Thursday, January 20, 2005

Lit-Blogger Backbone Watch, Day Two

Well, what do you know? Suddenly my e-mail box is flooded with e-mails! See what happens when one starts moving around the furniture?

Contention and debate are healthy things for the lit world. Signs of life. Bissell's plagiaristic behavior (sorry, I still insist that's what it was) IS a fit subject for conversation. It shouldn't, anyway, be swept under the rug-- as it was until, well, yesterday.

As for not following "The Rules" (of decorum): I haven't yet; no need to start now!

The responses I've received run the whole gamut; from those who insist there was nothing wrong about Bissell's borrowings; to those who don't know and don't want to know; to those who tend to agree with my stance; to an individual who says an article of his own was plagiarized by Harper's and never acknowledged by that magazine of integrity. That alone will take some looking into. I hope to put together the best responses, from all sides, and put some of them up beginning tomorrow.

(I also think the best way to approach the many differences of opinion will be to actually bring in "The Rules"-- the standards lowly freshmen college students are expected to adhere to. Surely exceptions are not made when one rises higher up? The lit-world, after all, follows its own rules?)

Ah yes; so much is uncovered when the doors and windows are thrown open, light brought into the room.

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