Homage or Plagiarism?
Over at the gay historical fiction blog Speaks It’s Name, they takes issue with Lucia Logan’s A Hidden Passion
In the preface to this book, the author calls this “an homage to Jane Eyre.” This, to my eyes, is NOT homage. An homage involves two works sharing some basic elements without being the exact same story. Rent could be taken as an homage to La Boheme, for example. There are similar themes—bohemians coping with love, poverty and death—but the characters and the plot differ.
I’m inclined to agree here.
————————————————–
Over at the BoBoF Updates forum, the discussion on “Would you Still download scanslations if they were illegal”, brought up some interesting discussion. Basically, one poster a slew of questions which have been hashed out in other blogs and coms [apparently this poster only reads certain yaoi forums and missed all the bruhaha of late in regard to anthology formats, licensing issues, and what would make it all better!?] and decides to toss out the some usual gripes and solutions, most of which are based on the typical misconceptions people have that licensing is as easy as taking money out of your checking account. 0_0. Discussion and follow ups here. Responses after the pink highlight when paged down.
The RENT / LA BOHEME comparison is spot on. There’s been a similar issue going on here in Chicago with certain musicals being staged here after their Broadway run by local directors who simply re-create what was seen on the Broadway stage.
I think it’s plagiarism; several of my theatre friends disagree, claiming that it would be impossible to copyright a director’s work. But I think certain elements brought into an original piece by the director can be considered as the “director’s property,” to some degree.
For example, when I see a local production of RAGTIME and the opening number is an exact replica of Frank Galati’s genius movement work with three huge groups of actors, I alway think to myself, “Frank should get a percentage of this.”
I think that’s the same feeling that Erastes had about this particular novel. She’s making Jane Eyre, with an all male gay cast, but she’s literally ripped scenes from the original work. I don’t consider that an acceptable ‘nod to the original’. ^_^