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NM (![[info]](http://www.journalfen.net/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} narcissam) wrote in ![[info]](http://www.journalfen.net/img/community.gif){kind=small} bad_penny,@ 2006-08-11 14:41:00 |
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""For instance, I know that I did not plagiarize, and that I cited everything that I used always in my fan stories... but I don't react to bad_penny or fandom_wank anymore, so I won't be going to defend myself." - AngieJ/EbonyI wish that were true. It isn't. Aside from the passage
pyratejenni linked yesterday, the fic 'Trouble in Paradise' lifted from a picture book called 'The People Could Fly' by Virginia Hamilton. Without any citations.The Evidence
Trouble In Paradise, Chapter 6 They say the people could fly. Say that long ago in Africa, some of the people knew magic. And they would walk up on air like climbin' up on a gate. And they flew like blackbirds over the fields. Black, shiny wings flappin' against the blue up there. Then, many of the Blackbird people were captured for slavery. The ones that could fly shed their wings. They couldn't take their wings across the water on the slave ships. Too crowded, don't you know. The folks were full of misery, then. Got sick with the up and down of the sea. So they nearly forgot about flyin' when they could no longer breathe the sweet scent of Africa. Say the people who could fly kept their power, although they shed their wings. They kept their secret magic in the lands of slavery. They looked the same as the other people from Africa who had been coming over, who had dark skin. Say you couldn't tell anymore one who could fly from one who couldn't. |
Virgina Hamilton, People Could Fly : A picture book They say the people could fly. Say that long ago in Africa, some of the people knew magic. And they would walk up on air like climbin up on a gate. And they flew like blackbirds over the fields. Black, shiny wings flappin against the blue up there. Then, many of the people were captured for Slavery. The ones that could fly shed their wings. They couldn't take their wings across the water on the slave ships. Too crowded, don't you know. The folks were full of misery, then. Got sick with the up and down of the sea. So they nearly forgot about flyin when they could no longer breathe the sweet scent of Africa. Say the people who could fly kept their power, although they shed their wings. They kept their secret magic in the lands of slavery. They looked the same as the other people from Africa who had been coming over, who had dark skin. Say you couldn't tell anymore one who could fly from one who couldn't. |
Trouble In Paradise, Chapter 6 It is not known who first stumbled upon the incantation or how. Most magical African slaves were Sponged, and after two or three generations had trouble recalling their family names, never mind lengthy and detailed spells and oral traditions. Did it come to a weeping mother in a dream as she nursed her child to sleep? Did an elderly man, pottering about a kitchen garden, recall his mother's lullaby? Was it whispered by Fate on the hum of the wind? Kum... yali, kum buba tambe Kum kunka yali, kum... tambe Buba yali... buba tambe... There was a great outcryin'. The bent backs straightened up. Old and young who were called slaves and could fly joined hands. Say they would ring-sing. But they didn't shuffle in a circle like we do. No, no. They didn't sing like we do, neither. They rose into the air. |
Virgina Hamilton, People Could Fly : A picture book He raised his arms, holding them out to her. “Kum . . . yali, kum buba tambe,” and more magic words, said so quickly, they sounded like whispers and sighs. […snip...] Another and another fell from the heat. Toby was there. He cried out to the fallen and reached his arms out to them. “Kum kunka yali, kum . . . tambe!” Whispers and sighs. And they too rose on the air. They rode the hot breezes. The one flying were black and shinin sticks, wheelen above the head of the Overseer. They crossed the rows, the fields, the fences, the streams, and were away. […snip...] And he sighed the ancient words that were a dark promise. He said them all around to the others in the field under the whip, “. . . buba yali . . . buba tambe. . . .” There was a great outcryin. The bent back straightened up. Old and young who were called slaves and could fly joined hands. Say like they would ring-sing. But they didn’t shuffle in a circle. They didn’t sing. They rose on the air. They flew in a flock that was black against the heavenly blue. Black crows or black shadows. It didn’t matter, they went so high. Way above the plantation, way over the slavery land. Say they flew away to Free-dom. And the old man, old Toby, flew behind them, takin care of them. He wasn’t cryin. He wasn’t laughin. He was the seer. His gaze fell on the plantation where the slaves who could not fly waited. “Take us with you!” Their looks spoke it but they were afraid to shout it. Toby couldn’t take them with him. Hadn’t the time to teach them to fly. They must wait for a chance to run. “Goodie-bye!” The old man called Toby spoke to them, poor souls! And he was flyin gone. So they say. The Overseer told it. The one called Master said it was a lie, a trick of the light. The Driver kept his mouth shut. The slaves who could not fly told about the people who could fly to their children. When they were free. When they sat close before the fire in the free land, they told it. They did so love firelight and Free-dom, and tellin. They say that the children of the ones who could not fly told their children. And now, me, I have told it to you. |
Disclaimers? Author's Notes? Well, there are seven paragraphs of thanks to reviewers, but not a word about having copied from Hamilton. Not even anything about inspiration.
I don't know how much moral blame can attach to this circle of fanfic writers. They weren't afraid they'd be found out. They were obviously utterly convinced that what they did wasn't wrong, wasn't plagiarism. What can one say about that?
ETA: There's no disclaimer at all on the Fiction Alley version, but the Hp_Paradise mailing list (members only) includes this disclaimer for Chapter Six.
"DISCLAIMER: I’m emphatically not JKR—she owns Harry and company, and the fact that I’m writing about them doesn’t mean that I want to infringe her copyright, it simply means that I’m obsessed with the fictional world she has created. Certain elements of this chapter were inspired by Virginia Hamilton’s award-winning folklore collection The People Could Fly and Zora Neale Hurston’s *excellent* anthropological study of magic, superstition, and voodoo in the Caribbean, Tell My Horse."Inspiration strikes again!
