>In my post "Plunder Road/Squad" I mentioned an MWA
anthology with a Westlake
>piece that refers to Lionel White. A key fact I
failed to state is that this
>anthology was true crime. Thus the European gang
following the White book
>plot in the Westlake piece was very real.
>
>Richard Moore
The MWA anthology Richard Moore was talking about is I,
WITNESS (1978) edited by Brian Garfield. Westlake talked
about the difference between stealing from other writers'
ideas (which is not okay) and "stealing" from actural events
(which is okay). In this article/essay, Westlake admits that
every writer (including Westlake himself) "steals" ideas from
others -- writers and non-writers -- more or less.
These actual kidnappers of a Peugeot kid stole the idea of
kidnapping a baby from Lionel White's THE SNATCHERS (1953).
Stealing the idea of kidnapping for the actual operation is
not a plagiarism (it is a federal crime), but stealing the
idea for writing a book is a plagiarism. However, writing a
book based on the actual event, which has been based on
another writer's book, is NOT a plagiarism.
You will know what it means in Donald Westlake's JIMMY THE
KID, where Richard Stark the writer tries to sue the
kidnapped kid for stealing Stark's idea, but the smart kid
has made a movie out of the "actual snatch," which has been
based on Stark's idea. Very complicated and confusing, but
interesting.
Jiro Kimura
********************************************* Jiro Kimura
Kanazawa, JAPAN e-mail:
jkimura@nsknet.or.jp The Gumshoe Site (http://www.nsknet.or.jp/~jkimura/)
*********************************************
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