Intellectual Frankensteins

Quentin Rowan, Kaavya Viswanathan and Jason Blair all had one thing in common, blind ambition. They believed that they were some how destined for greatness and success and would do anything to ensure that they achieved it. It makes you wonder how rampant plagiarism really is. How many novelist and journalist use the works of others, not all the time or in large quantities but, sparingly? I’ll bet the number would be surprising. Just how many times can you reinvent the wheel anyway. Of course, in the cases of Rowan, Viswanathan and Blair, their actions where overt and extreme. They stripped others bodies of work and then successful reassemble the inanimate parts to create a new and complete work which they dubbed “their” creation. Sound familiar?