Busytown: A turn-up for the books
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My understanding was that they offered that they would take any books back that booksellers didn't want. Be interesting to find out how widely that was put around the actual booksellers, and how many took it up.
Was down in Palmerston North on Saturday, and did my public duty in hiding the copies prominently displayed under copies of Barry Humphries' superior "factional" tell-all memoir of his rocky relationship with a Mrs. Norman Everidge...
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Further thoughts from Peter Wells on the Witi Ihimaera scandal. Very frank, this one. Eg:
Witi Ihimaera’s role of cultural ambassador is something worth looking at in more detail. Ever since his first, stunningly simple and eloquent stories emerged he has had what can only be called a very good ride. He became a diplomat, that most carefully judged of silver tongued careers. Latterly, when the hard work of gay liberation had been done, he came out as gay. He also became more vocal about Maori rights once the hard work of Maori radicalism had been done. In one way New Zealand has needed a man like Ihimaera - charming, personable, bicultural. Adaptable. He has been heaped with richnesses. A man who has not got a particularly illustrious academic record is a professor at a leading university where he himself teaches writing. Only this year he was given a laureateship - perhaps the final poisoned gift to a man heaped with honours, aroha and mana.
The post is here:
http://www.peterwellsblog.com/2009/12/new-book-goes-fishing.html
Also, he shares the disbelief that some on this thread have related: that this book could still continue to be the best-selling NZ novel in the country right now, despite everything.
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3410,
Also, he shares the disbelief that some on this thread have related: that this book could still continue to be the best-selling NZ novel in the country right now, despite everything.
Disbelief? That was THE most predictable aspect of the whole affair.
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And in today's news - Publisher has decided The Trowenna Sea (promised with corrections and acknowledgements) will not to be republished in the foreseeable future.
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So, Penguin NZ has the manners of a dancing master and the morals of a whore. Big surprise that.
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Sad, sort of - this was being bruited through the MW kumara vine when it was announced Geoff Walker was resigning- because there was no bloody way "The Trowenna Sea" could be reinvented with sufficient credibility...
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It all makes me very sad because I have always loved his books. I must admit The Trowenna Sea held no attraction for me, but.
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Witi is best when he does his family stories, and I think he just might have been aiming for a higher stage - you know, become 'important international contestant for the Nobel' or some damn thing. Which *is* very sad, and kind of stupid - because he's dropped an awful lot of his ANZ readership. Like you, I love (some! of) his books - and quite despite the plaigerism*
, I really didnt enjoy 'The Trowenna Sea' at all.
*OK, I couldnt get that out my reader's head- -
I agree, Islander. His family books are best. Perhaps he got away on himself a wee bit?
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Jackie, maybe being a tenured Professor & all that, means you do get away on yourself a wee bit?
I think there is a very fine line between knowing you can write ok, and appreciating that fact, and being lauded because you hold a prestigious academic position (as well as having a good publishing record, and being esteemed as a leader in the field of Maori writing in English), so are *valuable* to the University...I dont think the U of A did Witi Ihimaera any favours whatsoever by not standing hard on his established plaigerism. They should've said, quite bluntly, What the Professor did was wrong. It is an extremely bad example for his students. We will seek his apology for his stupidity, and after that - because he is a very notable writer - support his future endeavours.
Which did include, buying back all the warehoused copies?
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Oh absolutely. Do you think he was really unaware of what he was doing? Or do you think he thought everyone was a bit thick, and he'd get away with it?
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I was going to reply 'I know Witi' - but I dont.
I've met Witi in many situations here, and overseas.
He is a chameleon - and his diplomatic training & experience, and not least, living as a gay man with a born family*, means he will be very self-protective.He could not be unaware of what he was doing.
I dunno whether he thought we (his readers) wouldnt know what he was doing, or just we wouldnt care because Witi is our darling. I do find his blurt about being at the cutting edge of 'fiction' so using other people's words was not only fine, it was -um - cutting edge, completely & stupidly desperate.*I have 2 out-front gay people in my family, with children. ANZers are mostly tolerant - but some aint-
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just we wouldnt care because Witi is our darling.
I somehow think you may have just hit the nail on the head. Belief of infallibility. Very dangerous.
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The funny thing is, by not specifying the reason for not reprinting, Penguin leaves it wide open for speculation.
From where I sit, it wouldn't necessarily have been that hard to rewrite the dodgy bits and/or to add citations to the already copious list of books consulted (esp since we have a fairly comprehensive list of the problematic passages and their sources, thanks to an alert reader). So perhaps the decision not to issue a revised version is a statement about the book overall, rather than the problems with its composition?
It certainly seems now that the recall/ buyback was a hand-wavy bit of damage-control PR all along. It would be interesting to compare numbers of copies published vs copies sold; I wouldn't be surprised if they were very close to each other.
Vaguely offering a recall, and then vaguely promising a revised edition, but delivering neither, is a half-arsed "solution" -- one that does no favours to readers, book-buyers, the publisher, the transgressed authors and their publishers, the whanau of Hohepa Te Umuroa, and, not least, Ihimaera himself.
It leaves the blemished book in the historical record, rather than giving everyone concerned a chance to scrub up and redeem themselves. Sad.
Ah well. Perhaps we all see the moment of our greatness flicker; most of us, luckily, in private.
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It would be mega-remiss of me not to link to Bookiemonster getting her Angry Face on! Ever seen anyone take to a penguin with a chainsaw? It's not pretty. (But it is black and white and re[a]d all over).
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(Golly, I spent my 1000th PAS post on l'affaire Trowenna. How milestoney).
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To me the big question hanging over all of this is the alleged "buying back of the warehoused copies" -- the book has remained on sale, apparently, and has been marked down in several places.
So there is clearly copious stock, and it doesn't seem plausible that all of the stock had passes out the warehouse door before the buyback announcement had been made.
But that announcement was likely crucial in buying off the people whose words were stolen, and who have a very real grievance against both Penguin and Ihimaera -- and who would likely be incensed to learn that this was a Claytons buyback.
I would be interested to know a) where the "warehoused" copies Witi bought are sitting now and b) just how big a fraction of the print run these copies accounted for.
And if I worked for, say, the Herald, I would be asking to see these copies or -- in their absence -- evidence that they had been pulped.
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To me the big question hanging over all of this is the alleged "buying back of the warehoused copies" -- the book has remained on sale, apparently, and has been marked down in several places.
To me, the big question is whether Penguin NZ had any intention of following through when outgoing publishing director Geoff Walker said, repeatedly, that the book would be republished with corrections. To be blunt, he was lying then, or making promises he wasn't absolutely certain he could deliver on. Either way, I don't know if I'd want to do business with Penguin NZ.
I've also got to ask whether a less high profile author than Ihimaera would have unceremoniously dumped.
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It leaves the blemished book in the historical record, rather than giving everyone concerned a chance to scrub up and redeem themselves. Sad.
Ah well. Perhaps we all see the moment of our greatness flicker; most of us, luckily, in private.
This is a very generous comment Jolisa. Whatever the impact on Ihimaera's reputation, your measured comments throughout surely enhance yours.
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I've also got to ask whether a less high profile author than Ihimaera would have unceremoniously dumped.
We know the answer to this. They had two other plagiarizers, both of them were treated far more harshly. The Victoria guy lost his job (not sure whether he resigned or was fired, but either way he likely won't be in a VUW classroom again unless he is pushing a broom, to paraphrase James Hynes) and the book was pulped and re-issued, and the garden book was pulped -- or perhaps mulched.
But Witi comes out of it smelling of roses, rather than the ordure in which they grow.
Nice trick if you can pull it off.
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richard, I dont think Witi has come out of 'The Trowenna Sea' debacle smelling of roses. Aside from anything else, the stench of plaigerism will hang round his name from now on. And, he has publishers & readers overseas - they are not impressed by this either.
As well, a lot of ANZ readers are disappointed when someone says they'll make things right - like, by buying back the books - and then doesnt. Witi Ihimaera has lost a ton of respect from us. And from his peers.
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As well, a lot of ANZ readers are disappointed when someone says they'll make things right - like, by buying back the books - and then doesnt. Witi Ihimaera has lost a ton of respect from us. And from his peers.
Oh, I agree, but a quick googling to catch up on the Witi news reveals he is still swanning round the place doing (possibly lucrative) guest appearances on the conference circuit -- this one for instance
http://www.banffcentre.ca/event/5133/witi-ihimaera-and-whale-rider.mvc?d=2010-09-25+19:30
Very nice place Banff. He may have lost our respect, but you can't take respect to the bank, nor does respect provide the padding on the comfy seat at the front of the plane that likely carries you to and from a literary bunfight in Banff.
I really would like to know just how many books the guy bought from the warehouse.
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Ever seen anyone take to a penguin with a chainsaw?
Haha, I totes LOLd. (yes, there is a 12 year old in my house).
This whole story is now fumble upon bumble upon stuff up upon making up a pile of poos.
The plagiarism that wasn't. The "less than 0.4 percent" that wasn't. The buyback that wasn't. The republish that wasn't.
Remember when he said "But with The Trowenna Sea, I have always tried to be on the cutting edge of fictional devices..." - now we know what that means!
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Well, I hope the story of Hohepa Te Umuroa finds another way to be told.
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I hope so too, Hilary. The irony is -- and has been all along -- that Ihimaera took such liberties with the story (not least adding a wife and child and giving him bilingual facility, an extra-textual flirtation with an English woman, and a fantasy physique in, ah, every department) that it wasn't really Hohepa's story any more. Yet Ihimaera persisted with attaching that real name to his main character.
There's nothing wrong with fictionalising historical characters, but I always think it's much more artistically satisfying if those named-characters become secondary elements, seen through the eyes of a fully-realised but fictional historical protagonist. It would have cost Ihimaera nothing to invent a sixth prisoner to be sent to Tasmania alongside Hohepa and his fellows, just as he invented the English couple for Hohepa to interact with.
Of course, that way he wouldn't have had the emotional coda, which is firmly based in (and borrowed from) the recent historical record, and is in some ways both the most affecting part of the book, and the part that most trespasses on other people's lives and work.
And we still have the moral/aesthetic problems of, e.g. borrowing undigested paragraphs of someone else's memoir for one of his character's memories, and telling the story of 6 Feb 1840 ostensibly through the eyes of an untutored Maori youth but in the actual words of a British missionary. As well as the pragmatic issues of all the other chunks of "research" that the egg-beater missed.
You're right, though, Hilary - it's an amazing story. I understand composer Jenny McLeod has been working on an opera libretto for a while now, for a work called Hohepa. It will be intriguing to see what she does with the same historical material, which is undeniably powerfully interesting stuff.
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