| a bit on asses |
[17 Mar 2006|10:42am] |
An aquaintance I know is making, what I believe, is a total ass of his/herself. This persona already bugs the crap out of me in a very splintering sort of way, and, for some reason, this last episode has embedded matters even more under my skin than they were before.
There's this praise song that has struck many a church and youth group. I'm not actually that into most praise music--just not enough edge for my taste--but I do distinctly recognize this song as one that was regularly sang at my own junior high youth group, from a songbook that was a bit weathered, to boot. So not exactly an old song, but a psuedo-pre-junior oldies, anyway.
This person was verbally ambushing the Bible study goers last night and telling them how he/she had just won a trip to Vegas for some poetry competition because of some super, marvelous, breathtakingly kickass poem of poems he/she penned and submitted online. She passed it around, along with a scammish e-mail from the "editors" about how they "don't normally do this" but they "were so utterly moved by her poem" that they'd like for her to participate in some reading thing in Vegas (obviously, if there is a competition, they do "normally do this" unless they are having a competition for abnormals in which case this would be great for... oh, nevermind... bad though Em *self flaggelate, self flaggelate*).
I intercepted the papers on the way around, and I noticed along with that e-mail was that song. A friend with me peeked an said audibly "Isn't that a song?" The poet heard this and replied that yes, it was, but he/she added a few lines of his/her own at the end, so now it is a poem. Hearing this breif inquiry about the originality of the poem, the poet's spouse shouted "It's not plagerism!" It was time for small group stuff, so I handed the papers back and went on my merry way.
There's no doubt in my mind that it is plagerism, for I have been trained in the fine art of APA and MLA citation. If a person has a source, especially if they quote it directly, and don't don't attribute it to the author, that it plagerism. Yes, even if you add two lines. Plagerism. Period.
The question is: what should I do, if anything? This is where I start feeling like a terrible person.
At some level, I'd be a small bit amused if it was a scam, and this life lesson just plays out itself. Poet submits a poem that isn't his/hers, gets conned into spending lots of money on a free trip just to read a unoriginal poem, comes back to bitch and moan about what a ripoff it was and how dishonest people are and you can't believe anything you read--there's a amusing bit of irony there.
I realize that reveling in that possibility is evil (unfortunately!), so even if "nothing" is the right thing to do, "because the person will get hurt anyway" not the right reason why.
I could tell this person out of love, but honestly, I don't feel that much love for the person. I was very tempted to self-censor that to make myself sound a little more decent, but the truth is I hate it when people cheat like that, I hate it when they brag about their exploits, and I hate it when people walk into a room, and instead of commenting on the pretty wallpaper or the thoughtful lesson or rainy day, they drone about self-glorifying things. I don't hate these people, but I do wish they would leave me alone and return all of my wasted time. And I hate myself a bit for thinking that.
So the best I can come up with is that I should leave it alone because I'm not mature enough to deal with it. And that hurts a little. So really, in a way, I sense the biggest ass here is me.
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