The Simpsons Did It

Recently, I saw someone comparing THE HUNGER GAMES to BATTLE ROYALE, a Japanese novel originally printed way back in 1999. That person was trying to say Koushun Takami, author of BATTLE ROYALE, has a strong plagiarism case against Suzanne Collins. 

I've since picked up a copy of BATTLE ROYALE, but I have yet to read it and I haven't seen the movie based on it. All I have to go off right now is the plot description from the Wikipedia article.

"Officially a military research project, it is a means of terrorizing the population, of creating such paranoia as to make organized insurgency impossible. ... According to the rules, every year since 1947, 42 third-year high school classes are isolated, and each class is required to fight to the death until one student remains." (Taken from the aforementioned Wikipedia article.)

"As punishment for a previous rebellion against the Capitol, every year one boy and one girl between the ages of 12 and 18 from each district are selected at random and forced to participate in the Hunger Games, a televised event in which the participants, or "tributes", must fight to the death in a dangerous outdoor arena until only one remains." (Taken from THE HUNGER GAMES Wikipedia article.)

Hmm...when you break it down like that, they do seem rather similar. But when you look a little deeper, they're obviously their own entities that happen to share a plot point or two.

I hate to say it, people, but you can't copyright concepts.

If that was the case, can you imagine all the lawsuits Stephenie Meyer could potentially file? (I mean, honestly. How many plain-girl-falls-for-vampire novels came out after TWILIGHT exploded? About a bazillion?) Or how many people could sue her? (She damn-sure wasn't the first to write a supernatural love story.)

Just look at Ellen Schreiber's VAMPIRE KISSES, published in 2003. I read this book as a kid (I believe I was ten at the time) and couldn't help but pick out a few similarities when I read TWILIGHT a few years later.

"The book introduces 16-year old Raven Madison, a girl living in Dullsville, who is constantly complaining that there is nothing to do. At least, until Alexander Sterling, a vampire, moves in. Raven falls for him, but they, like any other couple, have obstacles." (Taken from the VAMPIRE KISSES Wikipedia article.)

"It is the first book of the Twilight series, and introduces seventeen-year-old Isabella "Bella" Swan, who moves from Phoenix, Arizona to Forks, Washington and finds her life in danger when she falls in love with a vampire, Edward Cullen." (Taken from the TWILIGHT Wikipedia article.)

At the end of VAMPIRE KISSES, (SPOILER) Alexander leaves town because his love for Raven has put her in danger. In the beginning of NEW MOON, Edward leaves town because it's dangerous for he and Bella to be together.

Meyer and Schreiber's books can come off as pretty similar. But neither of them has a case for plagiarism. Because while they share a few plot points, they're both unique unto themselves.

Nine times out of ten, when someone says, "Oh, these two ideas are really close to one another!" all I hear is "The Simpsons did it!" (Which is a South Park reference, if you didn't know. Episode 86, Simpsons Already Did It.)

"Stan and Kyle invite Butters and others to see the aquarium. Butters realizes that the Sea-Ciety plot is similar to that of the Treehouse of Horror VIII short The Genesis Tub. The boys agree with him, but note that The Simpsons has done everything, so worrying about that is pointless. Chef points out that they in turn borrowed their ideas from a classic Twilight Zone episode, The Little People." (Taken from the Simpsons Already Did It Wikipedia article.)

Thank you, South Park. You've pretty much made my point for me. With so many books and movie out there, pretty much everything has been "done" before. Ideas and concepts in their most basic form are bound to seem similar from time to time. But once you start looking at the works in question in a boarder view, you'll probably find they're actually very different from one another.

Have you ever come across two books that seemed eerily similar?

Have you ever found something you would consider blatant plagiarism?

HAPPY WRITING, LOVELIES!