Strikingly Similar: Plagiarism and Appropriation from Chaucer to Chatbots

Cognitive scientist Kreuz (Linguistic Fingerprints) offers a wide-ranging investigation of plagiarism as both a psychological and cultural phenomenon. Surveying famous examples across history, he spotlights plagiarists’ reasonings, litigates whether the charge of plagiarism is really warranted in some cases, and explores whether the idea of “unconscious plagiarism” is scientifically plausible. (It is, it turns out—Kreuz ends up making a case that it’s so plausible the law should hold those who’ve committed it less culpable; among the “unconscious” plagiarizers he pinpoints as perhaps deserving a pass are Helen Keller and George Harrison). Examples cited range from Vladimir Putin, who seems to have partly plagiarized his college thesis from a textbook, to the likes of Mahler, Nabokov, and Bob Dylan, the latter of whom, when accused of plagiarism, asserted that “all my stuff comes out of the folk tradition” and “you make everything yours,” adding that “only wussies and pussies complain about that stuff.” Kreuz notes that his most surprising finding is that plagiarism is far more common a practice than he had realized and that nearly everyone engages in it at some point, many routinely. Indeed, the book presents no one as above reproach—even Jesus, Kreuz points out, was accused of plagiarizing Plato. Full of entertaining anecdotes, this is a thorough overview of current understandings of plagiarism’s motivations and its role in artistic production. (Jan.)