(Thanks to M.C. Escher for alerting me to this.)
There’s a movie being made of a recent (2018) Stephen King novel (more a novella) “Elevation”.
In which, the hero:
– Starts to lose weight, not body mass. Period of physical elation, increased performance.
– Enlists help of close friends, trusted professional outside doctor/hospital domain. There is no explanation for his condition.
– Becomes steadily lighter to the point he has to be kept down in a wheelchair.
– At the end, he makes a decision to let go, and sails off into the sky, leaving his girlfriend on the ground.
That Stephen KIng, eh? What a fantastic, original writer he is! Where on earth does he get his ideas from? Not suggesting for a moment from my 1997 novel (more a novella) “Helium”.
In which, the hero:
– Starts to lose weight, not body mass. Period of physical elation, increased performance.
– Enlists help of close friends, trusted professional outside doctor/hospital domain. There is no explanation for his condition.
– Becomes steadily lighter to the point he has to be kept down in a wheelchair.
– At the end, he makes a decision to let go, and sails off into the sky, leaving his girlfriend on the ground.
Ideas/concepts aren’t copyrightable. They’re just floating around out there and can land in anyone’s head.
Stephen King is a global corporation, not “a writer” and has staff working for him full time, including lawyers. It’s inconceivable that they would leave open legal grounds for any accusation I might feel like making. It’s also absurd that I could lawyer up against a global corporation. I have no money, no contacts.
But anyway. Shitfuckbastards.
Perhaps a chat with Messrs. Sue, Grabbit & Runne?
Out of interest, are you aware of “The Truth about Pyecraft” by HG Wells?
(Edit: posts crossed over – I’ve now read the above)
I couldn’t afford a phone call with Sue, Grabbit, or Runne, and they’d only tell me what I’ve told you.
Someone did tell me about the Wells story some time after Helium was published – the basic idea (floaty man)is the same, but there are no other similarities, such as the fairly key ones I list above. There’s also Mervyn Peake’s Mr. Pye (1953). of course, where the hero takes to the skies in quite another way.
I completely get it, re cost of litigation against a multimillionaire – we posted at the same time and I didn’t see your comment.
Pyecraft – no implication intended, just interested (as an HG Wells fan)…
It’s the sincerest form of flattery, you know.
Perhaps he’ll send you a Christmas card.
Also of note… remember how we all said “that Ed Sheeran song sounds like…” Well, so did the original writer.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-60682045
That sentence ends with the phrase ” nine types of loose stool water”.
No doubt he will say it was inspired by Thinner, by Richard Bachman. Who is, of course, himself. Can you prove you are not?
Just had a squint at Thinner – yes, he could say Elevation was some kind of elaboration on the theme of weight loss. He could also say he’s never heard of Helium, let alone read it.
….. but perhaps this will probably have the trademark Stephen King “magic touch” = the last quarter of it will be really stupid and OTT.
Someone in America did almost exactly the same PhD as me, and then turned that into a book. Doing essentially the same PhD as someone else isn’t supposed to be possible, especially as this person read mine and it’s right there in the bibliography. Turns out the checks and balances ain’t all that.
Thankfully it’s an academic book so it’ll have made absolutely no money and she probably had a nervous breakdown or three writing it.
But still- top tip for ripping somebody else’s ideas off: be on the other side of the world.
PhD eh? University of Hurr-dersfield?
I’m here all week.
Yeah, a Doct-hurr-ate.
…..you started it, pal.
Of philosop-hurr-y?
This is starting to sound like a bad Elvis impression.
Sorry, sthurrting to sound….
In a private email, A. Valparaiso tells me; “He has been accused of plagiarism at least three times. He won all the cases. But he’s a multi-millionaire so he would, wouldn’t he?”
Send him a copy of your book. He’ll enjoy it. It’s far better written than any of his.
Some of us think that amidst some dross (ok, rather a lot of dross) King produced some of the finest literature of the 20th Century. Whilst no doubt some of us are Wrong and we all know he reads other writers voraciously, I’m struggling to imagine why this multi-millions author would lift HP’s work so blatantly.
I write a lot (entirely for my own amusement and the scorn of my small but perfectly-formed writing group) and sometimes after feeling quite pleased with myself realise I’ve nicked the central idea from a book I read last year or a TV programme I viewed last week.
I wrote to King some years ago and he (or, far more likely, one of his team) replied straightaway. Maybe HP should contact him with a “Wow, your story sure looks a lot like mine” and see what happens?
We’ll never know if Archie’s claim is true or not but given just how much King has written over the years it would be very surprising if there weren’t numerous cases where somebody says “hey, that’s mine”. Not saying that’s the case with Helium which on the face of it is just too damn similar for comfort.
I suspect if that letter was written, large men would arrive at HP’s gaff fairly sharpish to remove his laptop, his phone and probably his kidneys.
…and then we’d all be left having to try and amuse each other. So think on.
What’s a good one? I’ve read a handful over the decades, and although I enjoyed the settings and some on the characters’ relationships I’ve found every one sort on actual chills, and they all seemed to end ‘and the the bad thing just stopped with as little notice or explanation as it began’.
Carrie aside they were always far too long too, but I can be persuaded to give him another go. I remember I did enjoy The Black House which he wrote with Peter Straub, though as I remember having that problem of just stopping after they had reached the required number of pages.
Salem’s Lot, IT, Christine, The Shining…
Thanks. I’ve read two of those, so I guess after many years of trying I’ll just have file him under ‘not for me’. I’m sure he will be consoled by his millions of sales to happy readers when the news reaches him.
Try ‘The Stand’ – that’s the only one of his I found gripping and fun, the others I tried all read like they’d been designed by committee.
You see The Stand was written by committee…. the others I mention above beat 99.73% of anything written in the 20th Century. And that includes all the poncey pluff you lot are going to throw at me now. Youse are Wrong
His latest, Billy Summers, is terrific.
It is pretty wonderful, I agree.
Salem’s Lot, The Stand, and Pet Sematary probably deserve classic status. The rest (even Misery which I thought was aces the first time does not repay re-reading) are very efficient at delivering thrills but — it’s a cliche I know — for the most part he is shit at endings.
That copy of Helium I donated to the Charity Shop quite a few years ago has failed to float off the shelf, maybe if I stick a label with S.K.`s name over the front?
Joking aside I sympathise with you H.P.S., too much of a coincidence in the plotline and he gets away with it.
About a dozen years ago, I found a copy in Vientiane’s only used book shop. Vientiane is the world’s laziest, scruffiest capital city (or was when I was there – probably totally Starbucked now), and it was like finding an old friend who’d got there before me. Maybe that’s still there, too. I didn’t buy it because I’d read it already.
What did you think of it ? (The book, not Vientiane)
It would do my head in if anything like this happened to me H.P.S.
I feckin` hate being ripped off and I simply have to get revenge/recompense if I feel hard done by.
In your case you`ve beened ripped off to a magnitude of a zillion!!!
Surely if there is a movie being made of your original storyline you have a case and this is different to the plagiarism commited by S. King?*
If someone has already raised this, apologies.
Helium was optioned and re-optioned by David Heyman at Warners soon after publication. Then he picked up the rights to Harry Potter and dropped everything else – more fool him, eh?
Condolences, Mr S. Hopefully the similarity will attract the curious to your own work. Your tale makes me want to post this:
(The Missing by The Bug and Roger Robinson)
I’d be inclined to privately send him a copy, pointing out the copyright date of yours and any bits that he could have copied but neglected to. Maybe ask him if he’d like a few more of your plotlines, if he’s finding it difficult thinking up any of his own.
I refer the honourable gentlemen to my comment above about large men and kidneys (btw it’s not about getting fat by eating Fray Bentos)
Years ago I used to have a little Rover car that I called ‘Roger The Dodger’, because he was always finding an excuse to rattle, steer oddly or otherwise refuse to do as asked; it was like he had a little demon inside him, making him behave badly. Then that duplicitous and litigious bastard King wrote a bloody book about a car called ‘Christine’ and they even made it into a film. Swine.
I buried a cat once…….
“¿E Burres stigano?”
One copy of ‘Helium’ purchased. I’ll read the original.
Ditto…
… and please read (if not buy) King’s book. Not for the cosmetic differences (there are many) but the essential similarities.
Well I’ve read it, pleasantly surprised by how short it was. (I was only following orders m’lud.) The similarities are many. What’s missing from King’s book though is anything remotely resembling a sense of humour. Precious few yoks to be found. Helium was (is) funny, FFS, and this isn’t. Which is not to say it isn’t a little bit touching by the end. It’s also slow and wordy at the beginning, unlike Helium, which hits the ground running.
There’s also a chapter called The Incredible Lightness of Being…if that’s not a direct pinch of The Incredibleness of Being Light, I don’t know what is.
In the end though…if SK has read Helium he’ll deny it. And I can already hear his defence attorney: ‘I refer Your Honour to a story by the Briddish writer H G Wells called The Truth About Pyecraft, published in 1903, in which…’
However: there’s a contact facility on his website. He doesn’t read messages, obviously, but if enough of us send messages along these lines, something might filter through: ‘Dear Mr King, I’ve just read Elevation, and much enjoyed it. I was however struck by some remarkable similarities between its story and that of a novel I read some years ago called Helium, by Tim Earnshaw. Perhaps you’ve read it?’
King is not contactable through his website – it says so quite explicitly. Waste of time. I’ll try to get someone at the agency, and I’m putting out feelers in NY.
Thanks for that other gotcha point, Mike – if any others come up I’ll add them to the list.
I know, I read that too. But if a flurry of messages arrived all saying the same thing I imagine some drone in his office would be dimly aware that something was up. Can’t hurt. I expect they say that to discourage crazies who want to lock him up in log cabins.
There is, as you’ve seen, a lengthy list of things you must not use the contact form for. It does not specifically include “accuse Mr. King of plagiarism”, though. I’ve emailed his agency, his publisher, and a few NY lawyers. The movie company (Jack Bender) is not contactable without an IMDB Pro account.
I think I’ve seen a few Jack Bender films. Or at least…. well never mind…
My first thought on that chapter name is that it’s more likely to be a play on Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness Of Being?
Or even “The Unbearable Lightness Of Being In Aberystwyth” 😉
“Unbearable SHITENESS of being in Aberystwyth”, some might say.
You bowl ’em, I’ll play ’em if I can.
Well yes, obviously it’s a reference to the movie of the same name! Which I also made. As a chapter title. Before he did. In itself, not enough to get him flogged round the fleet, but as one of the confirmatory details, it’s important. Protagonist’s name: Carey/Gary. Etcetera.
Taking nothing, nothing I tell you, away from your case (which to my untutored eyes looks remarkably strong) why do you think Mr King was so unsubtle in his plagiarism? Carey could quite have easily been Alfonso (or even Maria) etc etc? A few such changes here and there and he would be home scot free with yet another couple of million dollars in his account.
Did he think nobody would ever pick up a book by some writer who somehow washed up on the banks of the Mekong and spends his time giving away bootlegs of The Electric Prunes for free? Is he really that lazy, stupid or just doesn’t give a fuck?
Hypothetically speaking, if I were a mega-rich world famous author who’d run out of ideas, I’d do this:
– Have my research team scan the known universe for ideas.
– Helium is ideal. Obscure book very few have read, long out of print, author of the book possibly dead, certainly inactive.
– Type the thing out once, making a few changes. Day’s work. Sell via telephone call to publisher, money in the bank already.
– Collect more cash from movie deal (a total of a million dollars for the book and the movie is probably a low guess)
– Funds flowing into bank account for virtually no work.
– Worst case scenario: author sues. Expensive, drawn-out process, maybe years. Out of court settlement already budgeted for.
Incidentally, I’ve yet to hear anything from anyone about this, including my own publisher. Everybody wants a quiet life and reckons I’ll give up and go away.
It’s kind of a compliment.
That’s not much consolation of course – you could say the same when someone fks your missus.
“Incidentally, I’ve yet to hear anything from anyone about this, including my own publisher.”
And you share a publisher anyway – Gollancz and Hodder are both owned by Hachette, I believe.
HP Saucecraft: a washed up writer. You heard it here first.
I’m sorry but I just don’t think King & Co are that stupid. I can easily see him staring at the empty page (didn’t he actually stop writing for X years?) and thinking “Bugger this. Young Smithers, I’m paying you Megabucks – go find me a story”. But surely King &Co would at least try to hide the plagiarism?
By Jove, I’ve solved the conundrum!
Smithers returns triumphantly and hands over a battered copy of H***um.
“This looks interesting, sir. Perhaps a little rework in order? I reckon you could dash that off in a couple of afternoons. Shall I oil up the typewriter?”
“Far too busy, Smithers, far too busy. I’ll just sign it at the bottom and then you can pop it in the mailbox….”
It could have been a Smithers typing it up for him to sign off – it doesn’t matter. It’s a Stephen King book and HIS FAULT dammit.
It was a really simple equation – “in the unlikely worst-case scenario, can I afford litigation?”
Absolutely. The money is already in his bank account. He’s not stupid, just deeply, horribly cynical. And right.
IIRC, there was case a few years back where SK got stalked and eventually
run over and nearly killed by a man who claimed he’d stolen one of his plots.
SK eventually turned the story into another best-seller.
Think I got the two stories conflated.
He did have a stalker and did get knocked over but by a different man. No books were plaigirized in the writing of this post.
King Sings Dylan….?
For those unfamiliar with Saucecraft’s Louvre his other works include:
Miserly
The Shinning
Sell Them Lots
Kudos
The Deafs’ Home
The Greed Trial
Shit
Applause all round the ground!
The Saucecraft Redemption, shirley….
King’s agent died this year, but I have sent the agency this, headed “Stephen King’s Elevation – plagiarism enquiry”
“It has been brought to my attention that Mr. King’s novel “Elevation” (2018) bears startling similarities to my own “Helium” (Gollancz, 1997).
Before I take this any further, my request is that a representative from your agency contacts me directly.”
(I don’t expect to hear from them, but if a bot replies you’ll be the first to know.)
I’ll be happy with my standard ten percent of any recompense accrued. Now you go get ’em!
Seriously, try going to “Stephen King” direct.. the agency I bet will receive many such claims per week (no way disrespecting your claim but it will, I’m sure, get lost in there)
Sayy, Lodey – that’s a swell idea! I’ll just, you know, find his email on line somewhere.
I probably definitely should have checked but at the end of his books there used to be a direct email address you could use, something like sking@schuster.com.
I used it once , querying a paragraph in his How To Write. He replied a few days later saying “Good point. You sure seem like some sort of genius. Let’s write a book together. Gratefully yours, Steve.”
Comment removed at Boneshaker’s request. Your ever helpful Mod Team
He, or his bot, meant every word.
Is it also worth sending this off to the producers of the upcoming movie – surely the last thing they would want was a plagiarism issue overshadowing their project.
Get some stickers saying “Now a major motion picture” printed, and go around putting them on your own book.
Or “Richard and Judy’s Book of the Week”. Is that still a thing?
Better still, get SK to get one of his staff to dash off one of the s he seems to put on every second book that comes out.
“Inimitable…”
Has rather a nice ring.
Better still, get SK to get one of his staff to dash off one of the s he seems to put on every second book that comes out.
“Inimitable…”
Has rather a nice ring.
The Man Who Plagiarised Himself
So much for “inimitable”.
So much for “inimitable”
Too soon?
Too soon?
It’s OK, I’ve sorted it. Just don’t forget me when the money starts rolling in. He has 6 million followers you know…
https://twitter.com/DaveAmitri/status/1502261704897486854?s=20&t=Yy5IbAyqWlCfY8IHTvXsfA
ooooh nothing could possibly go wrong here
Dave’s not using those kidneys, anyway
You’re probably right. It’s gone
Half those six million would probably know there’s no copyright on ideas, and they’re the sort of people who would want to make sure you knew too.
All the money I’ve ever made in the theatre* has come from stolen plots, but the person I stole them from stole them from someone else, so
*£3.50, when they accidentally only charged me for one Haagen Daas Ice Cream pot but gave me two.
Over the years I’ve got much better at engaging my brain before committing rubbish or worse to the internet. Not so today. In other Twitter news just yesterday….
Ha! Thanks mate
I hope Stephen King hasn’t just read that.
Too late, he’s dashed off another one, but relocated it to Yorkshire, titled Kiss my Rora Bora, Nora.
Read it?
From what you’ve been saying, HP, he’s probably already hard at work rewriting it
More English than Scottish I would say (I know he was born there), did I ever tell you that a band my brother was in supported him once (Notting Hillbillies)? They apparently had a lot of beer delivered to their dressing room before show time.
He’s a Geordie. As I tell my Northumberland-born wife, that’s not English – it’s Viking.
Born in Glasgow and the family moved to Gosforth, Salters Road no less, when a bairn at his Geordie Mam’s insistence.
More a Geordie than owt else, not that it matters.
And therein lies the Dylan defence
You mean the one about ordinary artists quietly borrowing whilst frat artists shamelessly steal.
Ironically, TS Eliot had dibs on that one half a century earlier
Just to sum up:
As I said in the first comment, there is no copyright on ideas, so anyone is free to use/come up with the idea of a floaty man. I have no intention of pursuing this on the conceptual basis.
What makes this (possibly) actionable is the way the idea is used – the story, and the details in the story. There are more correspondences than can reasonably be explained away by coincidence. His book is basically a rewrite of my own. So it’s this route I’m taking (which will very probably lead to a dead end, but anyway).
I’ve contacted his agency (his agent having recently died), his publisher, and a few NY lawyers. The production company of the movie currently in pre-production is not contactable. It seems to be one man, Jack Bender, whose details are hidden behind the IMDB paywall.
Contacting King direct is not possible, he’s protected in the same way any multi-billionaire is.
I am not on social media, and establishing a twitter presence is something I’m not prepared to do. I appreciate Dave’s effort very much, even if unwisely worded. If anyone wants to help with a well-aimed tweet I will be very grateful as every little bit helps – but keep it short, framed as a question (“has anyone else noticed the amazing similarities between …?”) and non-accusatory, and use my real name. And don’t link back to here.
I will alert my 101 – count ’em – Twitter followers, most of whom are random waifs and strays who liked something I said once. But every little helps, I presume.
To Mr. Mod: if this post in part or whole gives you any headaches, do please delete it. It’s done its job – if anything of note transpires, I’ll post an update piece.
Thank you for your support – I’ll wear it always.
In Mod we truss.
Here goes nuthin’:
https://ataleoftwonovels.blogspot.com
(There’s also a piece on my blog, should you be desirous.)
Do you want this shared on FB, Twitter etc?
God yes. I’ve tweaked the design a little (spelling King’s name right in the heading was probably good thinking). I’ve also posted a question on goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/questions/2322867-my-question-is-did-stephen-king
Was the *Hollow laugh* aimed at anyone we know?
No. Gollancz has been nothing but a badging exercise for many years – I doubt there’s even a jobsworth to ignore my emails. I was fortunate beyond measure to be taken up by Mr. Thep, who may well have been the last Real Publisher, in the best sense of the word. Just before they stapled his tie to his desk and pushed him out of the window. Happy days!
Aw, isn’t that nice. The Last Real Publisher. Not a bad epitaph, eh Mike?
The Last Picture Show. The Last Record Album. The Last Publisher. The Last Chicken in Sainsbury’s.
Aw shucks. The bit about the tie is pure fantasy though. I could count on the fingers of the hand they nailed to the desk the number of times I wore a tie to work after 1970.
You wore a tux when I turned up at the office, Mike. I always appreciated that.
Must have been dress-down Friday.
Does anyone on here have any contacts or able to get contacts with any of the arts section journalists on any of the broadsheets (Times, Guardian etc) that this could be forwarded to.
This would make a nice little story in The Times, which would surely get the attention of Mr Kings publishers / the film producers…….
Thank you for the idea – it’s worth following up at any level.
Well here’s a funny thing…Facebook has put me on the naughty step.
Oho!
….quite sinister this.
What Community Standards did they say it breached?
They were silent on that. None of my business, obviously.
Not enough fake news or racism, perhaps. Oh I do love FB.
….you can exhort people to assassinate a world leader but you can’t suggest that a plagiarist is a plagiarist.
Same thing happened to me so i cut and pasted the text. They didnt like the blog link.
Thanks for trying – if you have the energy please repost without a link.
Aussies and kiwis esp will know of John Clarke – Fred Dagg, Clarke and Dawe and The Games , the spoof on preparing for the Olympics.
I was staggered to learn of this from a friend.
“John Clarke told me that he was approached by the BBC about doing a UK version of The Games. He was interested, and sent them DVDs. Later they refused to contact him again. And they made their own version…exactly the same format.
His legal advice: you will clearly win a plagiarism case.
But it will take years and lots of money – the BBC will fight and you will need to bankroll millions before you win many years later.”
The BBC FFS.
Great man. I was stunned when I saw a clip of The Games on YT, but it never occurred to me that the Beeb might have been quite so blatant about it.
I’ll just say Lucy Worsley here. The silly hair and clothes might get middle-aged chaps in a tizz but… Let’s just say she has razors for elbows.
It can get more blatant – there’s a “Faulty Towers Dining Experience” show touring here, there and everywhere…punters are served a proper meal while Basil, Sybil and Manuel yok it up. It’s been running for nigh on 20 years.
Only thing is, they never got John Cleese’s permission – they claim that only scripts can be copyrighted, not characters, themes or concepts. Cleese said he’d never heard of it until he toured Australia with Eric Idle a few years back, but figures it’s not worth the legal hassle to stop it.
Yet parts of songs incorporated into other songs can result in very large settlements.
Some upside HP. You may be missing out on millions in royalties but hey, you’ve got yourself another hamper !
Someone should jump on this tweet for some fun on HP’s behalf.
https://twitter.com/BigCitadel/status/1504500428259610631/photo/1
The tweeter says: “This is why Stephen King is such a successful writer, he plucks the very words you want to say right out of your mouth and lays them out beautifully.”
The irony! Go on, somebody! I’m flying all my supporters over to Bangkok for the Holiday Of A Lifetime with the money I’ll make out of this!
One of our (posh) neighbours is a former barrister, rather famous actually. He took the case for some hippies who wrote a best-selling book in the 60’s (a book stuffed full of fanciful nonsense, it must be said). They made rather a lot of money and then thirty years later accused the author of one of the best-selling books of this century of plagiarism.
“My fees were not in any way cheap” said my neighbour “but the defendant had a phalanx of lawyers which overflowed the courtroom and must have cost him a bloody fortune.”
One night after many bottles of wine he revealed that the verdict of “Not Guilty” was “frankly ridiculous and some might even say suspicious” and that he had told his clients they were almost certain to win On Appeal.
The hippies who had seen their relatively large fortune vanish over three years of litigation replied “How certain is almost certain?”
“I could only reply ‘almost'”.
The hippies walked away.
You could lose everything, HP. Your bicycle, your stamp collection, everything.
I am intrigue as I know a case was brought against Dan Brown and the Da Vinci Code, but it’s not that one.
Sounds exactly like The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail to me
Personally I preferred Life of Brian
But not written until the 80s so not that.
I’ve just been handed a copy of a NDA I apparently signed. Ah.
Couldn’t you hint at it with interpretive dance?
How will we tell?
Face all red and me fig leaf gone
Yebbut the joke’s on him, because I have nothing to lose. I have no funds to take on legal representation, so it will never get to court, so I simply cannot lose! TAKE THAT, STEPHEN KING!
From https://stephenking.com/faq/
Will you read my manuscript and tell me what you think?
No. There’s another reason, and that’s a legal one. I’ve been sued for plagiarism 8 or 9 times. Any writer who has deep pockets has been sued for plagiarism from time-to-time-that goes for J.K. Rowling, John Grisham, really everyone. For everyone who publishes best-selling fiction, somebody wants to think, ‘Oh, he got that idea from me’ and so it’s just much easier and much safer to say I never read that book at all.
He plays the victim very well, doesn’t he?
Be quick, be very quick:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elevation_(novella)
Changes have been made to intro.
Still up there.
Not sure of the wisdom of doing this, Tim, as you are leaving yourself open
to libel proceedings.
Not me, I’m not. I didn’t make the amend, a commenter on my blog did.
Brilliant!
Oh come on, you can’t be soiling Wikipedia with facts.
It is brilliant, and perfectly worded. The weird thing is, it was done by a commenter I’d banned (one of only two ever) for being a damn nuisance. Out of the blue, they (he or she, I have no idea) leave a comment saying they’ve done it. It’s bloody wonderful. I urge you all to take a screenshot – when I’m rich I shall sign copies (at a reduced rate for Afterworders).
“Banned for being a damn nuisance”….. wow, Bri has now redeemed himself!
…and it’s still there! Huzzah!
….still still there.
My hands hurt from applauding.
Or something.
You’re doing “it” wrong, Moosie!
…in terms of procedure or in terms of morality?
Procedure.
“It” never makes my hands hurt.
“It is chicken, it is eggs, it is in between your legs.”*
*PG tips
I had a look at the wikipage for the first time in a while – sadly, all reference to Helium has been removed.
Bravo. That’s how it’s done…
This, sent to his publisher today, will very probably be the end of it:
Dear Nan Graham
I was both flattered and honored to be told Mr. King has used my novella Helium (Victor Gollancz, 1997) as a template for his novella Elevation. I do not usually read Mr. King’s books, which accounts for my delay in thanking him, via you. My apologies!
On reading Elevation, his indebtedness to my work could not be more transparent. It does us both credit! The concept, basic narrative, and some key details are present and accounted for! But his own addition of a couple of lesbians was totally unnecessary, and not only from a narrative point of view. Let me tell you why.
He is clearly struggling for inspiration – the writer’s bane! – and I feel it my moral obligation – as writer to writer – to help him out. I would very much like to bring Mr. King’s attention to my two other novellas; Godbox, and Murmur, both Gollancz, and, very conveniently for Mr. King, each as little known as the other.
Godbox is a high concept story of a down-at-heel grifter discovering the Manifestation of the Divine in a shoebox. Mr. King may think it advisable to change the shoebox to, say, a pizza box, to evade costly and embarrassing litigation, but I do reassure him – and you! – that nothing is further from my mind. Any scenario involving both publishers and lawyers is as attractive a proposition to me as having my bowels filled with maddened hornets (LOL).
Murmur is rather more Mr. King’s territory. Our protagonist taps into a level of inorganic communication – he is literally hearing things! This tale has a dark, supernatural edge to it that Mr. King could surely exploit to his advantage. Again, he may change some detail, adding lesbians, perhaps, if that made him more comfortable, but in all frankness he could type it out – what am I saying? have it typed out – word for word and receive only my increased admiration and gratitude!
I would hate him to think that these are the only ideas I have – I have a notebook full of them! Would he like me to send it to him? And I will always make myself available for phone chats or mentoring or whatever to help him navigate the treacherous shoals of writer’s block!
Would it be an awful cheek to ask him to sign my copy of Helium?
My best to you both, you dear, dear people –
H.P. Saucecraft
Writing it with letters cut out from newspapers was a nice touch.
This was written for my own rather sad amusement – I’ve already tried contacting them respectfully and “properly” and got no response. Basically, as Archie Valparaiso said (in a private email) “nobody cares”.
The wiki page was still up last I looked, though – that’s a result, I reckon.
I happened upon a book called The Da Vinci Fraud this morning. Look at this, from Amazon:
Jack Dunn was devastated to discover Dan Brown had stolen the story from his novel The Vatican Boys to create the international bestseller The Da Vinci Code.
The plagiarism was obvious. There were hundreds of similarities between the two books, including characters, settings, plot lines and subject matter.
The discovery changed the course of Jack’s life. He began an extraordinary fight for justice which pushed him to the depths of despair as he tried to prove his work had been copied by Dan Brown.
The Da Vinci Fraud is Jack’s story, his explosive true account of the greatest literary fraud in history and a book which will change forever the way the world sees one of the most successful writers of all time.
Ring any bells? I see this as a ready made get rich scheme for you: simply buy a copy of The Da Vinci Fraud, Tippex out the names Jack Dunn and Dan Brown and replace them with Tim Earnshaw and Stephen King respectively, then similarly change ‘The Vatican Boys’ to ‘Helium’ and ‘The Da Vinci Code’ to ‘Elevation’ and, hey presto, you’ve got a tale of plagiarism and literary kerfuffle that any publisher would be mad not to salivate over.
“…will change forever the way the world sees one of the most successful writers of all time”..
Does anybody, including the people who buy and enjoy his books, see Dan Brown as anything other than an opportunistic hack? He’s probably got that on his LinkedIn profile.
Like James Clavell and – to a certain extent – Jeffrey Archole, he’s a good story teller but a pedestrian writer.
Same usee to be said of (and by and about) SK himself (“my books are the literary equivalent of a Big Mac and fries”. Happily, Sk has come on in leaps and bounds these last few years. Can’t think why…
Pedestrian is a bit unfair to Dan Brown. He’s not pedestrian. He’s an authentically *awful* writer. Credit where it’s due.
Decent plots. Bloody horrible sentences.
Dr Johnson’s “good and original”.
Update – heard today from my publisher who found my email in his spam bin – apologises for delay, he’s talking to people and getting back to me. Couldn’t ask for more at this stage.
Fingers and toes crossed.
Update – heard from Stephen King’s editor, who talked to him about it:
“I wanted to let you know that we checked with Stephen King. He had never heard of your book until now, and has not read it.”
My reply in full:
“Well, he would say that, wouldn’t he?”
Well I suppose he might read it now…
No. He won’t. One of his interns has done that already.
Probably one of his researchers or story editors or whatever. He’s covered that way. Someone “comes up with a story” at a meeting, or submits it as a single page précis, or recounts it in conversation, which he then types up – or possibly has someone type up – as his own work. Meanwhile, his lawyers, fully aware of what’s happening, assure his invulnerability.
There he is, a multi-millionaire with no ideas of his own. Here I am – mind aglow with whirling, transient nodes of thought careening thru a cosmic vapor of invention – having to borrow off church mice.
Don’t be bitter, be better.
(I know that you don’t really care that much, but it’s a good line innit)