I've had several students hand in things that were copied directly from the textbook we use in class.

Wow, Hil. That's ballsy.

How about the people who lift entire books and pass them off as their own? or remember the Cassie Edwards flap of several years ago? she'd been lifting sections of books, magazines, etc., and just dropping them into her books. When this became public she said something to the effect that she'd always considered that research.

There was that guy recently who lifted a whole bunch of spy thrillers, including James Bond. But he couldn't claim research. He was even more thorough in his plagiarism than Cassie. About whom I will always talk trash when she comes up on IO9, and I know I'm not the only one--it's kinda funny.

This guy, ita ! [link]

I admit to skipping the article and going directly to the first comment, which pretty much rocks.

I started reading the article, and it's quite stunning. However, the first comment is flat out good.

And that's a big difference.

Good gravy. From that plagiarism confession and the comments, I got to his father's website (he's an author) and found this quote in an interview he did about his book My Last Days:

Self-pity is a crucial aspect of American masculinity.

--That's the kind of generalization you begin with in satire. I try to go "inside" Supe a bit, while parodying the confessional that's so popular, popular because of our endless need to heal and fix ourselves in public, to substitute moments of titillation for lives of sympathy and growth. Supe's trapped in that erzatz self-help cult (not culture.) So his biggest revelations about his inner child can be funny while sad....  

(further odd side note: Quentin did the illustrations for the book, and was also present for that interview. )

eta also, $20 says frequent QR defender "Dana" (on more than one website) is a sock puppet.

I am pretty uncomfortable with the confession. I read it yesterday and didn't properly process it.

The scope of his plagiarism throughout his lifetime is hard to contemplate. What has he written that has been original? Some of the comments ask whether or not the confession was purloined, and I would agree because I had the same thought.

However, if that confession is evidence of the quality of his writing, I can see why he kept stealing all the time and didn't put the work in to improve his own skills.

Can someone point me to the comment you liked so much? The first comment I saw yesterday was nothing to write home about.

The first comment asked who had written the essay. Given the author's proclivity, and the depersonalized tone of the essay, it made me grin. Cruelly.

eta also, $20 says frequent QR defender "Dana" (on more than one website) is a sock puppet.

Heh.

Le N, I was so uncomfortable with the essay that my eyes skidded right off of it. From my (admittedly lame) look, it felt like he was cataloging of what he'd done, instead of processing it or gaining insights from it.

He wasn't just cataloging it, as far as I got. He was angling himself for sympathy.

But at least he wasn't claiming it wasn't plagiarism! Surely that's a...no, I got nothing.