So the book "Holes"...

[attackfighter]

Upon reading a plot summary on Wikipedia it has come to my mind as an absolute certainty that the book HOLES is in fact a rip-off of TREASURE ISLAND. I mean, it could not be any more blatantly obvious. They both utilize a recurring poem to set tone; they both feature a coming of age story in which a young boy sets out on a treasure hunt.

How did this thing get published? Weren't the publishers aware of the similarities? All the author did was rework the setting so that it would be similar and more relatable to an American audience. It seems redundant and repugnant even that this novel could get made. Where did the standards go?

 

[Gucumatz]

Upon reading a plot summary on Wikipedia it has come to my mind as an absolute certainty that the book HOLES is in fact a rip-off of TREASURE ISLAND. I mean, it could not be any more blatantly obvious. They both utilize a recurring poem to set tone; they both feature a coming of age story in which a young boy sets out on a treasure hunt.

How did this thing get published? Weren't the publishers aware of the similarities? All the author did was rework the setting so that it would be similar and more relatable to an American audience. It seems redundant and repugnant even that this novel could get made. Where did the standards go?

Is... Is this a serious thread? Don't read a plot summary on wikipedia and then judge a book. Read it. I admit it has been years since I have read either book - but Holes is far from a blatant ripoff.

 

[emzie]

Treasure Island is in public domain by now, no? Even if what you allege is true, so what? Great literature gets reworked for modern settings all the time.

 

[Synobun]

All the author did was rework the setting so that it would be similar and more relatable to an American audience.

So in other words, this author did what pretty much every other author does?

Oh, the humanity.

 

[Borachio]

Wasn't Treasure Island itself a reworking of an old theme? I don't know what. How about something from Homer?

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Are there any truly original stories that can be told anymore?

 

[Luckymoose]

Holes is a really good story about friendship, regardless of what themes it uses.

 

[Borachio]

Treasure Island is a really good story about disabled pirates, pieces of eight, and parrots. It ticks all the boxes, in other words.

 

[Leoreth]

Holes is a good novel.

If you want to attack an unimaginative and badly written rip-off, take Eragon.

 

[attackfighter]

If you want to attack an unimaginative and badly written rip-off, take Eragon.

Indeed. I oft hear it whispered that ERAGON is nothing more than the story of STAR WARS reapplied to a fantasy setting. That the author is a fanatical cultist who dedicates his life in preparation for a coming apocalypse and that this literary enterprise was but a means of funding his endeavour. But that is a tale for another thread...

 

[TomYo689]

I didn't like holes but only because I don't like the genre. Never even heard of treasure island

 

[Kozmos]

To be fair, Eragon was written by a kid.

 

[~Corsair#01~]

I'm reading "The Great War for Civilisation" by Robert Fisk, and it's quite similar to Treasure Island as well, as long as the treasure is death and the "boy" is a journalist and the "coming of age" is basically just lots of stories about death.

 

[Leoreth]

To be fair, Eragon was written by a kid.

He was 18 when he finished it afaik. And his writing hasn't really improved since then because the undeserved hype over the first book inflated his ego. He doesn't even have an editor and it shows.

 

[TheLastOne36]

Fun Fact: I've met the author of Eragon.

He came to an elementary school I was volunteering at to speak about his book. The kids seemed fond of the series though I've never read a page of it...

I don't remember any crazy in him, other than the fact he was dressed as an elf or something.

 

[Flying Pig]

Did you get angry when you realised that Ulysses was just The Odyssey? Or that The Lion King was just Hamlet?

 

[Borachio]

Did you get angry when you realised that Ulysses was just The Odyssey? Or that The Lion King was just Hamlet?

You mean Joyce's Ulysses? (I have actually tried reading it) The Odyssey itself wasn't that hard - but maybe that's because it was some kind of school-friendly translation I read.

The Lion King, I understood was a straight rip-off from the Japanese Kimba, the White Lion. But maybe not.

But just Hamlet! Are you making fun of me here? Hamlet is hard, and complex.

 

[Flying Pig]

Their plots are very closely modelled on each other - 'difficulty' has nothing to do with it!

 

[Borachio]

Hamlet in turn was (just) based on the earlier Amlett, by somebody or other, whose name I forget. I'd have to look it up.

 

[Mango Elephant]

Regarding Eragon:

The map is terribly unimaginative (although nicer looking than the world in Game of Thrones, imo). There are plains and a few mountains for humans, a giant forest for elves, and a giant mountain chain for dwarves, all separated by a giant desert. There is almost nothing of a diaspora of any of the races.

He uses several phrases way too much. I remember reading the final novel and noticing that every few pages he uses the phrase "even as," which simply is too weird a phrase to be used that often. There was another phrase that was way overused but I forgot it. Yes, the writing sucks.

He just made up weird stuff to solve the plot (especially the ending). There wasn't hardly any imagination in the working of the universe. The wasn't anything smart in the way he made the plot work.

Although it's true he was a child when he wrote the first book, he was well into his twenties by the time the final book was finished; and as someone else pointed out, his writing didn't actually get any better as the series progressed.

At least he has credibility as an actual member of the elven race.