour I was able to hunt down a random piece of Edwards’ text, find its correct attribution, transcribe it, and write a blog post about it.

That’s how bad it is.

Category: asshat, intellectual property, rants, writing