‘True Detective’ Creator Accused Of Plagiarism

True Detectives creator, Nic Pizzolatto has caught the attention of the media for being accused of Plagiarism, as reported by Uproxx. Before going too far, let’s take a closer look at the definition of plagiarism. According to the University of Cambridge, plagiarism has various forms. Of course, we all know that it is quoting someone else’s work verbatim without acknowledging them.

However, plagiarism is also paraphrasing someone else’s work by changing a few words or simply rearranging the order of the words, again without giving the source the proper acknowledgement.

After careful examination, it seems as though Jon Padgett, founder of Thomas Ligotti Online, is adamant in claiming that there is sufficient evidence that Nic Pizzolatto used “a significant amount of intellectual content and language from The Conspiracy Against the Human Race, a nonfiction book by Thomas Ligotti,” as he has boldly revealed to Mike Davis in an interview on The Lovecraft eZine.

Padgett says Pizolatto’s “theft is unmistakably evident.” According to Gawker, He continues to tell Davis:

“It became obvious to me that Pizzolatto had plagiarized Thomas Ligotti and others — in some places using exact quotes, and in others changing a word here and there, paraphrasing in much the same way that a high school student will cheat on an essay by copying someone else’s work and substituting a few words of their own.”

While a lot of the script is solely Pizzolatto’s work, Padgett says there are many examples of him precisely quoting Ligotti’s work. Indie Wire quotes Padgett stating, “The most egregious instance of plagiarism involves some of the most captivating and most quoted of all the scenes from the (True Detective) series.”

Padgett goes on to describe one True Detective scene in particular where one of the main characters, Rust Cohle, played by Matthew McConoughey, “outlines his pessimistic worldview. It is a fact that (in that crucial, character-defining scene) almost every one of Rust’s infamous lines is either taken word for word or is a paraphrase of Ligotti’s s distinctive prose and ideas from ‘The Conspiracy Against the Human Race,” as reported by Indie Wire.

The scenes that are most notable and quoted are the ones Padgett claims are plagiarized.

While Pizolatto claimed in the past to be a huge fan of Ligotti, he no longer mentions Ligotti unless he is put on the spot and forced. Padgett sited specific undeniable examples of plagiarism within True Detectives in his interview with Mark Davis at The Lovecraft eZine.

It is frustrating and maddening to a writer when they are struggling to get their personal work noticed, and someone comes along, steals their work without giving them credit and is nominated for an Emmy Award for the plagiarized work. It will be interesting to see if Nic Pizolatto receives a warm welcome on the Emmy Award platform.

Photo Credit: TheWire.com