Re: NastyGoon lifts a line

On Sat, 8 Feb 2025 1:30:57 +0000, Michael Monkey Peabrain (MPP) aka

"HarryLime" wrote:HarryLime wrote:

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Here we have yet another example of George Dance's libelous and
duplicitous nature.
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For starters he claims that NancyGene "lift(ed) the line" from Robert
Creeley's poem.
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This is an obvious lie.
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NancyGene wrote:
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"Yesterdays stack up like piles of read newspapers,
Cluttering my mind and obstructing my day."
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Mr. Creeley wrote: "The days pile up like unread newspapers."
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The only similarity between the two is extremely superficial; i.e., that
both use the image of piled newspapers as a simile.
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However, they are comparing the newspapers to two very different things.
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NancyGene's poem compares them to "Yesterdays" (which, in the context of
her poem, is a metaphor for "Memories").
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Mr. Creeley's poem compares them to "days" (which, from the one line
that I've read of his poem, appears to be a metaphor for "Time").
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In short, we have different sets of words being applied to different
subjects.
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Furthermore, NancyGene's simile for Memory compares it to a stack of
"read newspapers; whereas Mr. Creeley's poem compares Time to a pile of
"unread newspapers."
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The significance between "read" and "unread" newspapers is not merely a
matter of semantics.  As a simile for Memory, the newspapers have been
read because they represent the daily events that the speaker has
experienced.  These experiences are what provide the content of their
memories.
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Whereas in Mr. Creeley's poem, the newspapers are unread (not
experienced by the speaker).  Again, I have not read Mr. Creeley's poem
(more on that later), but based on the content of the opening line, it
appears that his poem refers to the passage of time piling up on the
speaker like *wasted days*.  IOW, the speaker is a recluse or shut-in of
some sort -- whether through age, infirmity, or depression.
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These are vastly different subjects with only a few superficial
resemblances in their opening lines.  That is hardly an act of literary
theft (a.k.a., plagiarism) -- in spite of Mr. Dance's accusation.
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Secondly, Mr. Dance's accusation of literary theft entails that
NancyGene had been familiar with Mr. Creeley's poem.  By leveling this
accusation at her, Mr. Dance is implying that NancyGene had knowingly
lifted a line from Mr. Creeley's poem, without crediting the line to
him.  I have spoken to NancyGene regarding this, and she has never heard
of his poem.  Nor, for that matter, have I.
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So what, exactly is going on here?
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Let's summarize the above:
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George Dance noticed some superficial similarity between the line I'd
quoted from NancyGene's poem and a line in a poem by Mr. Creeley.  Even
though the similes are about different topics, and even though the
"newspapers" are "read" in one poem and "unread" in the other (with
different metaphoric meanings implicit in each); and even though Mr.
Dance had no means of knowing whether NancyGene had even heard of Mr.
Creeley's poem, he falsely accused her of literary theft.
>
Aside: He through in one of his childish names ("NastyGoon") as well.

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Nobody expected you to admit Nancy Gene is a second hander troll,
Pendragon.

And so it goes.