FF – The Accidental Plagiarist
Here is my story for Friday Fictioneers, hosted by Rochelle. This week she also supplied the photo!
To read the other stories for this week, click on the blue froggy.
“The waves, with gentle susurration speak to me, as angels’ voices speak of peace…”
“You’re on a poetry kick again? It’s rubbish.”
“It’s for a poetry competition.”
“Seriously, it’s mindless pap.”
“Haters gonna hate.”
“Try again.”
“Okay. Water, water, everywhere and all the boards did shrink…”
“That’s better, but it sounds kinda familiar.”
“It’s cool. And then… Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink. I’m sending it.”
(click!)
“I’m sure I’ve heard it somewhere before. We don’t want a repeat of the last competition you entered. How did it go again?”
“I wandered lonely as a cloud…”
Our poet’s “inspiration”:
“I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” (often known as “Daffodils”), William Wordsworth, 1804-ish
“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”, Iron Maiden 1984 🙂 heh heh, or Samuel Taylor Coleridge if your prefer, 1797/8
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Friday Fictioneers
draliman on life 
Iron Maiden . . . always good for a(n) epic literary song! Murders in the Rue Morgue, Stranger in a Strange Land, etc. {“Old”} Genesis referenced a lot, too, from Keats/Arthur C. Clarke (if memory serves), Greek myth, etc. Anyway, another funny one, Ali!
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Ooh, another “Maiden” fan? Yes, a huge number of their songs are inspired by literature of one sort or another.
I’m glad you liked it!
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Me too! Fabulous live band.
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I saw them in either 1989 or 1990 in Stuttgart. Amazing show!
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I was at Donnington Monsters of Rock when they headlined in possibly 1988 – sounds a long time ago! Feeling old now.
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🙂
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Yeah, IM are up there among my favorites.
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Yay!
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I once accidentally plagiarized an entire Chopin Nocturne. I thought I’d written it myself, but my piano teacher recognized it. I was shattered. Thus ended my life as a composer.
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Oh no! What a blow 😦
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I bet it was a dark and stormy night when you wrote that.
DJ
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And they all lived happily ever after as well 🙂
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The End!
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🙂
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Dear Ali,
A well versed piece I must say. 😉 Love your (yes) warped sense of humor.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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Dear Rochelle,
I can’t help thinking other people wrote most of my story this week 🙂
I’m glad you liked it!
Ali
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LOL true Ali humour 😀
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Yep 🙂
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One way to make sure you are not plagiarizing is to send your poem in to be copyrighted. If someone has written it, they will surely let you know (at a price.)
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If this guy did that he’d soon be out of funds and poems both!
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People do mess you up, in the name of helping you!
Sad that we allow them to!
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Yes, his original attempt sounded like it was going to be good. And original!
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What was it called when George Harrison allegedly did it…. “unconscious plagiarizing?” I wind up doing it much more often than I’d like to admit to… though after 15 billion or so years, there really isn’t all that much that’s original anymore!
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I think I meant subconscious… though given all the drugs involved in rock and roll, I’m sure there was a lot of unconscious plagiarizing going on as well…
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Like, when you wake up after a real bender and find you’ve rewritten Shakespeare on a cocktail napkin.
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Yeah, those dinosaurs wrote all the best stuff. All we’re doing know is copying the triceratops.
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“There is nothing new under the sun”, but the English teacher will not accept that as an excuse not to come up with something original. King Sol was of course wise but I believe originality is still alive and well. I loved your title and your story was hilarious and made me feel real smart and that!
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There’s always something waiting to be written…
I’m glad you enjoyed it!
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Hahahaha! Clever!
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Thanks 🙂
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The most hilarious thing I’ve read was Snoopy. He always starts with the “dark and stormy night” bit and someone advised him to write about a person. So next he writes “He was a dark and stormy knight.” Hilarious. 😀 — Suzanne
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Ha, that’s funny!
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Good to get a bit of poetry into your poems (that’s from Roger McGough by the way). I just told Rochelle one of her lines is like the Ancient Mariner!
Good funny stuff – love the dialogue.
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Those poets are good at getting poetry into their poems. Me, not so much 🙂
I’m glad you liked it!
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very funny. i find the title quite original, though. 🙂
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I bet there are plenty of accidental plagiarists out there, though 🙂
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Now that last line is my line😀😀😀
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Heh 🙂
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This is great. And I have to listen to Iron Maiden now, I think I missed out on something. With lyrics like that it has to be good. 🙂
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It’s “heavy metal” mind 🙂 Their recent album is very good.
I’m glad you liked my story!
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I love it! I missed something, gotta educate myself. Gotta get their music. Yay, new music!
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Yay, nice 🙂 I love discovering new music. I even remember the exact day someone introduced me to Marillion so long ago…
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Brilliant! 🙂
“Mindless pap,” eh? (By the way, that is one of my favorite British-isms!)
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Glad you enjoyed it!
“Mindless pap” is a good saying 🙂 I didn’t think of it as a British-ism, but come to think of it I’ve never heard it on American TV. I hope all my American readers understood it!
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🙂 I heard it first on Red Dwarf eighteen years ago, and it caught me right away.
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🙂
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🙂
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That damn Coleridge! I hate how he stole pieces of that song from Maiden. (One of my favorite Maiden songs from my second favorite album because I felt you really needed to know this about me. 😉 )
You never disappoint, Ali. Great as always.
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Yeah, he was such a rip-off merchant! Powerslave is one of my favourite Maiden albums too. Their new one (The Book of Souls) is very good too.
I’m glad you enjoyed my story!
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I’ve heard it and yes, it is really good. Best one in a while.
And I always like your stories. 🙂
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🙂
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Over time, many composers have “borrowed” snippets… 😉
Fun take!
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And occasionally end up having to pay for their “accidental borrowings” 🙂
I’m glad you liked it!
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I must have accidentially plagiarised too. Good dialogue.
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Sometimes I find myself having a great idea for a story, only to realise later it was from Star Trek or something 🙂
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This pictures evokes a poetic response and why not use the greats?! I like they way you wove them into your story. Very creative, Ali!
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Thanks! The first thing I thought of was a poem about the sea, but since I can’t write poetry myself… 🙂
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Great story! I always appreciate dry wit.
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Thanks, I’m glad you enjoyed it!
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I say hats off to him for having all that poetry memorised. That’s a starting point at least. Fun story.
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Yes – he’s obviously a poetry reader so he’s on the right track.
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Maybe it can pass as ignorance, though I doubt it…
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Plagiarism or ignorance of two very well known poems – not sure which is worse!
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Hee-heee-heee-heeeee! Now THAT’S something different. And very true to life for me sometimes.
Five out of five albatrosses.
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It’s amazing how many times I write a little story and the idea behind seems kinda familiar somehow…
Hmm, if the crew shoots all five of those albatrosses the titular mariner is in for a very bad time 🙂
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Hahaha! He IS. 😀
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I’m just sitting here grinning.
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Yay 🙂
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I gotta enter into poetry competitions (thoughtful stare )
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Me too – a bit of Wordsworth here, a snippet of Keats there, change a few words… 🙂
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😊 I like that term. Wordsmith.
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So much I would like to say if only I could think of something that hadn’t already been said!
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Copy and paste 🙂
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