The 3 Day Novel Contest is in its 29th season. The ostensible goal is to finish in first place and win a publishing contract or, failing that, a cash prize. Yet, I discovered the true prize is typing “end” on the last page of the manuscript following 72 hours of story frenzy.

The rules are straightforward. The writer has from 12.01 p.m. Saturday, September 2 until 12.00 p.m. Monday, September 4 to write a complete novel. A plot outline and character biographies are permitted, but no “In the beginning:” can have begun. In other words, no sentences can be pre-written. Awkward wordings and poor syntax are expected and to be corrected before publication. No author, I know, will allow the equivalent of a first draft to be published. Following the end of the allotted time, the manuscript is forwarded to contest headquarters where a team of experienced judges read the submissions. The honour system prevails. But just in case, I’m told the panel can spot the cheaters. In the past, there have been attempts to fool the experts.

I sat before my computer at 1.00 a.m. on Saturday morning, reviewed my notes, and attacked the keyboard. Six hours later, my spouse placed a platter of fruit and bread by my elbow, looked over my shoulder for a moment and quietly withdrew. Calculating my rate of productivity, I estimated six hours for sleep and no leisure activities.

On Monday morning, I faced a dilemma. My carefully constructed plot resolution wouldn’t work. Taking pen and paper out onto the porch, I sketched out three solutions, but they were obvious contrivances. I examined my main protagonist Jim. He must die, I decided. I returned to the keyboard and murdered him. Then a strange thing happened. I began to weep for the Kathleen he was leaving behind.

The “end” fell at 9.00 p.m. Monday evening. I ran downstairs, threw wide my arms and exclaimed, “I did it!” The novel was finished and I packaged my 29,000 words, 114 pages, fifteen chapters, epilogue, and title page and placed the bundle on the hallway table ready to be mailed in the morning. I am a winner!

I survived the following: three days on five hours sleep, eyes that refused to focus, fingers that typed “Jim” as “miJ” and other assorted expressions of brain fatigue, drank enough espresso to turn my skin yellow, sat three days in the same chair without washing my body or brushing my teeth, spoke no words to another human being except “thanks” to my spouse and left my study room only once. Sleep seemed impossible, I was too exhilarated, but I crashed for ten hours and awoke depressed. After rereading the critical scenes (no revisions allowed), with great sorrow, I wished my friends adieu. I miss them, because they “Are Too Precious to be Forgotten.”

I believe over-reacting obscures the issue; plagiarism may be fraudulent, but it is not a crime. If my psychology text is stolen, I am deprived of a physical possession. Should the thief be caught, their thievery results in criminal charges. However, when someone pirates my words or ideas, no legally definable criminal act occurs unless it infringes upon copyright protection. Nonetheless, the violation is as real and ugly as the theft.

The misconception exists that plagiarizing is a victimless and harmless activity. Students expect to be treated ethically and with honesty by their professors; conversely, professors expect to receive the same treatment from their students. Neither party envisions deception as a component of the relationship. Viswanathan’s misappropriation of McCafferty’s material may not be criminal, but neither is it accidental and the author’s sincere apology rings hollow. The passages from Viswanathan’s novel that are at issue belong to McCafferty (Zhou, 2006) beyond a doubt and cannot be easily passed-off as accidental plagiarism.

The question is, “Why cheat?” I believe one of the contributing factors that lead students to commit plagiarism is the tension created between the need to both prove you did your research and be original. Furthermore, excellent grades bring scholarships and bursaries and corporate recruiters’ place a high value on a student’s grade-point average. Also, the production of well-written material requires an enormous investment in time and energy. Then, there are also those who cheat simply for the vicarious thrill involved. However, in the academic disciplines, “plagiarism inflates grades relative to education and devalues honest scholarship. Among authors and journalists plagiarism cheapens the very art of writing” (Bloomfield, 2004). That is the impact the actions of Kaavya Viswanathan’s had on me. Her behaviour brings into question the authenticity of my writing and devalues the expensive education that I am pursuing.

Claims of unintentional usage are the sinner’s primary defence. It is the appeal most plagiarizers invoke to explain the copying of another author’s work; the passages or ideas in question push their way out of the subconscious into the conscious (see Jung pp. 23-26 for an explanation of cryptomnesia) and the writer inadvertently claims them for his or her own. I think this can be true, but note the following for your consideration.

I conducted an informal survey asking a sampling of students, friends and relatives their opinions about plagiarizing. Nearly everyone agrees the practice is immoral and unethical. Yet, when I type the words “essay writing services” into my Internet search engine four million hits occur. Who are the phantoms keeping these service providers in business?

Whoever they are, I hope they also get caught.

References
Bloomfield, L. (2004). The Importance of writing. Essays by Lou Bloomfield. Retrieved from http://plagiarism.phys.virginia.edu/essays/The%20Importance%20of%20Writing.html
Jung, C. (1968). Man and his symbols. New York: Dell.
McCafferty, M. (2001). Sloppy firsts. Three Rivers, Michigan: Three Rivers Press.
McCafferty, M. (2003). Second helpings. Three Rivers, Michigan: Three Rivers Press.
Posner, R. A. (2003, May 18). The Truth About plagiarism: It’s usually a minor offense and can have social value. Newsday (New York). Retrieved from http://www.law.uchicago.edu/news/posner-r-plagiarism.html.
Zhou, D. (2006, April 23). Examples of similar passages between Viswanathan’s book and McCafferty’s two novels. The Harvard Crimson. Retrieved from http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=512965.

Fears about Harper are often seem to stem from suspicion about his education in the notorious “Calgary school”, rooted in the philosophies of Leo Strauss. Tom Flanagan of the “Calgary school” was, in the earlier days of Harper’s political forays, Harper’s advisor and mentor. Lawrence Martin, a columnist with the Globe and Mail, espoused the pre-election view that Harper was hiding his association with the “Calgary school” and Shadia Drury, a political scientist at the University of Regina was quoted in the Globe and Mail referring to the “Calgary school’s” members as having a “huge contempt for democracy.” The “Calgary school’s” members are Tom Flanagan, Barry Cooper, Rainer Knopff, Ted Morton and David Bercuso and they are a group given to diverse views, but their main idea is keeping the “government out of people’s lives” (Ottawa Citizen, sidebar). Harper was allied with this group when he studied as a graduate student in the 1980s.

Editorialist Robert Sibley of the Ottawa Citizen quotes from an article written by Marci McDonald, that Tom Flanagan ‘”the 60-year old professor’ was whispering in Harper’s ear” (The person who whispers in the ear of the King is more important than the King. Robert Pippin, political theorist.) and suggesting that Flanagan and his conclave desired to establish a Canadian version of “American Straussians.” Some of Bush’s influential advisors, Dick Cheney and Paul Wolfowitz for example, were educated in the Leo Strauss philosophy by academics such as Harold Bloom and others who were students of Strauss and now teach the philosopher’s ideas.

Sibley’s article illuminates Strauss’s theories in a more favourable context than Drury’s attempt to debunk the philosopher. For example, Stanley Gibb, professor at the University of Missouri is quoted by Sibley from an article in the American Political Science Review describing Drury’s account of Strauss “as one of the more curious episodes in the history of western political science” and that Drury’s “citations and quotations are often misleading, tendentious, inaccurate, or taken out of context.” Leon Craig, of the University of Alberta, says that political science students should be concerned about Drury’s interpretation, because it “misinterprets and misrepresents Strauss’s thoughts” (quoted by Sibley).

So what is it that Strauss advocates? He believed that “hiding” the truth of a text forced his students to decipher the text for themselves. Instead of delivering his thoughts in lectures, students must interpret and think through the ideas presented to them. It is a way of “understanding philosophic” texts, of “reading intelligently”, says Sibley in his article. This pedagogical methodology is the root of the accusation that the Conservatives foster a “hidden agenda.” This is the conspiracy that my neighbour is “really, really” afraid of.

For further study:

Drury, Shadia. The Political Ideas of Leo Strauss. (1988)
Martin, Lawrence. Your attention, please: The East’s great power rip-off is over. Thursday, Jan 19, 2006
McDonald, Marci. “The Calgary school.” Walrus Magazine. 2004
Sibley, Robert. “The making of a negative image.” The Ottawa Citzen. 2006
Sidebar. Ottawa Citizen, B4, Sunday, Feb.5, 2005
Strauss, Leo. On Tyranny (1948); Natural Right and History (1953); Liberalsim Ancient and Modern. 2004

Apocalyptic Vision

A dream yields an
essence of the past.

Prostrate before
altars where no
one worships

lays the Deity of Man.

This place
belongs to a generation
forged in furnaces that technology
built,
then deconstructed for a better
purpose”?

the end of a man

hides between the pages
of a desiccated book
about sex, love
pain and mystery.

This the vision;

this the future;

this the end.

Elizabeth

Elizabeth telephones
to ask how I’m doing so far.
It’s a gift to be in the beam
of Elizabeth’s interest.
There’s something loving
in her way with words.

We walk a
remember when trail.

Elizabeth invites me
in, she understands.

Her prayer is
a spiritual renaissance
touching my spirit:

It breaks free,
soars into a sunlit sky
where broken-nes
passes between us.