Dear Randolph and Roger,
It felt as if I were talking only to Ken and also to Andrew (is this the
magic of email that "they" try to sell us or is it real magic?)---and then
there bloomed you two! Right away I thought oh my God that means even more
people might be reading my words and even feeling kind thoughts for my
plight. Do you have any idea what comfort that brings?! I really mean that
and so you should not just brush it off with the usual "aw shucks" but pat
yourselves on the back! Now that I have prayed and had lunch and then seen
your emails I'm settled and calm.
You both came directly to the essential point: what is it that I allegedly
copied? And, then, you both mentioned a sidelong point: might my pome have
reflected unconscious retention of past pomes read?
To answer the first: She did not name a poem or poet that I copied. So my
logic and fight instinct kicked in and I made an appointment to talk with
her in the Dean's office next week. So I have plenty of time to think and
plan and even maybe write a pome about it all.
Answering the second: I think it's a non-issue in this instance. If the
professor finds a source that sounds like my pome, we'll take it from there.
Until then, I feel no overwhelming need to hunt for somebody who writes
pomes like I do (how could I do that anyway?).
P.S. I liked---in a totally self-egotistical way---Roger's saying that his
prof thought his pome was TOO GOOD to be by him! So maybe my professor's
thinking I plagiarized because it was SO GOOD! Damn, that F was better than
an A!
I have noticed that petc says about itself: "Poetryetc provides a venue for
a dialogue relating to poetry and" (well, the rest of it is off the edge of
the page so I don't know how that ends). I think, don't you, that we are
having a wonderful dialogue relating to poetry and....!
Stay sweet and cool, both of you . . . and whoever's "in synch" out there in
petc-land!
I'll let you know what happens next, prolly after class on Wednesday.
Judy
----- Original Message -----
From: "roger day" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, June 20, 2005 12:17 PM
Subject: Re: "Fled is that Music. So Change the Record"
Hi,
Sorry to hear that.
I, too, was accused of plagiarism for course-work towards an exam. It
was, apparently, too good to have been written by me. And look at me
now - ah, maybe I'm not the best example you could point to.
As Randolph says, we read stuff and it does influence our writing. It
has to. A clearer example might be bands first albums: you are are
often listening to pastiches of their record collections. Now a
pastiche is not a direct sample, however the dividing line is terribly
thin.
(I wonder if the first album thing holds true for poets first collections?)
Again, agreeing with Randolph, it would be good to ask yr teacher what
poems you allegedly plagiarised. You could compare and contrast and
turn the situation to yr advantage by making it a learning exercise.
Roger
On 6/20/05, judy prince <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Not good news, Ken. By the way, I should have thanked you for taking me
> seriously and giving all that explanation of your pome which made me
> understand it very well.
>
> I'm sad now, and it has nothing to do with your pomes which I always like
> very much. Actually my heart is broken. I'm holding the poem I got back
> today in class. She gave me an F on it. She said it was plagiarized
> which
> means copied. But why would I copy anything when I love to write poetry?!
> I'm a sad person right now, K.
>
> J (I never was yo mama, but maybe you could be my papa right now)
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Ken Wolman" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Monday, June 20, 2005 10:49 AM
> Subject: Re: "Fled is that Music. So Change the Record"
>
>
> > judy prince wrote:
> >
> >> Gotcha, Ken! I mean, I NEVER woulda guest it, not never! Poets should
> >> charge for this service---of explaining what the hell their pomes
> >> mean---thereby making enuff cash to pay for, uh, yeah, ok, forgit this
> >> .
> >> .
> >
> > Is it steady? Are there medical benefits? Do I get a company car and
> > expensive account? I figure that for slinging that kind of junk I
> > oughta
> > get no more nor less than a life insurance salesman can ask for.
> >
> >> Howsomever, let's bring our intellects back to the kernel most
> >> meaningful
> >> to moi and my sis/bro POMES FER DUMMIES classmates: 1) Y don't poets
> >> know what their pomes mean? and 2) well, if U adequately answer #1,
> >> then U don't need me to pose #2.
> >
> > I don't feel badly about this anymore--that I don't know what the hell
> > most poems "mean." They mean something to me, they may mean something
> > else to you, or him, or her. I THINK (bad practice) most poems want me
> > to
> > engage with them imaginatively. My imagination, not the writer's. If
> > we
> > meet each other, awesome. If not, we'll always have Paris:-).
> >
> >> I've been watching you a long time, K, at least a month now, and I
> >> think
> >> you can well handle that one question.
> >
> > This is starting to sound like a song by The Police. "I'll Be Watching
> > You"? I"m getting paranoid.:-)
> >
> > Ken <on the lam>
> >
> > --
> > Kenneth Wolman
> > Proposal Development Department
> > Room SW334
> > Sarnoff Corporation
> > 609-734-2538
> >
>
--
http://www.badstep.net
|