Trevor’s Comments (group member since Feb 06, 2009)

Trevor’s comments from the Write, right, rites, reads group.

And TS Eliot of course. Whose Waste Land is layer upon layer of 'borrowed' lines.

Stravinsky: Mediocre composers borrow, great composers steal.

TS Eliot: One of the surest tests [of the superiority or inferiority of a poet:] is the way in which a poet borrows. Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different. The good poet welds his theft into a whole of feeling which is unique, utterly different than that from which it is torn; the bad poet throws it into something which has no cohesion. A good poet will usually borrow from authors remote in time, or alien in language, or diverse in interest.

There are lines of poems and lines of songs that are so important to me, have been a part of whatever it is to be me for so long that to say that they are not me seems insane. Some of them I could hardly tell you where they are from. Most of those no longer belong to whoever wrote them, they belong to the world. Lots of Dylan and Beatles lyrics fit into that category, I think. I'm not sure you could steal a Beatles lyric.

I am still coming across reviews by Ginnie that are clearly stolen from elsewhere. I also note she is still 2nd best reviewer. I'm thinking of doing whatever I can to make her the best reviewer on goodreads, by clicking on all of her reviews. Together we can get her over the line!

Oh shit, this is so disheartening. I defended her on one of the reviews mentioned earlier. I have found this whole thing very disturbing.

On one of my reviews she wrote:

Trevor,
One of my grandsons just started university and we have been having terrific e-mail conversations about his readings for a class on political theory and popular culture. We're currently to-ing and fro-ing over Richard Rorty, utilitarianism, with a little bit of Blade Runner thrown into the mix. I copied and sent your review to him (with attribution, after all I'm a librarian by trade) and he loved it. We have been all over Sowell's assertions like a pair of hens on a June bug. So I owe you big time, not simply for a sensible review but also for widening my dialogue with a nice young man.

Like many others here I feel my trust has been violated. It is quite a horrible feeling.