Close Call

Close Call

I almost started “to blog” without the music playing – a sacrilege.

The first tune up, as selected by iTunes which seems to work hard to remind me that there are some unusual tunes in my library, was Grand Funk Railroad’s “Loco Motion”. It makes me thankful that I somehow avoided going through the perm-phase.

Blogging Times 2

I thought it would be easy – writing a serial story blog. Maybe it is, but I haven’t really been able to get it going. (There is a very distracting version of the Beatles’ “No Reply” playing. Performed by the Beatles, it has so much echo in the mix that it sounds as though recorded in high-school locker room.)

Back from my momentary capitulation to ADHD…

The other blog of which I speak is  http://wickedmanipulations.blogspot.com/ . First, I’ll admit that I had planned to cheat somewhat – I thought I had a playbook – or outline – to go with. Many, many years ago, in the previous century as it turns out, I’d written a story called “Wicked Manipulations”. It may have started out as loosely autobiographical but several re-writes later it had safely departed any recognizable reality.

To make the long story short I thought I’d start out with the original paper and work from there. (Paper! Does that give you any idea how old it is?) I blew off the dust and prepared to transpose from paper to blog. But, and a huge but, it turned out that my recollection of this tale was fonder than deserved; it sucked – at least as seen through 21^st century eyes. Of course, I had anticipated that I would be making some changes along the way but, in a major blow to my self-esteem, a major re-writing was in order.

Not All Bad

As insinuated, “Wicked Manipulations” has had a long fermentation period. It was originally written for a college creative writing class. It received a passing grade, an ‘A’, I believe, or maybe it was  ‘AAA’-plus. In any event, I had some validation that it was possibly as terrific as I thought it might be.

I scoured the land, or at least the newsstand, after consulting my borrowed copy of ‘Writers Digest’, for a worthy place for publication. I deemed the “Atlantic Monthly” as worthy.

            The editors at “Atlantic Monthly” thought somewhat differently. They replied quickly and courteously: “To Whom it May Concern. Thanks, but no thanks.”

So They Said

 “Wicked Manipulations” is a tale of love gone sour and a murder in a restaurant – your basic nasty-story. However, of particular interest is a scene that takes place in the all-night diner where our hero, and future dead man, is stymied in his attempt to order French-fries. As I was writing this section I thought it so original and humorous that I practically wet my pants while writing it, a problem since corrected. Now, remember, the key word I used to describe this was, original.

Several months after I’d received the Atlantic Monthly’s rejection letter I was reading a copy of ‘People’ magazine. I guess I’d already gone through all my literary magazines and I'd likely finished steamrolling through my copy of the latest Smithsonian. (The way you steamroll through the Smithsonian is to just look at the pictures and ignore the words, which are way over my head anyway.)  Back to the point,  there, buried in some typical People-blabber about some better-looking people, was my restaurant scene! Had my originality really been so unoriginal after all? Were French-fry shortages something that had recently entered the public consciousness and something which I just unknowingly borrowed from the cosmos? Hell, even the humorous dialog was practically the same. Where all fictional waitresses named Paula? (Was the Paula I had known real or just a figment of my imagination? If so, compliments to my imagination.) Hmmm. Who had written this tripe? Seems the writer was a former associate editor at. . .  “The Atlantic Monthly!”

Had I been plagiarized? Maybe? Yet, I prefer to think that I managed to work myself into this other writer’s psyche. If that is in fact the case, that my writing had indelibly impressed itself upon another human's brain, then I’d already done more damage to his career than any lawsuit would have accomplished. And with that I can be satisfied that justice has been done.

The Final Word.

Beethoven symphony #7 Allegreto – or maybe it’s II Allegreto – I’m uncertain. Whichever it is this is one of the finest pieces of music ever written – and oddly appropriate for a blog about a possible bit of plagiarism.

I think it’s unfair to suggest that Beethoven stole this work. Notions regarding copyright were different in those days. But, it is my understanding that this entire symphony is built around a popular Austrian folk song of the time.  That doesn’t matter. It’s still a great piece of music that has been used in countless movies to evoke great emotion whenever great things are about to happen or Hans Zimmer isn’t available.