In Which Lara Stalks Cassandra Clare/Claire

[exhilaration]

Right right right right right.

So. I was cruising Amazon looking for books I want to read. Came across City of Bones. Thought, yeah, that's something I'd like! My opinion of it, from the description, was that it was probably better than Twilight (which I didn't like and couldn't finish - I prefer my vampires a little more Anne Rice, thanks). I like YA fiction and I like modern fantasy, and it seemed to have a lot of elements I'm drawn to.

Then, of course, I noticed who wrote it. Cassandra Clare, who is Cassandra Claire on the internet. Now, I know who she is cause I follow internet drama like it's my job or something. I love Harry Potter but I loved Harry Potter more several years ago, before the series ended. I didn't read much Harry Potter fanfiction, just a lot of fan-made theories about how the series was going to end. But I still knew who Cassie Claire was and that there was a huge drama about her plagiarizing her work from other novels and TV series. So I was disgusted with her, and never read her fics, and probably wouldn't have read them anyway.

Well then, I got really curious. So, it took me several nights of reading, but I did read through her massive trilogy of novel-length fics. AndIreallylikedthem.

I did. I'll admit it. And... I get that she might not have been everyone's favorite person (although she had a lot of fans) but... I don't really see her work as plagiarized. She used quotes from TV shows a lot, which I've read in other fanfics before and thought was funny, like a friendly little wave to other fandoms, or whatever. Sometimes I think she over-quoted, as in, the quotes were so over done it took her characters a little... out of character. But I don't really see that as plagiarism. Maybe lazy, or maybe just resourceful. She probably wanted to have a witty character and isn't that creative, and so threw in a bunch of quotes.

Other than that, though, her writing is really good. All the twists and all the characters and all the fantasy elements and everything went together really well and it really was like reading a real novel. I enjoyed it. It was a really good read and a really, really interesting look at how the actual series didn't go. CC doesn't really write like JK, but she included enough elements of the original series that it wasn't glaring. Ok, so, she wrote much more purple than JK, but it's fanfic, and that's what fanfic writers do, pretty much. Goblet of Fire is my favorite HP book and the end of GOF is where CC started her fic.

And I have to say... I didn't like the way Deathly Hallows ended. I thought the epilogue was total crap and I was disgusted by it... to nice and neat and perfect and I was like whyyyyyyyyy would anyone do that to a perfectly wonderful series? In CC's universe... in the end, after evil was destroyed, the characters all went off to discover their own lives without a villian to fight. It was really quite poetic. I'm not saying CC is better than JK. I'm just saying that perhaps she made one better choice in writing. That's all. And that I enjoyed her three "alternate" books.

But now... I still don't know if I want to read City of Bones. I hear she lifted entire parts of her HP fic and incorporated them in her novel. I dunno... I can even see why she would do that, I mean, if it was really good writing, why not use it where it can actually be shared beyond the internet? But then again, why not just write something new? On one hand, I don't really understand why she used her HP pen name to publish her book. Why, if she's really serious about being a fantasy writer, would she be okay with associating herself with a fanfic writer? I'm pretty sure other published authors write fanfic, under a different name, and the two identities are never connected and no one is the wiser. After all, fanfic is just for fun, isn't it? But I guess it's because she caused such a stir with all her plagiarism drama that her name became well known, and that's how she got published in the first place - cause she already had a fan base.

I dunno. They say Picasso's friends never let him in their studios, cause he would see what they were doing and then do it better. Is that plagiarism?

I wanna read City of Bones kinda like how you see something really awful, like roadkill or something, and you know it's gonna be disgusting, but you check it out anyway... I LIKED her fanfic. But I'm afraid her published novel is gonna be like her fanfic re-written as something original. That's kinda like roadkill... right?

Comments

[yoursetcetera.livejournal.com]

I believe the real problem with Cassandra Claire's HP fics was that she lifted entire passages from Pamela Dean's Secret Country trilogy, and just changed around the character names. The TV quotes were understandable, although a bit weird -- but what she did with Dean's stuff was definitely plagiarism.

Also, I'm definitely with you on this dilemma. I haven't read any of her fanfiction, but City of Bones sounds pretty interesting. I'll probably end up reading it at some point, but only if I can borrow it from a library or a friend. I don't think I want to pay for it.

[lara-everlong.livejournal.com]

Yeah... I do remember that, but as far as I know, she SAID that's what she was doing, or at least, when confronted, she said, yep, I'm using this book for that scene, or something like that. So... I still see that more as bizarre than actual plagiarism. I came into the internet side of HP fandom in 2004-ish, though, so by the time I got there stories may have been changed. For all I know, she may have originally said that the scene was her own creation.

I'm thinking I'll read City of Bones in the bookstore. If I love it, I'll buy it and the sequel. If I hate it... I'll just put it back, lol.

[yoursetcetera.livejournal.com]

I think that originally she said in the notes that one scene was inspired by a book that she couldn't remember the author of, when it turned out that she knew exactly who the author was, and that the scene was exact copy.

There's a pretty thorough write-up of the whole thing here (http://www.journalfen.net/community/bad_penny/8985.html), by someone who was in the fandom at the time it happened. It's obviously biased toward the "yes, she did plagiarize" side of things, but it's the most comprehensive account of it that I've seen so far.

[lara-everlong.livejournal.com]

ahhhh. that's a book I've never heard of, though, and honestly, when I read her fic it didn't stick out to me the way all the quotes did as "not belonging." But yeah, that's definitely plagiarism. So, with that history... I'm completely puzzled as to why she'd use her fandom name as her pen name for her published book! I mean, I would have bought it had I not realized who wrote it. I can't be the only one who's had that reaction!

grrrr

[ivy-poet.livejournal.com]

I read Twilight. A friend bought it for me when I got back from France, and I read it because hell, it was a book I haven't read and it's about vampires. Nuff said. Except that it SUCKED, and I thought it sucked because I was jet-lagged and sick. So I re-read it later, when I wasn't sick, and guess what? It STILL SUCKED. I completely loathe the book, despise the message it's sending to young girls, and I'm avoiding the movie like the plague.

As far as fanfic, I've never read any (really!) because for me, it taints the real book and the author's intentions. So I can't really say anything on Cassandra Clair/Clare. I know nothing about the drama, but I will say that plagiarism really pisses me off.

Speaking of writing, I totally wiffed on Nano and have practically no time to try now because if I don't finish the makeup work and graduate in May, I'm completely and utterly screwed. So here's to this upcoming November, eh?

Re: grrrr

[lara-everlong.livejournal.com]

I read everything under the sun. I used to feel like you, that fanfiction taints the original work, but there are certain universes/series that kind of do lend themselves to fanfiction and once I kind of got over that, it's a really amazing community to be involved in and a great way to share writing with a huge audience and actually have feedback and interaction. There are certain books that I simply love too much to ever want to read fanfiction of, and there are certain others that I love sooo much I want to read fanfiction. It's a strange line.

Don't work on NaNo if you need to do school work! Of course if I were you that's all I'd be doing, lol, because I'm an eternal procrastinator! Do you have another semester coming up of new classes or do you just have to finish the ones from last semester to graduate?

Re: grrrr

[ivy-poet.livejournal.com]

Nope, this is the last semester. And I'm a procrastinator too, lol!