When writers ‘borrow heavily’ from people they know, is it theft? Australian writers weigh in on limits of creative licence
Down through history, writers have stolen material from those nearby. Family, lovers, friends – even writing group members. Saul Bellow and Philip Roth, two of the most prodigiously talented and personally obnoxious writers of the 20th century, turned their endless feuds and estrangements into rich quarries for their fiction. They made little effort to conceal it, and they didn’t care who knew it.
For writers, there’s not just the quiet thieving: there’s also a process of unsolicited giving. Caught up in any strange or amusing situation, someone invariably tells them “Oh my God, this will probably turn up in one of your novels.” It’s almost a guarantee that it won’t: somehow the purloined stuff is always the gold. I heard a story years ago about a bunch of comedians in a share house: every time something funny happened they’d all sit there in stony silence in case the others recognised it as material.
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