Over Christmas break I read the book "Safely Home" by Randy Alcorn. Overall, I would say this is a good book. Maybe "good" isn't the right word, considering it's a story about the persecuted church. Knowing that what Alcorn is writing about is true - that Christians across the globe do suffer immeasureably - should drive believers to their knees in prayer for our brothers and sisters and cause us to be ever more thankful for the freedom we take for granted.
In spite of this, I have an annonyance with this book. Throughout it, things are said by the characters or descriptions of God/faith/heaven are given that come straight out of C.S. Lewis's "Chronicles of Narnia". I couldn't help but think at different points things like - "Wait a minute - that's what Jill Pole said to Aslan!" or "This is just like 'The Last Battle'". (Okay...I'm a Narnia nerd...I admit it).
I don't have any problem with Alcorn using some of the descriptions that Lewis came up with for his own book. The annoynance comes in the fact that Alcorn does not even acknowledge Lewis's influence in this novel. At the beginning of the novel Alcorn devotes two pages to acknowleging the various people who influenced/inspired/informed his work. How hard would it have been to include Lewis in that list? Is it just because he's dead that it's okay to not include him?
What if someone reads this book, and never having read the Narnia books, assumes that everything in it is all Alcorn's orginial ideas? They're not all his ideas, and to pass them off as such seems to be plagiarism to me.
1 comment:
First of all, who knew that was how you spelled plagiarism?!!? And secondly, I think if you steal someone's ideas you still have to give them credit, even if they are dead.
Post a Comment