1. Identify the similarities and differences between the covers of these novels.

2. What does this suggest about the novels?

3. Explain what you think intertextuality is? Do you think this term is applicable to the
covers and texts shown here?
4. How is intertextuality different to plagiarism?
5. Do you think there is a strong case for a potential copyright infringement here with
these texts?

Tiger in a Lifeboat, Panther

in a Lifeboat: A Furor Over a Novel
By LARRY ROHTER
Published: November 6, 2002
RIO DE JANEIRO, Nov. 5 In 1981 the Brazilian writer Moacyr Scliar published ''Max and the
Cats,'' the tale of a Jewish youth who survives a shipwreck and ends up sharing a lifeboat with
a panther. Last month Yann Martel won the $75,000 newly renamed Man Booker Prize,
Britain's top literary award, for ''Life of Pi,'' the story of an Indian youth who survives a
shipwreck and finds himself occupying a lifeboat with a tiger.
The plot similarities are not a coincidence, since Mr. Martel readily admits that he was inspired
by the Brazilian book. But nonetheless, the literary press here is suddenly awash in indignant
accusations that Mr. Martel, a 39-year-old Canadian enjoying his first commercial and critical
success, is guilty of improperly ''copying'' or ''borrowing'' from the work of one of Latin
America's most distinguished novelists.
Dr. Scliar (his name is pronounced mo-uh-SEER SKLEER), a 65-year-old physician descended
from a family of Jewish immigrants, confesses that he is perplexed by the situation and by Mr.
Martel's behavior.
''My reaction is one of mixed feelings, as you might imagine,'' he said in a telephone interview
from his home in Porto Alegre in the far south of Brazil. ''In a certain way I feel flattered that
another writer considered my idea to be so good, but on the other hand, he used that idea
without consulting me or even informing me. An idea is intellectual property.''
Mr. Martel indirectly acknowledges his debt to Dr. Scliar in an author's note in ''Life of Pi'' in
which he thanks him for ''the spark of life.'' In an interview with The Guardian, the British
newspaper, late last month, he said, ''I remember thinking, man, that's a brilliant premise''
when he came across a critique of Dr. Scliar's book, which he recalled as having been written
by John Updike in The New York Times Book Review.
There are no articles in the digital archives of The Times, however, in which Mr. Updike
comments on the book, and in a phone interview Mr. Updike said he had never heard of ''Max
and the Cats'' or of Dr. Scliar. The only review in The Times was published in July 1990, after
the book, now out of print, was issued in paperback in the United States. In it Herbert Mitgang
describes ''Max and the Cats'' as ''a brilliant novella'' and praised Dr. Scliar for ''expanding the
horizons of South American literature.''
Such comments do not have the flavor of the review Mr. Martel remembered. In an essay
published on the Web site of Powell's City of Books, an independent bookstore
(www.powells.com), Mr. Martel wrote that even though the review he recalled ''oozed
indifference,'' Dr. Scliar's concept had ''the effect on my imagination of electric caffeine''
because of its ''perfect unity of time, action and place.'' But because he also felt a ''mix of
envy and frustration'' that he had not thought of the idea himself, he decided initially to stay
away from ''Max and the Cats.''
''I didn't really want to read the book,'' Mr. Martel wrote. ''Why put up with the gall? Why put
up with a brilliant premise ruined by a lesser writer. Worse, what if Updike had been wrong?
What if not only the premise but also its rendition were perfect? Best to move on.''
Dr. Scliar himself said: ''I get all of my reviews from my publishers, and I do not have one by
John Updike. So that is another strange aspect of this story.''

Mr. Martel's publicist, Jennifer Gilmore of Harcourt, said today that he was about to travel from
a home he owns in Berlin and was unavailable for a phone interview. She added, however,
that Mr. Martel now believed that the review that originally caught his eye appeared in The
New York Review of Books rather than in The Times.

''Because he doesn't live in New York, he confused the two and misremembered where he
read the review,'' she said. ''He is not sure the review was by John Updike. But he has never
read the other book.'' But today both The New York Review of Books and The New Yorker said
they were unable to locate a review of that description in their records. Dr. Scliar's agent,
Thomas Colchie, said that ''Max and the Cats'' had received no negative reviews in the United
States or Canada and had received glowing notices in Canadian publications.
It is unclear if anyone has yet read the two novels side by side to see if they are alike beyond
their shared plot line. Mr. Martel's book focuses more on religion, while critics have regarded
Dr. Scliar's novel as a political allegory in which the black panther is a symbol of Nazism or of
the military dictatorship that ruled Brazil when ''Max and the Cats'' was first published.
Beyond any similarities between the two books, any suggestion that Dr. Scliar, who has
written 16 novels as well as several books of essays and dozens of short stories, is somehow a
''lesser writer'' than a Canadian neophyte has rankled here. He has won many literary prizes
in Brazil and abroad and next week will travel to New York to receive an award from the
National Yiddish Book Center, which has included his 1980 novel ''The Centaur in the Garden''
on a list of the 100 best Jewish novels.
To many Brazilians, the sudden furor over ''Life of Pi'' is just one more example of their
culture's being expropriated by outsiders without proper credit given. Dr. Scliar said he had
been deluged with telephone calls and e-mail messages expressing outrage at the situation,
and lamented that though Brazil produced ''a world-class literature that ought to be
recognized on its merits, we only get attention when something extravagant like this occurs.''
Brazilian critics and writers have long claimed, for example, that Daphne du Maurier's 1938
novel, ''Rebecca,'' was plagiarized from Carolina Nabuco's book ''The Successor,'' published
here in 1934. Ms. Nabuco had translated her novel into French and sent it to a publisher in
Paris, who she learned was also Ms. du Maurier's only after ''Rebecca'' became a worldwide
success. The novels have identical plots and even some identical episodes.
''When the film version of 'Rebecca' came to Brazil, the producers' lawyer sought out my
lawyer to ask him that I sign a document admitting the possibility of there having been a
mere coincidence,'' Ms. Nabuco recalled in her memoirs. ''I would be compensated with a
quantity described as 'of considerable value.' I did not consent, naturally.''
Charges of plagiarism were leveled more recently against the British rock star Rod Stewart
because of striking similarities between his hit ''Do Ya Think I'm Sexy?'' and the Brazilian
singer Jorge Ben's ''Taj Mahal,'' a song that was popular here when Mr. Stewart visited for
Carnival one year. That dispute was eventually settled out of court, Mr. Ben said, but similar
complaints of plundering have been expressed here about pop artists ranging from Paul
Simon to Talking Heads.
Dr. Scliar said that because he had received ''fragmented information'' about the similarities
between ''Max and the Cats'' and ''Life of Pi,'' he intended to read Mr. Martel's book himself
and analyze and compare the two texts. Only after he has done that, he said, will he decide
whether to take legal action. ''I'm not litigious by nature, and it's not in my plans, but it's not
excluded either,'' he said. ''It depends.''
One immediate consequence of the controversy is that Dr. Scliar's Brazilian publisher, Luiz
Schwarcz of Companhia das Letras, now seems to be backing away from acquiring ''Life of Pi''
for publication here. Mr. Martel sent him an e-mail message on Monday, he said, to apologize

for remarks that Mr. Martel said were misconstrued, but even so, Mr. Schwarcz does not want
to do anything that would offend Dr. Scliar.
''We made an offer to obtain the rights to the Martel book after he won the Booker Prize, but
after all of this, I don't know if I'm going to go ahead,'' Mr. Schwarcz said. ''At the very least,
he has made declarations that are very inelegant and offensive to Moacyr.''
1. What is your initial response to this copyright controversy over the novel?
2. What position does Larry Rohter, the author of this article take?
3. Do you believe that Yann Martel sufficiently acknowledged Moacyr Scliars
Max and the Cats influence on Life of Pi?
4. Where do you think intertextuality ends and copyright infringement begins?