Corey Rebhahn: Did Wrath Smell a Hyperian Rat Years Ago?

 

I have decided to make you aware of an incident that had recently occurred between Irene and Faith, where Irene and I had noticed that Faith had copied a video Irene had made, and that this resulted in some fallout between Faith, Irene, and myself. I wanted to explain the situation for your records and to communicate some of my disappointment about all this.

 

Irene had produced a video [Deleted]:

 

One week later, this video was posted by Faith [Deleted]:

 

Plagiarism is a funny thing in film and cinematography, because it’s far more slippery than simple copy-pasting or lazy rewrites as we see in writing. Relevant issues in a plagiarism case deal instead with shot composition, theme, motifs, and the composition thereof. Often, a deciding factor in such cases is also whether or not the accused had any contact with the material of the complainant. In this case, theme and composition are nearly identical; the title is also very similar, and Irene and Faith’s statements at the end also say the same thing. This was greatly upsetting to Irene, and to myself as well, because we had at least hoped that people would hold themselves to a higher standard than this.

 

We decided this was a case of plagiarism because of the similarity in shot composition, Faith’s interest in the video, and the one-week time lag between Irene’s publishing of the video and Faith’s publishing of her video. There is sufficient similarity, there is evidence of contact, and there is a reasonable time gap for the production of the video. Furthermore, what led us to concluding Faith had copied the video was her common copying of Irene’s videos on Instagram from the temporary feed: one moment Irene would post something artistic, and another moment, Faith would follow up with something exactly the same as that. It’s been a small but tolerable bother and nothing we’d bring up with anyone since that was petty.

 

However, because of the work and meaning of this video and its significance to Irene, we couldn’t simply pipe down and not complain.

 

I brought this up with Morgue, and he shared my concerns with some other, undisclosed Hyperians and they thought no plagiarism was involved. I suspected this would happen, so I had made the decision to block and remove Faith from all my channels, and Irene had also done the same. Some people close to Faith found my actions “uncomfortable” (in Morgue’s words). I consider them perfectly symmetrical: rather than going out and making a fuss in public, I would prefer just to cut out the offending party from my life and leave it alone. This movement is more than large enough to have some breathing room. Furthermore, I consider my action not a form of insubordination, but of a need for space. Even if some people ruled against Irene and I on the matter of plagiarism (despite their not having the nous to understand what plagiarism is in the broader multimedia sense), in no way are we obliged to maintain communication or friendship with such a person. In any everyday situation, simply refusing to speak or spend time with someone after such an incident is perfectly fair and understandable.

 

I consider this scenario analogous to situations of plagiarism in poetry: if T.S. Eliot wrote a new poem in a new meter and extended his generosity to a younger poet, only to find out that the younger poet writes a poem in the very same meter, the very same theme, the very same meaning line by line, but only has different sentences and rhymes, then Eliot would be disappointed but not intimidated.

 

However, even if they were in the same creative club, Eliot would not extend the same generosity or desire to communicate prior to that. Though neither of us are as great as Eliot, we don’t feel the need to communicate or be generous with people like this.

 

The response from some of the Hyperians (Susan, Megan, etc.) has been different. Where we kept this matter between Morgue and ourselves, and kept it strictly symmetrical, Irene has noticed a tangible change in viewership and support since we complained to Morgue about Faith. Her viewership did not drop, but what had happened was that these Hyperians were paying attention but not lending any support in any way. That indicates that news has gotten around about this all, and they’ve taken sides.

 

Of course, Faith is not going to admit to plagiarism — it’s a serious charge and she has a lot to lose. However, some of these Hyperians are not going to recognize (or want to recognize) the problem. That’s okay, that’s why we had preferred the discreet and symmetric approach. What we were met with was indiscretion on their part, gossiping and the like.

 

For Irene’s part, she will finally resign from Hyperianism. This was her last straw. However, she will not resign from the Illuminist cause or anything of the sort: instead, she will pursue it independently and try to go for a broader audience. Her own viewership is far more diverse than just Hyperianism so this doesn’t hurt her work in a strategic sense. The problem was that there is a social clique within Hyperianism, and that clique is mostly of artists. Whereas the logos people in Hyperianism are far more cooperative and willing to support each other, artists vie for attention and are willing to do almost anything to get that attention. Irene’s not that kind of artist, so to be met with schoolyard-like competition and plagiarism when she expected cooperation is a painful lesson. She still supports Hyperianism, but wants to leave quietly and without kicking up a storm: that way, it’s for the better for everybody.

 

I won’t resign from Hyperianism, but I haven’t let Faith or Morgue remain unaware of my displeasure about this. Irene and I work as a team, so to have this happen is troubling and insulting. However, I do not work with these artists, and I do not have any obligation to pay any attention to them. My focus is on logos and making sure logos content gets out there, and that’s what I’ll continue to do. Some people (Susan in particular) were worried that my proximity to Irene would somehow compromise my presentation of logos content, i.e. they were “uncomfortable” that a voice such as mine could have a fallout with another major figure. Fallouts happen, but not a peep has been made on any public channels.

 

Of course, my esteem of such people is lowered again, but I’ll let them figure out what it truly means to maintain unity, and to have a balance between the personal and impersonal in a movement that’s bigger than all of us.

 

It is the curse of nobler souls to be haunted by ignoble ones. It’s disappointing but unexpected that this applies for Hyperianism’s ranks. I envision a group of people who are more ruthless, more austere, more idea-driven, more “Darwinian”, even. Maybe one day the ideal and the reality can meet, but we still need more work.

 

Thanks for your time.

 

Regards,

 

[N] & Irene