Creativity versus cut and paste
At 17 years old, Helene Hegemann is a rising star in German literature, and her first novel, Axolotl Roadkill is becoming a best seller. But what part has cyberspace played in the authoring of this work?
Axolotl Roadkill, nominated for a literary prize at the prestigious Leipzig Book Fair, is a dysfunctional coming of age story of the perils of puberty, of recreational sex in the backs of cars, of snorting lines of cocaine in Berlin nightclubs. Hailed for its observations and insights, it is all apparently written by the then 16 year old daughter of author and professor of drama, Carl Hegemann. Many asked if one so young could have so much experience of life, and therein lies the problem.
It now transpires that Hegemann took much of her "inspiration" from Strobo, a sex, drugs and clubbing novel written originally online in blog form and published last year by Sukultur in Berlin. The inspiration which Hegemann found included turns of phrase, lines of dialogue, scene settings, and even direct copies of the original. The publishers accept that there are twenty passages which are very similar to parts of Strobo, and another twenty are direct copies. When confronted with this, Hegemann apologised for using other people's works without crediting them but defended her actions saying it wasn't plagiarism, but rather it was what she calls "intertextuality" adding "Very many artists use this technique. By organically including parts in my text, I am entering into a dialogue with the author". She said she had freely mixed from various sources, claiming "There’s no such thing as originality anyway, just authenticity."
The literary world seems divided on this. Some view it as unacceptable plagiarism, others shrug their shoulders and say that's the way the world is nowadays. The publishers of Axolotl Roadkill, Ullstein, have acquired the commercial rights to Strobo to avoid any possible legal problems, and the organisers of the Leipzig Book Festival insist the book is still in the running for the $20,000 prize.
26th February 2010
This article comes from the SKILLZONE email newsletter, published monthly since January 2008, and covering topics related to technology and the internet. All articles and artwork in the SKILLZONE newsletter are orignal content.