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December 2, 2017 3:00 PM Subscribe
Emma Cline sued and countersuing over spyware and plagiarism claims surrounding her best-selling novel, The Girls.
His complaint. Her complaint.
hmmmm who wrote the sensitive female coming-of-age novel, was it the woman who's written many other stories similar in style and theme, or the ex-boyfriend retaining Harvey Weinstein's lawyertl;dr: he claims she put a keylogger on her computer, which she later sold to him, to read his email and unpublished work for years and used it in her own book; she claims she used that software a few times while they were dating but not regularly, that he was abusive and blackmailed her into selling the computer, that she didn't plagiarise and that this is just further abuse.
His complaint. Her complaint.
Gosh, my excuse for not giving oheso.SO access to my computer is that it has server access ...
posted by oheso at 3:22 PM on December 2, 2017
posted by oheso at 3:22 PM on December 2, 2017
It certainly sounds like the plagiarism allegations are baseless, they haven't provided any evidence that she ever accessed the computer remotely, and the real intention here may have been to extort money from her by threatening to go public with salacious details about her sex life if she didn't settle.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 3:31 PM on December 2, 2017 [16 favorites]
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 3:31 PM on December 2, 2017 [16 favorites]
This is the sourest pile of sour grapes I have ever seen!
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 4:14 PM on December 2, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 4:14 PM on December 2, 2017 [4 favorites]
The plagiarism charges, having read the details in his complaint, seem to be entirely bullshit -- I wonder if he has something coming out and wants publicity, or if he was just hoping for money. The keylogger thing is intensely odd, though I see nothing that suggests she actually did access the computer once she sold it.
I really should get around to reading this book.
posted by jeather at 4:32 PM on December 2, 2017
I really should get around to reading this book.
posted by jeather at 4:32 PM on December 2, 2017
Life tip - Hey undergraduate students - don't date guys in their 30s.
posted by k8t at 8:27 PM on December 2, 2017 [9 favorites]
posted by k8t at 8:27 PM on December 2, 2017 [9 favorites]
I was really hoping that the book was as good as people had been saying. It wasn't. It was competently written low end mainstream literary fiction. That said, while the keylogger thing is pretty nasty, I have a hard time imagining a man writing certain parts of the book.
posted by bootlegpop at 12:16 AM on December 3, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by bootlegpop at 12:16 AM on December 3, 2017 [1 favorite]
I have a hard time imagining a man writing certain parts of the book.
people keep saying stuff like this but there is nothing ineluctably feminine about it, or any book, come on. a man can write anything he puts his mind to. it's just that this man obviously didn't write it. both because he is temperamentally and intellectually not up to it, and because we already know who did write it and it wasn't him.
I get the point, men usually fail to write adequately well about women and girls because they will not pay sustained fascinated attention to women and girls except occasionally in the way an entomologist pays attention to a bug he has got in the grips of his tweezers, that he would also like to have sex with. but it's a won't, not a can't.
roger bacon didn't write the works of shakespeare either, but it wasn't because he was a man. OR WAS IT
posted by queenofbithynia at 7:23 AM on December 3, 2017 [7 favorites]
people keep saying stuff like this but there is nothing ineluctably feminine about it, or any book, come on. a man can write anything he puts his mind to. it's just that this man obviously didn't write it. both because he is temperamentally and intellectually not up to it, and because we already know who did write it and it wasn't him.
I get the point, men usually fail to write adequately well about women and girls because they will not pay sustained fascinated attention to women and girls except occasionally in the way an entomologist pays attention to a bug he has got in the grips of his tweezers, that he would also like to have sex with. but it's a won't, not a can't.
roger bacon didn't write the works of shakespeare either, but it wasn't because he was a man. OR WAS IT
posted by queenofbithynia at 7:23 AM on December 3, 2017 [7 favorites]
I’ve been steaming about this since reading the New Yorker and Guardian articles, followed by reading her complaint, after which the meme-ish flames were scorching my face and brain: the ex-boyfriend comes off as an unspeakable pile of shit. Then I read his complaint and found my opinion confirmed: guy is a pile, a mound, a small shit mountain of frustrated ambition and rage and envy and wounded ego. He’s doing a good job of attempting to destroy her literary career, and to hollow out her sense of self entirely.
The plagiarism suit is nonsense. I’m surprised a lawyer of any stature would take it on, to be honest. And what is so brutal is the zeal with which the ex wants to crush Cline for doing things that I would also have done if I were being put through non-voluntary non-monogamy hell and all the heft of emotional abuse an older partner can inflict on a younger (she was 20 when they met, he was 32 or 33). He has a previous conviction for domestic abuse, and the pettiness of his insistence that she “stole” from her reeks of rage at her freedom. I have lived through the same kind of jealousy and despair that might have led Cline to read his mail. I know that place and it’s scarring; and it’s this that he seems to really be trying to punish. And finally Girls is a brilliant, brilliant novel and I want to read more of her work and this asshole is doing his best to crush and silence her.
posted by jokeefe at 4:14 PM on December 3, 2017 [2 favorites]
The plagiarism suit is nonsense. I’m surprised a lawyer of any stature would take it on, to be honest. And what is so brutal is the zeal with which the ex wants to crush Cline for doing things that I would also have done if I were being put through non-voluntary non-monogamy hell and all the heft of emotional abuse an older partner can inflict on a younger (she was 20 when they met, he was 32 or 33). He has a previous conviction for domestic abuse, and the pettiness of his insistence that she “stole” from her reeks of rage at her freedom. I have lived through the same kind of jealousy and despair that might have led Cline to read his mail. I know that place and it’s scarring; and it’s this that he seems to really be trying to punish. And finally Girls is a brilliant, brilliant novel and I want to read more of her work and this asshole is doing his best to crush and silence her.
posted by jokeefe at 4:14 PM on December 3, 2017 [2 favorites]
I'm kind of impressed at how closely Chaz Reetz-Laiolo fits the stereotype of slightly creepy, pretentious, self-absorbed capital-W Writer. Like, there are probably screenwriters right now flipping between this news and their scripts and cursing.
posted by suetanvil at 9:43 AM on December 4, 2017
posted by suetanvil at 9:43 AM on December 4, 2017
I am so confused by his complaint, which includes the words:
In late August 2010, Cline and Reetz-Laiolo took a three-week trip to Italy.
had asked that Cline and Reetz-Laiolo travel there to help decorate a villa they had purchased
in Cortona and were remodeling, which was eventually used in the film Under the Tuscan
Sun. While in Italy, they stayed at this villa with sister, Hillary
Under the Tuscan Sun came out in 2003.
posted by all about eevee at 12:06 PM on December 4, 2017
In late August 2010, Cline and Reetz-Laiolo took a three-week trip to Italy.
had asked that Cline and Reetz-Laiolo travel there to help decorate a villa they had purchased
in Cortona and were remodeling, which was eventually used in the film Under the Tuscan
Sun. While in Italy, they stayed at this villa with sister, Hillary
Under the Tuscan Sun came out in 2003.
posted by all about eevee at 12:06 PM on December 4, 2017
Wait are we sure that "Emma Cline" is not just Amy Adams?
posted by LizBoBiz at 12:08 PM on December 4, 2017
posted by LizBoBiz at 12:08 PM on December 4, 2017
An article with a slightly expanded scope discussing how sexual humiliation is used to silence women writers.
posted by jeather at 7:02 AM on December 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by jeather at 7:02 AM on December 5, 2017 [1 favorite]
queenofbithynia: "but there is nothing ineluctably feminine about it"
I see what you did there.
posted by Chrysostom at 8:09 PM on December 6, 2017
I see what you did there.
posted by Chrysostom at 8:09 PM on December 6, 2017
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posted by praemunire at 3:20 PM on December 2, 2017 [5 favorites]