Salinger Lawsuit and Plagiarism in Fiction

J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye is one of my favorite books. I once insisted on riding the carousel in Central Park, solely because of its importance in the novel. (Did I mention I am kind of a book nerd?) So ever since I read about this whole Salinger v. California copyright infringement thing, I've been pondering the ethics of writing fiction based on another writer's work.

There's a detailed update on the lawsuit by Dave Itzkoff on the New York Times ArtsBeat blog; but here's the gist: this guy Fredrik Colton, writing under the pseudonym J.D. California (really,) has published an unauthorized sequel to Catcher. The new novel, titled 60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye. features Holden Caulfield as a 76 year old man,, another character based on Salinger himself, and borrowing other characters, settings, plot elements, language and style from the original novel.

Writers create stories and characters, often from parts of themselves, then nurture them for months or years. I once read that Harper Lee spent ten years writing To Kill a Mockingbird. I don't know how long Salinger spent writing The Catcher in the Rye, but I bet he cares what happens to Holden Caulfield. And, if I were J.D. Salinger, I think I'd be pretty angry about someone trying to profit from so blatantly ripping off my hard work.

Now, I know inspiration can be found everywhere and it has to come from somewhere, including other writers' writing. And plopping a familiar character down in a new setting is a common creative writing exercise. And, yes, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. But judging from the evidence presented in Salinger's complaint, I think 60 Years just looks like a thinly veiled attempt to piggyback on the success of Catcher.

And, even though I'm sure its publication wouldn't really hurt sales of The Catcher in the Rye, I think that's really beside the point. It's the principle that's at stake here. If it becomes permissible to steal the intellectual property of famous authors like Salinger, doesn't the slope downward become a bit more slippery?