When the story first broke about the similarity of her book, "How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life" to two of Megan McCafferty's, she appeared in the Today show to earnestly apologize for the similarities, claiming that she loved McCafferty's books so much that she had internalized and plagiarized them unintentionally. They have now found a third chic lit book that bears a striking resemblance to hers. So no matter how much she blinks her eyes innocently, which way she cuts and stretches her story, it just does not ring true anymore.
A lot of us do foolish things during our teenage years that we regret, but the repercussions of what Kaavya Viswanathan did may haunt her for the rest of her professional life. This whole thing has brought into question every single article she has done in the past, endangered her status as a sophomore student at Harvard University, and cast a dark shadow on her future.
The saddest thing is, she probably is really promising and brilliant. Hélas, the taint on her credibility has now dulled that brilliance. One thing that she has going for her is that she is young. She can always find outlets for her other talents if no publisher ever signs her again. Another thing going for her is her newly-found notoriety. She can always use this to her advantage in the future. Pop stars, celebrities and disgraced business tycoons in this country have done it. I'm sure she can, too.
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Smart-ass question of the day: What career can one have when you have an Ivy League degree but have no credibility? Hehe - I'm sure a lot of you are thinking of pretty juicy answers.
4 comments:
Smart-ass question of the day: What career can one have when you have an Ivy League degree but have no credibility?
Smart Ass answer of the day :
3. Lawyers.
2. Politicians.
1. The president of the united states. (Heard he has a harvard MBA!).
Vishnu, Right you are! I was definitely thinking lawyers and politicians, top of the rung being the president. What other group of people can lie so well and get away with it?
Reading your post an idea came to me; you could take this synopsis and write the story or she will do an auto-biography and get that published.... hmmmm
ainelivia's right. it would make for a great story. gathering everything that's been written about it and putting it in one book. surely, there will be an audience. i'm sure that jealous fellow Harvard students would love to get their hands on a copy of something dissing her! i read that the envious air in Harvard when she first was signed to write the book was so thick you could cut it with a knife.
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