I was reading this book and was outraged. Ity's a kiddish book tiny but a nice little read. It's called Among the hidden by Haddix I think. But the main idea is a third. A third! That because of population laws only 2 children per family are allowed. Read the lik front flap it's a copy. I mean the whole book is diff. and the reason isn't anything like.. But I'm just saying a third thing is a copy.
Posted by MrSquicky (Member # 1802) on :
err...You people really need to stop imagining OSC is the originator of all these ideas. I keep expecting there to be a thread talking about how, now that he pointed out the problem, we should teach our fighter pilots to break out of the "ground is down" orientation.
Although, I have to admit, Ursula K. LeGuinn pissed me off when she totally ripped off the ansible.
Posted by CRash (Member # 7754) on :
I've read the Shadow Children series by Haddix. I don't feel it's a ripoff. The only parallel is that there's only two kids per family. The rest of the plot is nothing whatsoever like EG. One difference: The "third" kids, known as "Shadow Children" are all to be killed. No exceptions. They aren't just left to fend, as in Card's books.
And let's all admit population control is not copyrightable. Just because a prominent book features a concept doesn't mean it deserves a monopoly. Other books I can think of that deal with population control include Time of the Fourth Horseman,(published in 1976), Brain Child, and Lem's The Futurological Congress (1971). It's not an uncommon sci-fi idea.
I suppose J.K. Rowling ripped off Card when she lets the wizards disappear and appear in a different place instantly. It's such a ripoff of Jane's use of the Outside. Posted by DavidR (Member # 7473) on :
Suri-Cool,
I have to agree with MrSquicky's and CRash's comments that ideas are essentially recycled throughout literature of all types. If someone can take an idea that they have come across, play with it until it becomes something different, and present it to us in a way that is entertaining or that makes us think does it really matter that a kernel of the idea was used by a different author first? All of human progress, be it in the arts, the sciences, or elseswhere, is built on what came before. Sometimes a truly new idea comes into the world, but given time even the newest, most unique, ideas will be reused and reworked in so many ways as to make the original inception of the idea seem quaint.
Posted by Antony (Member # 7947) on :
re: Although, I have to admit, Ursula K. LeGuinn pissed me off when she totally ripped off the ansible. -----
apparently it was derrived from the word "answerable" because it's feesable to reply to ansible messages. Some people thought it was an ammagram of lesbian tho Posted by Chris Kidd (Member # 2646) on :
I think OSC even reveied that series before.
Posted by MrSquicky (Member # 1802) on :
Antony, We all go a little mad sometimes. Like when Robert Heinlein ripped off OSC's ideas about bug-like aliens. Man, that drives me nuts.
Posted by Antony (Member # 7947) on :
Ye thats mad, I mean... whoever else would have thought of tat if OSC hadn't? I mean, not like Insectoid aliens are a natural progression of ideas from Humanoid and Reptiloid aliens... or like the "hive mind" had ever been though of before...
Posted by Miranda (Member # 7647) on :
And what is with all these authors setting their stories in the same place? I mean really, a space station! No one knows who is copying who anymore.
m. resisting the ground is down orientation
Posted by Antony (Member # 7947) on :
yeah I mean, GOD! setting a science fiction novel in THE UNIVERSE... SO over done!
Posted by Scott R (Member # 567) on :
![[Wink]](wink.gif)