May 01, 2006
Kudos a TodosNews
In today’s NYT online, an article by Tom Zeller called In Internet Age, Writers Face Frontier Justice begins:
WRITING last Monday at SepiaMutiny.com, a Web log dedicated to the Southeast Asian [sic] diaspora, a user called RC declared that “there is no scientific way to compare works of literature.” [Link]
Hopefully, I don’t sound like the TOI quoting the Harvard Independent (not even Harvard’s main daily) quoting the TOI 
I believe this is the first time that I’ve seen the Grey Lady use Sepia Mutiny in a leadoff quote, with a link and everything. I was so excited that I forgave the author his confusion between “South Asian” and “SouthEast Asian” (to be fair, my Mom has been known to do that too …)
SM is quoted again in the middle of the article, with the quote taking up the entire fifth paragraph:
“Viswanathan might have plagiarism issues with more than McCafferty’s books,” wrote Janak Ramakrishnan, another blogger [sic] at Sepia Mutiny. Mr. Ramakrishnan had noticed a similarity between pious aphorisms scribbled onto posters by a character in Ms. Viswanathan’s book (“If from drink you get your thrill, take precaution, write your will” and “All the dangerous drug abusers end up safe as total losers”) and passages from the 1990 book “Haroun and the Sea of Stories” by Salman Rushdie. A chapter titled “The Mail Coach” in Mr. Rushdie’s book depicts a series of rhyming road signs, including two that read, “If from speed you get your thrill, take precaution, make your will” and “All the dangerous overtakers end up safe at the undertaker’s.” [Link]
Again, I was so excited about the extended quote that I forgave the author his confusion between bloggers (those on the masthead) and commenters - the rest of the mutiny family writing large. As a matter of fact, I think this is the first time I’ve seen SM quoted by the MSM in a situation where all of the quotes were taken from readers, and none from the MastheadMutineers. As all of you out there in cyberia know, it takes a village to raze a topic, and so I wanted to say thank you to you all. Without your efforts the Mutiny would literally not have been quoted.
ennis on May 1, 2006 02:32 PM in News · T·r·a·c·k·b·a·c·k address · Direct link · Email post
Why is this posted under the 'humor' category?
anyways, CHEERS to SM!!
Yes! Such an
auspiciouskickass accomplishment; We in the big leagues now! Many blessings be upon the bloggers and loyal posters of SMLargely b/c I was in a fey mode and amused by the whole thing. I've changed it to the more apposite "News"
this song comes to mind
looooks like we made it...i think thats the chorus
Ah yes, that would be the not-really-part-feather-canadian-Indian Shania Twain, who interestingly, via her husband, is a member of Sant Mat. See, we can get anywhere playing 6-degrees-of-browness.
High-five to RC! You got quoted in NYT! :)
I forgot to mention earlier... SM was also given a plug in November's issue of the Brit mag Asiana (which has featured BongBreaker way too many times than is healthy) when they did a short article on us.
Sunny, look!
Now with Sid and Amardeep on board, a mighty force to be reckoned with to be sure to be sure. (And from 16%, the Mutiny is now 12.5% female...)
Doh! I always make it late to every party :(
Amardeep is a great blogger (haven't read Sid) so it should give SM that current affairs edge.. but I am disappointed at the number of sausages in this place :|
Imagine the frisson I felt to read words I had already readin the NYTimes this afternoon---keep it up, keep it up.
YAY! I'm impressed by the sitemeter on SM and just how the numbers have practically doubled this past month- and now, getting quoted in the NYT- that be Hhhhhhhot!
BTW, I have been known to take quotes from the comment section of SM to write a few of my papers here in grad school as well. What can I say, SM has quotable people on it!
taz --- you plagiarizer !! :)
I think I can safely say none of my SM comments will ever, ever get quoted in any respectable publication. Shit, not even ToI. From this point hence, I shall imbue all my comments with quote-worthy pathos. The immature BB is no more. I give you professor BB, available for comment.
Ashwin (13#)
That is internalization !
Regards
Congratulations to RC for making the NY Times! It looks like we commenters too have the power to *represent.* There can be no sustained hierarchy here. The old structures are toppled; the monkeys have been let loose. Now this is what a Mutiny is all about :)
No worries I took care of firing off the complaint letter ... the NYT must have a thick file from me by now --- well if they kept records. They don't call me Grumpy Old Indian man for nothing. Here it is for your amusement.
To the New York Times Editors:
The article In Internet Age, Writers Face Frontier Justice By TOM ZELLER Jr Published: May 1, 2006 begins:
WRITING last Monday at SepiaMutiny.com, a Web log dedicated to the Southeast Asian diaspora, a user called RC declared that there is no scientific way to compare works of literature.
South Asian is what you meant this is far from the first time Time the NY Times has made this mistake and sadly far from the first time I have written in to correct it. It is no longer a simple, if unacceptably sloppy geographic mistake, but is of increasing importance as over the last decade South Asian has become an increasingly popular and popularly used term for people from the Subcontinent and its diaspora.
Its not where we lost a land war its where we outsource. Ask Thomas Friedman
Yours Flatly,
G.O. I. M.
You're on Outlook India too.