The Picture Problem by Malcolm Gladwell

Similar to Susan Blum's My Word, Malcolm Gladwell in his article, " The Picture Problem" was able to engage my attention throughout the whole article. He pieced his thoughts very well on the matter of plagiarism and was not bias on his article whatsoever, which according to the journalistic stereotype, seems alien not to do so. He was able to explain his experience of plagiarism concisely and overall , was also able to address the underlying issue of plagiarism in the context of our world today.
His experience begins with an article he writes about psychiatrist Dorothy Lewis who specializes in working with serial killers; his story then is taken by Bryony Lavery for her musical, “Frozen.” From speaking with Lavery about the situation, she admits her careless mistake and seems genuine. I thought that having her reputation crumble was a harsh consequence. But since, her musical gained so much prestige, it seemed unavoidable. I remember watching the Oprah show, and hearing her disown the author James Frey because he had stated his novel , A Million Little Pieces, was true when it was pure fiction. His life shattered after that. In society today, plagiarizing and having it known to public on a grandiose scale means no more stardom. Reading Gladwell’s description with Dorothy Lewis also made me understand why Lewis felt violated with Lavery’s work. Though Lavery did not technically take anything from Lavery, it is because she took pieces of Lavery’s life story and twisted them that Lewis felt so hurt and sued. I thought that if Lewis was at the point where her friends called her and told her, “ It’s you! It’s you!” that Lavery did go overboard.
My respect however, goes to Gladwell. Instead of dwelling between the two womens’ opinions he decides to research more into the topic of plagiarism. I never realized that plagiarism coincides closely with inspiration. Being an Andrew Lloyd Webber fan, I did not know that so many other songs had similar sounds to them. It was interesting that there are musician in the world that can hear even the smallest chords that match with famous songs such as Beethoven’s Fifth. I suddenly began to agree with Gladwell’s point that plagiarism’s defiiniton is still very muddled. Lavery even said herself that she was being inspired by Lewis’s story and had no intention of hurting her.
So the question is, is it still plagiarisim if someone borrows the same idea but makes it better? Even on a daily basis, I know that I share ideas with so many people throughout my day. They could take that idea and do something about it but I wouldn’t get any credit. If they were nice, perhaps they would tell me that they were inspired by me and ask me for permission. But it would be unfair, if they do all the work of executing and I get nothing at all.
In the end, Gladwell’s conclusion seems to be that he was only a third party. He was only involved in the situation because he wrote the article but the issue was ultimately between Lavery and Lewis. He understood that Lavery did take Lewis’s story but created a fictional character based on her…but was not really her. I agree with him. I think that to avoid situations with plagiarism or copying or even inspiration, it’s always best to give credit to who you were inspired by.