Plagiarism and Moral Relativism
It has recently been discovered that a critically acclaimed young German author, 17, has plagiarised parts of her novel “Axolotl Roadkill”. In one case, she lifted an entire page from an obscure book with few, if any, changes.
The German feuilleton and ‘literary establishment’ have been discussing this for the last few weeks, accomplishing nothing. Whole magazine issues have dealt with the plagiarism charges, coming to no concrete result whatsoever.
Of course, art is an utterly subjective manner and basically follows arbitrary rules all the time.
But there is a clear distinction to be made between remixing the works of others and purporting that one has written an original novel. Both are forms of art, but while remixing derives its value at least to a certain extent from the parts that are remixed, originality by definition derives its value from creating something original.
It is a distinction that has to be made independently of any specific work as it’s a basic issue of authorship, originality and the moral compass of an author. Plagiarism is not limited to works of fiction. It is also – perhaps even more so – an important issue in academia and science. Both fields recognize the importance of acknowledging previous works and established authors. As original research is not possible without knowledge of the current status quo within your academic field, creating your own voice similarly consists of having acknowledged and imitated the voices and narratives of others beforehand.
But you accomplish originality only when you transcend incorporating the work of others and add your very own distinctive contribution to it.
I think the concept of originality has to be adamantly defended in today’s remix culture. One should always distinguish clearly between the concept and value of both remixing the work of others and creating something entirely on your own.
It’s perfectly admirable for a young author ‘just’ to remix the work of others. Many famous authors have slaved away for decades before accomplishing now famous works of originality.
Clearly establishing a moral straight line between copying others and standing on the shoulders of giants to add your own contribution is what’s lacking in recent discussions. I consider this to be a failure of the ‘literary establishment’ who have proven themselves to be moral relativists and therefore deemed themselves, at least for me, not worthy of any further consideration.
