Viswanathan Deserves Tolerance, Not Punishment

I am writing to second Charles Drummond’s tolerant perspective on the controversy surrounding sophomore novelist Kaavya Viswanathan (“Girl Interrupted,” comment, Apr. 26). If a few plot points and a borrowed phrase every 10 pages constitute “literary identity theft”, as Tuesday’s statement from Random House alleges, few authors will escape whipping. With Chaucer and Boccaccio, Shakespeare and Holinshead, Robert Johnson and Skip James, why not Viswanathan and McCafferty? Any literary omelet worth its salt is likely to contain a few borrowed eggs.

We live in an age in which the free flow of ideas and information is constantly being restricted: Copyrights are longer than ever and entertainment industry lobbyists are attempting to make even attempted copyright violation a crime with a potential 10-year sentence. Our God-given right as readers to as many magnet-school satires as the market will bear is under assault. I vote with whoever first said that good artists borrow and great artists steal.



JACOB S. JOST

Cambridge, Mass.

April 26, 2006