And the beat goes on...

Kaps posted about the recent controversy over Kaavya Vishawanathan's 'Opal'. I'm for one surprised how it was discovered so late and that too by the Harvard Crimson? Random House has rejected the author's apology that it was 'unintentional and unconcious'...c'mon give me a break!!! If anyone has seen the comparisons of the paragraphs (40 of them at the last count) no one in his sane mind will agree it was 'unintentional and unconcious'!!! I was quite intrigued by all this and headed to the Crimson webzine and found this article by Elizabeth Green (a staff writer on the Crimson).

A few excerpts follow:

A little-known fact about Harvard students is that we hate each other almost as much as the rest of the world hates us—maybe more. When one of us succeeds, the rest of us go berserk. Public congratulations barely conceal private disgust, which turns out to be an even poorer mask for deep, soul-burning jealousy and crippling self-doubt. The distance from “How could she...” to “Why didn’t I...” to “Undeserving slut” is, unfortunately, short and easily traveled.

The college ultimately fulfills all of Viswanathan’s heaven-on-Earth dreams. Viswanathan’s Harvard is a place where no one has to pretend, where competition dies, passion lives, and “social life” is something richer than binge-drinking on tabletops.

Viswanathan had a chance to debunk the Harvard myth for good. Instead, she perpetuates it. Given the market power with which DreamWorks seems to have endowed her, that is truly unfortunate. The overachieving girls and boys who flock to theaters to watch “Opal Mehta: The Movie” might learn that there is more to life than can be contained in a resume, but they’ll still leave the theaters convinced that an easy pill called Harvard exists. Finally, they’ll face a Catch-22: play into the system in order to get out of it, or reject the system only to remain trapped inside it.

And unfortunately—as the press keeps telling us—just like not everyone can publish a novel before the age of 20, not everyone can get into Harvard.

As for me, I would not go and buy this book for sure - its a movie made for the Amanda Bynes and Hillary Duffs - the Mickey Mouse club. My younger cousin might have read it, will ask her.

Update:
Came up with post at Hennessy's View where he dug up Kaavya's Harvard entrance essay.

From Kaavya Viswanathan:

If you really want to, like, hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born in New Jersey, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my immigrant parents were occupied before they had me, and all that Holden Caulfield kind of crap. But I'm going to go into that, if you want to know the truth. In the first place, that stuff bores me. In the second place, my parents would have about two hemorhages apiece if I told anything quite personal about them . . .

Actually, my childhood had its good point. It was the best of times, and it was the worst of times. It was a time when I was both wise and foolish. It was a period of belief and of incredulity. Juxtaposed were darkness and light.

Guess she has been 'internalising' stuff since beginning. Hahaha. Good one!