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The more interesting question is whether he lifted entire plots from other books or just used the collage-of-website-text to fill specific details This just lo

The more interesting question is whether he lifted entire plots from other books or just used the collage-of-website-text to fill specific details This just looks like a sloppy writer saving time on understanding typical California mansion layouts and features or how snipers set up or British music in the 1990s or what Juarez is like by minimally revising the first Google result he found to generate the descriptive passage. But how a sniper sets up might not be the only bit he's taken from a book about a sniper, and a couple of evocative bits of description in a parody article not the only bits he's taken from Bond.

dan-robertson 3y ago
Yeah, I think that’s a more relevant question to the whole plagiarism thing. It may be that it’s just easier to show little sentences in the Reddit post.
- notahacker 3y ago
  I guess it's also easier to argue an author serendipitously ended up with the same trope-heavy story beats as Live and Let Die or Dr No in their spy thriller than it is to argue they serendipitously ended up with references to "the harlequinade of youth" and "fur-skinned Afghans" in a street scene. But the former is even lazier writing
washadjeffmad 3y ago
Understandably, many people are worried about the cheapening of their trades. Why go through the effort when you don't have to to meet a sniper and interview them for their training and experiences, or consult the world's foremost expert on niche period architecture (how we met? oh, it's quite a story) when you have the internet? The thorn is that evidence of effective literature doesn't exist as an objective truth, but it often looks like sales. Writers who spend their careers being honest, thoughtful, and meticulous don't publish 20 books in two years, and they often don't make as much money as the Mark Dawsons. The business of being someone who manufactures and sells works of fiction in today's world is not radically different than ever in history, and it signals not the collapse, but the return of writing under our new publication and distribution models. Pulps are not new, like light novels, themed writing periodicals, or any other historical light published media. They took a break for about 20 years as things moved online, and they've experienced a resurgence as web serials, ebooks, and KPD partners. I'm not surprised or offended by any of that, or the Mark Dawsons, even if I have no interest in their products. But then again, I'm not vested in the old models and afraid of disruption.

dan-robertson 3y ago

Yeah, I think that’s a more relevant question to the whole plagiarism thing. It may be that it’s just easier to show little sentences in the Reddit post.

notahacker 3y ago
I guess it's also easier to argue an author serendipitously ended up with the same trope-heavy story beats as Live and Let Die or Dr No in their spy thriller than it is to argue they serendipitously ended up with references to "the harlequinade of youth" and "fur-skinned Afghans" in a street scene. But the former is even lazier writing

washadjeffmad 3y ago

Understandably, many people are worried about the cheapening of their trades. Why go through the effort when you don't have to to meet a sniper and interview them for their training and experiences, or consult the world's foremost expert on niche period architecture (how we met? oh, it's quite a story) when you have the internet? The thorn is that evidence of effective literature doesn't exist as an objective truth, but it often looks like sales. Writers who spend their careers being honest, thoughtful, and meticulous don't publish 20 books in two years, and they often don't make as much money as the Mark Dawsons. The business of being someone who manufactures and sells works of fiction in today's world is not radically different than ever in history, and it signals not the collapse, but the return of writing under our new publication and distribution models. Pulps are not new, like light novels, themed writing periodicals, or any other historical light published media. They took a break for about 20 years as things moved online, and they've experienced a resurgence as web serials, ebooks, and KPD partners. I'm not surprised or offended by any of that, or the Mark Dawsons, even if I have no interest in their products. But then again, I'm not vested in the old models and afraid of disruption.