I believe...

That the term 'ignorance is bliss' is way off mark. I happened across this link at Writer's Market -- take a gander.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/07/books/07pync.html?_r=1&ref=arts&oref=slogin

I find it truly astounding that the article against McEwan ever found its way to print. Plagiarism is indeed vile and should be stomped ruthlessly when found. However, there is a vast difference between plagiarism and the results of research and proper writing of procedures.

Writers research everything from police procedures to hospital procedures and so on. If the topic is touched on in the novel chances are the writer has spent time researching it. That said, there are realistically only so many ways things are done in this world. Must writers have to incessently find 'new' ways to describe them? If so then not only would our fiction read like tripe but it'd confuse the hell out of readers -- particularly those who do know how things work in a given field.

In this instance, Mr. McEwan is accused of plagiarism because he describes the techniques that a period hospital uses. Without creating such absurdities such as 'He jumped twice, turned in circle, doused the bandage in fuel from an alien ship and then smacked it on his patient' there truly are only so many ways you can apply a bandage.

I find this modern plague of finger pointing and court trials over such flimsy cases of plagiarism disturbing.

Face it folks, nothing 'original' or 'authentic' has been written since the bible and if we include verbal storytelling…nothing new since we learned how to speak. Since days untold writers have been building off of the research and imagination of other writers. Nothing is created from a vacuum and that certainly includes fiction.

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About the Author -

Raven Bower is the author of the upcoming horror novel, Apparitions (ArcheBooks April 2007)

Apparitions Blog