[merylsilverburg]

Originally Posted by Meiko

Sorry for not explaining! But thanks for posting, I found your comments interesting! Especially meryl, I think you are right about many things, but I'm not sure in many cases it's so easy to know if the person is stealing another person's style intentionally or not. Some people like a mangaka or more mangakas, and are very used to the style of the artists they like, they maybe tried to copy at the beginning, then they try to develop a personal style. It's not that they are imitating and they are aware of it. They end copying because the influence is very strong and they had no occasions to try to look carefully at other styles and work on them. I don't draw much, but when I do, since I'm not very good, I try to look at what others do, to have an idea of the proportions and so on. It could end the final work looks a bit like the ones I've been looking at. I could be wrong, I don't know if it works like this for anybody.

What you said may be true, perhaps it’s simply the influence and that’s what they end up doing and it can’t be helped. But, from my perspective, there seems to be a lot of amateurs or amateurs-turned-professionals out there who claim to have developed their own sense of style, but when I take a look at their stuff, I usually get a huge glimpse of either: DBZ, Sailormoon, CLAMP. I’m not saying everyone, but the ones I’ve come across. Perhaps the example I used in my previous post was not such a good example to use, hehe. I couldn’t think of another general subject that relates to your topic so I used the art style thing because this is an occurring annoyance for me, so sorry about that.

Well, I read your examples of your friend A. and it seems to me there are several reasons for her behavior. Her problem could range from simple to complex. In the simple form, she could either be very lazy, extremely unimaginative, or careless. In the complex form, it’s probably all mental (as in psychologically, not that she’s crazy). And there are probably more reasons too.

From what you wrote, I can’t help but feel her problem is one part psychological and one part laziness (more of this later) and her stealing other’s works is just a mask to hide one a potential underlying reasons: identity issue. From what you said, she changes identities on the fly...when she’s with you, she acts a certain way and likes the things you like. When she’s with others, it’s another identity. I don’t know how old she is but identity problems usually occur in adolescent stages but it can carry on through adulthood. They might be trying to find themselves and establish a place in society which is why they mingle with many different groups to test out where they belong. Or they have low self-esteem and confidence, which causes them change personalities so quickly and drastically in order to be liked by that particular group or crowd. It makes them feel good as a result. Sometimes they’re aware of what they’re doing and sometimes they’re not. If they’re genuinely unaware, these things can be harmless but tiring. But if they are aware, it’s not only tiresome but it’s extremely childish, at least to me. I cannot stand these types of people because you know they are intentionally doing this to come off as “mysterious” or “alluring” and that’s just plain sickening and rather intolerable. And you end up never knowing who they really are and they’re enjoying every minute of it!

However, there’s another side to the situation: perhaps it’s not identity issues but she’s just being normal. Yes, to those who are more down-to-earth, different personas can be cumbersome and stupid, but this is how normal people act. My sister, for example, is like this. With me, she’s just laidback, carefree, and quiet. With others, she’s either a) intelligent b) outgoing c) sweet and kind or e) loud and “young.” While I tear my hair out whenever she switches personas, this is considered normal because if you are with a certain group, you tend to act like people in the group. Another example: when I was working the front in my previous job, a very nice and quiet Japanese guy would come in by himself and he became a regular. He started making friends and one day he came in with his rambunctious buddies and BAM! He became loud and impatient and rather crude. A week later, he comes in by himself and it’s back to his quiet and meek ways.

Originally Posted by Meiko

A couple of years ago we decided to have a party for Halloween and decided to list all costumes people were going to wear, trying to avoid to have too many persons with the same costume. A. reads the list and says her costume is going to be x. Then at the party she has another costume, that was already taken, but since her costume is made by professional tailor, looks way better than the one of the other person, who simply got it from a local store. It was not a big deal, really, having two persons wearing the same kind of costume. It's the principle that pissed me off, that she had to steal the idea, just because she couldn't decide with her own head, and made the other girl feel bad because her costume wasn't as good as hers.

The same goes for anything A. has to do on her own. She is supposed to do it on her own, but in fact she copies from somebody else. At school we were often given some form of creative project, like writing, to do. She reads what other write, or asks others about what they are going to write. She says she's curious, nothing more. Then she steals the ideas she likes more. Since she's good at school and she studies a lot, her stuff is often better than the stuff that inspired her. Sometimes a person that is more creative ended with worse results just because she knows how to make things look better, because she's good at writing or she's a very diligent student and knows what teachers will enjoy more reading. It's not her creation, it's somebody else's but it looks like it's the other person who copied from her. Sometimes she even copied from the internet.

She doesn't understand it's wrong. She says: "I'm not doing anything wrong. I'm just looking for inspiration" or "If it's not copyrighted, it means it's public domain" or "Nobody invents anything. All the things you like are copied from another source too. That is not copying, it's reinventing" or "What's wrong if I like the same things you like? Is the album or the movie x your exclusive property? No, it isn't, you're only jealous that somebody else likes it as much as you do, if not more".

And here is where I feel that she is just being plain lazy. Her stealing the other girl’s costume and making the other girl feel bad, her stealing writing ideas from other people (not to mention the internet...does she actually copy internet papers word to word? If so, what she’s doing is, um, what’s that word, plagiarism! ) and her acknowledging the fact she is stealing from people...like I said, it seems like it’s either laziness or extreme unimaginativeness and she is definitely immoral. Frankly, the identity issue of hers (if it’s legitimate) annoys me, but this sort of behavior infuriates me. What’s even worse is that she is, as you said, a good student and rather diligent yet she is so utterly lazy she won’t even bother trying to come up with her own ideas and only knows how to swoop in and “reinvent” something for the better (though, I have to admit, she’ll get far in business especially if her co-workers are too meek to fend for themselves). Then she has the audacity to spew out ‘"What's wrong if I like the same things you like? Is the album or the movie x your exclusive property? No, it isn't, you're only jealous that somebody else likes it as much as you do, if not more".’ Goodness, any more immaturity and my head’s going to explode. Back to the subject matter, in this case, yes, it’s wrong of her to do this. Even though what she said about “all things are copied from another source” is true, it seems she refuses to step up and try to come up with anything of her own, so in this case, she’s the one in the wrong.

Originally Posted by Meiko

I don't know what to do when a person is like that

I’m sorry Meiko, but I honestly don’t know either. Personally, even though she is a good person as you said, I’d just avoid her and wouldn’t be friends with her anymore. Sorry, but I have a very low tolerance for people like this and life is just too short and my time is too valuable to waste on such persons, even if they have some good qualities. And yes, flaws are flaws, but this is a very huge flaw because it’s harmful and a burden to others.