I am loving this article in the New York Times explaining how to plagiarize. Senator John Walsh (D, Montana) plagiarized much of his thesis paper for the United States Army War College from other sources, including a 560-word footnote lifted verbatim.
But the best part is the detailed examination by the Times, which amounts to a Do's and Don't's Best Practices for all incoming college freshman. I have to admit to a bit of jealousy; in my day, I had to figure all this out on my own.
When Stephen Colbert wanted to find a first novel to use as an example of the damage from Amazon's hardball tactics, he reached out to Sherman Alexie to help.
This made perfect sense. Alexie has consistently shown himself to be a champion of human rights in general and the decent treatment of writers in particular, but less obviously also an ally of readers everywhere. Writers frequently feel that the reader would have a better experience if we could just get rid if the booksellers and possibly the publishers too, but Alexie was among the first to protest that e-books and electronic gadgets required a level of income far above that available to the people who could really use a good read.
Just this cool guy.
It's a shame these two never met.
June 2014