Comments for Matchstick

Comment on Eragon – Plagiarism Made Popular by james

james — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 07:05:35 +0000

Hi9t this one on the head. That being said your getting flustered about him using elves, really elves are every were from all games to books in the fantasy genre. A character like you said blatant plagiarism but not elves.

Comment on Eragon – Plagiarism Made Popular by Tracey the Destroyer

Tracey the Destroyer — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:11:03 +0000

wow. i read them, mildly enjoyed them, but now that you point it out I see the ridiculous use of J.R.R. Tolkien’s masterpiece. How -dare- that little prick. I’d be more impressed if he invented his own races and language. Can -I- be a prodigy too? I made up my own people and languages when I was only 13. Give me a contract and a million dollars.

Comment on Eragon – Plagiarism Made Popular by Chris

Chris — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 05:44:30 +0000

Okay, this is a little rediculous. If you look through almost any book old or new you will find six basic plots. I have read many books since I was a kid ranging from The Time Warp Trio to the original Sherlock Holmes. No matter what the skill level there will always be some similarity between different books. For instance, the hero’s journey happens in the exact same order in almost all of the popular books in literary history. As for similarities in words, I can understand where there is a problem. You also have to realise though that some words can accidentily be copied in a similar fashion without actual realization of the fact. As well as that, many of the older books that have their words copied almost down to the letter got their inspiration from past sources as well. I would have to agree with Vhann in saying that ideas build up over time, overflowing into future works when the old ones build to much and their are no more new ones able to be made in certain categories. Now, as for the excessive verbiage in Eragon, Poalini was simply doing character discription of the elves. You neglected to mention when you quoted the story that the wind had not yet shifted, thus robbing the elves of the Urgal’s scent. The only dramatic tension was built up from the shades side of the ordeal at the time. The elves would have no reason to be nervous, thus, the discriptions were perfectly alright forthe time being.

Comment on Book Review: My Swordhand Is Singing by Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 17:07:39 +0000

noooooooooooooooo this book is awsome

Comment on Eragon – Plagiarism Made Popular by deane truelove

deane truelove — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 00:25:48 +0000

FYI that is why when J.K. Rowling took Vander Ark to court that Vander Ark won for the simple reason that he created a “Derivative Work”. a person like cristopher paolini can change and adapt any idea as long as he or she changes enough of a work for it to then become a “Derivative Work”. If the courts or the american/international people couldn’t create “Derivative Works” well we would never have what we have. Take anime music videos (like or don’t like doesn’t matter), if people couldn’t take ideas and snippets of both songs and anime well then the whole of that emerging LEGAL and FAIR USE “Derivative Works” would NOT exist. or take weird al yanchovich. ALL HE EVER DOES IS Derivative Works! so thanks for listening to my rant and have a nice day :-) PEACE!

Comment on Eragon – Plagiarism Made Popular by deane truelove

deane truelove — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 00:16:39 +0000

something to be VERY sure about to the author

I’m gonna put a quote here of something you wrote.

“Ideas are not public domain. It’s an concept that’s difficult to wrap one’s brain around in this age of instant access and copy&paste. Good blog posts are frequently reposted; deviantART artists are copied and uncredited; even Photobucket offers print services on others’ photos, not just your own. Thanks to the Internet, ideas lose their identity the moment they leave their creator’s hands. This part of the reason behind J.K. Rowling’s publisher’s swiftness in quashing fan Vander Ark’s attempt to publish a Harry Potter encyclopedia. The belief that Rowling’s ideas are free for the public to rearrange, redistribute and profit from is not an act of support.”

that aforementioned remark is totally out of line because “DERIVATIVE WORKS” are a plain fact of life in the literary world. IDEAS once published are in the “Public Domain” and can be used however the person seems fit!

Comment on Eragon – Plagiarism Made Popular by Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 17:20:39 +0000

Until anyone else here writes a completely original novel that is fantasy based that does not follow any given archetype and is not completely spastic (a toothpick with anger management problems, not that original. It’s called anime, they have insane stuff like that all the time not too mention that just because something is bizarre or “original” does not necessarily make it good in and off itself). Not too mention everything is a rip off of something else. Hell I could easily argue any great piece of fiction shameless ripped off the bible in multiple ways.

Comment on Eragon – Plagiarism Made Popular by Aragorn

Aragorn — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 16:56:22 +0000

LauraRiddle–For all intents and purposes, Tolkien DID invent the fantasy genre. Fairy tales and myths existed long before Tolkien was even born, but he is the golden standard of fantasy writing. The majority of today’s fantasy derives directly from Tolkien and a few other key authors (LeGuin and McCaffrey, to name a couple). The good news is that most of these crap copies do not sell well, if at all; what is baffling is that Paolini did so well when his book is even more poorly written and blatantly plagiarized than your generic fantasy novel with scantily-clad woman and muscly man on the cover. And yes, you cynic, originality is still possible–I was told just last night of a fantasy novel that has a demonic toothpick with anger management problems as a character (yes, I am going to read it). Lazy people copy what they admire, which is fine for practice and fun…but fanfiction has no business getting published. At all.

Also, what an idiotic analogy to cars. As far as I’m aware no one’s life is going to be threatened by not having one of Tolkien’s ideas included in a book. XD Your English is great; it’s your argument that’s weak–bordering on stupid. I can’t believe that you’re trying to justify theft. Major fail.

AyDee, I loathe Eragorn…I mean…Eragon….with every fiber of my being. I got halfway through the first book and saw no point in wasting my time further; I still don’t know how it ends. Nor do I care. Thank God I got it from the library instead of wasting my money, right? And thank God someone introduced me to Terry Pratchett shortly after my trying experience attempting to read the piece of crap that is Eragon. Thank you for writing up this rant/blog; it’s great to have some solid evidence to point out to the misguided and possibly stupid people who like this book. I can’t believe so many people (editors included) didn’t notice everything that is wrong with this ‘novel’. Really, it’s baffling. o.O

Comment on Book Review: My Swordhand Is Singing by teeheelol

teeheelol — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 20:29:52 +0000

i would giv it a B

Comment on Book Review: My Swordhand Is Singing by teeheelol

teeheelol — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 20:29:23 +0000

hm….u hav nice points but remember this book is for kids

Comment on Eragon – Plagiarism Made Popular by Benjamin

Benjamin — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 05:48:08 +0000

I don’t buy it. Your claim is that his story is unoriginal AND poorly written. This fails to explain its success. Clearly Paolini’s work has SOMETHING, else why are his books so popular? His goal was not to write a book using perfect English, but rather one that people enjoyed. You may not personally appreciate his writing style, but writing is a subjective art. The simple fact is people, including me, like the way he writes. Whether or not it follows the rules created by an arbitrary group who have proclaimed their power to make rules is irrelevant. Consider another area, music. More specifically Jascha Heifetz, the famous violinist. His technique was actually “improper” in a couple of ways (I play violin myself, thus I know the “proper” techniques), but he could make a violin sing far more beautifully than I could dream of. The simple and obvious conclusion is that, because his result is better, I am the one who is wrong (and by extension those who created the techniques). If you wrote a book more successful than Eragon then your arguments might have a leg to stand on, but the facts of his success and your lack lead to the simple conclusion that you don’t understand how to write enjoyable literature and that Paolini does. As far as his ideas go, I agree a lot of them aren’t very original, but some of them are, especially some of the more interesting concepts in the book, such as the nature of magic, are completely original as far as I am aware. Building upon the ideas and creations of others does not make someone a literary thief unless they claim those ideas as their own. Finally I would like to point out that all points related to the movie are irrelevant to a discussion of the book. The movie was stupid and bears only a passing similarity to the book.

Comment on Eragon – Plagiarism Made Popular by Joel

Joel — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 19:55:36 +0000

You all make me sick. Is it not enough that there is material children are reading? Yes it might be a shameless and trite copy. However the fact you would rather a child not read anything at all takes away from everything you are. Books lovers? How about haters? None of you have any right to criticize? Do any of you even remember the books that original caused you to fall in love with the written word? For me it was Goosebumps, and I realize now there are many things wrong with those books and many arguments can be made about stolen ideas and such. I read Eragon, but I still enjoyed it because it was the classic archetype. From the sound of it you would prefer a book such as this not to be written. I would love to see the majority of you come up with a completely original idea. If it is not your taste so be it. But allows others to enjoy it without scowling about how you feel it is a travesty.

Comment on Eragon – Plagiarism Made Popular by Vhann

Vhann — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 06:09:45 +0000

No no, I’m pretty sure ‘Saphira’ was derived from ‘Yoshi’ and ‘Arya’ from ‘Peach’…

Seriously, I kind of understand where you all are trying to get at by criticizing the Inheritance cycle. But then, I’m not sure you all really want to believe that “Ideas are not public domain. It’s an concept that’s difficult to wrap one’s brain around in this age of instant access and copy&paste.”

This is surely a very pleasant idea when it comes to arts (books, music, etc.) but a very funny one when applied to other domains. For example, say like some random car company (which we’ll name Toyota(tm)(c)(r)(do I know what)) invents the steering wheel. Then, car company (Volkswagen) invents the gas pedal.
Now, I’m sure you’ll be pleased to have to choose between a car with a steering wheel (but in which you must shovel coal or pedal or whatever) and a car with a gas pedal but which must be driven using strings or (insert funny driving idea here).

Anyway, let’s say we were/are only talking about arts/literacy here and let’s suppose Paolini’s work is a blatant copy of Tolkien’s or whoever else’s work. Well then, we might want to consider flagging Tolkien a copycat too since he didn’t invent the fantasy genre (and maybe also because he didn’t “invent” writing and what not). Yeah, I know, I’m stretching it too far, but that’s my point: such criticism can be stretched to infinity.

On the other hand and as a final note, I guess you are right in saying Paolini is not a creative as was Tolkien but that’s a inevitable consequence of history: the more ideas were created before yours, the more likely to be inspired/related to one of them is your own idea.

P.S.: Feel free to mock my English, this is not my main language.

Comment on Eragon – Plagiarism Made Popular by Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 21:03:28 +0000

i think that you have a little too much time on your hands. it sounds to me like every single other sci fi adventure movie ever made. if you watch any of the star wars movies, the setup is the same every single time.

are you scorned that a 15 year old has more money then you?

Comment on Eragon – Plagiarism Made Popular by Apple

Apple — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 02:48:23 +0000

No offense, but Tolkein’s elves were elves taken from folklore, and are the same as every elf you see now in fantasy. Also, Basically any hero story starts out the same way, people have pointed out the same thing regarding Star Wars and Tolkien and Harry Potter. Tolkein’s entire storyline was a combination of folklore tales that he combined and added to, so isn’t he plagiarizing as well?