Plagiarism from D&D in Shadowlands, by Peter Straub [minor spoilers]

[Pielorinho]

I've been meaning to read some Peter Straub for awhile, and so last week I picked up his novel Shadowland, which tells the story of a couple of teenagers who learn about magic. It's fairly dark, set in the 1950s, and pretty cool, in a hallucinatory stream-of-consciousness way.

Except.

About a third of the way through the book, one of the teenagers shows another one a list of spells that he might learn from his mentor. And I kid you not. The spells are divided into nine levels, with "sleep" and "light" among the first-level spells, and "maze" and "wish" at the ninth level, with magic jar and telekinesis and invisible stalker and stuff in between.

There's no other mention of our beloved hobby in the book: the spells are mentioned as if they're Straub's original creation.

Has anyone else heard about this? Has Straub apologized for this pathetic plagiarism? Did TSR sue him?

My guess is that Straub, writing this book in the late 70s (it was published in 1980) thought that no one would ever know about his source material, thought he'd get away with a little bit of laziness.

It kinda ruined the book for me, so I thought I'd see if anyone's heard of it.

Daniel

PS I put this in General Discussion b/c I'm wondering about the D&D-related aspects of the book; if it should be in the non-RPG fiction forum, could a mod move it? Thanks!

 

[Rune]

Has anyone else heard about this? Has Straub apologized for this pathetic plagiarism? Did TSR sue him?
bs!

Very interesting. Here's the question in my head:

Is that a very detailed literary allusion, or is it, in fact, plagiarism?

Hard to say. But with as much detail as you say he put into it, I'm leaning toward the plagiarism side of the argument. [edit] And the fact that it's set in the 50's...[/edit]

 

[Number47]

When did these spells become part of D&D? Not until Advanced, right? When did Advanced first come out?

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Oh come on. The reference to the spells is pretty much 'name only'. If you were to attempt to run a game using it then you'd have a REAL hard time. As for plagarism read 'The Dying Earth' by Jack Vance, written about ten years before D&D. See if the magic system seems at all familiar. Then start talking plagarism....

It was a bit of a joke and nothing more.

The Auld Grump, grumbling...

 

[Pielorinho]

#47, that's interesting -- are you sure these spells weren't in a pre-1980 edition of D&D? Because in the book they are (to the best of my 1ed memory) at the correct levels and everything, and include names like "invisible stalker" and "magic jar", names not likely to be coincidence. Somebody is borrowing from somebody here.

Old Grump, you're right that the spells are used in name only, which is part of what makes it so weird: Straub could easily have named his possession spell "Possession," or had a power called "Dreamscape" instead of one called "Hallucinatory Terrain."

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by saying that it was a joke. Have you read the book? I kept hoping there'd be some sort of acknowledgement of his source material, even in a nudge-wink kind of way, but I never saw one.

My comment about TSR suing is simply because TSR was so sue-happy in those days (IIRC); I wouldn't expect they'd let something like this go by.

Mostly, I want to know what story, if any, is behind Straub's use of these spells in an otherwise interesting book.

Daniel

 

[mythusmage]

When did these spells become part of D&D? Not until Advanced, right? When did Advanced first come out?

Nope, Sleep and Light go back to 1974, while the 9th level spells made their appearance around 1977 (IIRC). A tad before AD&D.

But, I must agree with the grouchy one, while the link is obvious, it aint gonna kill D&D. Call it free advertising and get on with your life.

 

[mythusmage]

Delete this post

I hate it when ENWorld flakes out.

 

[Wormwood]

I chalk it up to an esoteric geek reference, akin to the passing reference to the Necronomicon in Stephen King's "I Know What You Need".

In any event, let's keep the tempest out of the teapot.

 

[Pielorinho]

Tempest in a teapot? Whoah, there, big fella -- I'm not calling him a babykiller. I'm just baffled by the presence of a Dungeons and Dragons spell list in an otherwise literary horror/fantasy novel with no other connections to the game.

I'm pretty sure that it constitutes plagiarism -- but if you've read the book and see how it works as an allusion, I'd love to know. Y'all saying it's a joke -- you've read the book, right? Am I just missing the punch line?

It certainly doesn't count as free advertising: no one would recognize the spell list unless they were already a pretty big D&D geek. As near as I can tell, it was just some creative laziness on Straub's part in a pretty cool book. It's as if, for no discernible reason, Neil Gaiman's latest novel was populated by characters named and styled after the cast of That 70's Show. Why would he do it?

Anyway, I guess no one has heard Straub make any comments on this, nor has anyone heard anything from TSR on the subject.

Daniel

 

[Ravellion]

I'm pretty sure that it constitutes plagiarism -- but if you've read the book and see how it works as an allusion, I'd love to know. Y'all saying it's a joke -- you've read the book, right? Am I just missing the punch line?

I could write a book about a fictional software company. If one of their products has a little paperclip that acts as a tutorial program, that is not plagiarism. In fact, it is very hard for a company to prove plagiarism in any work of fiction. If it 'ruined the book' for you, I am really really sorry, and hope you never start reading actual classics - they continually make allusions to things, sometimes far more obscure then these, other times very easily and plainly spotted.

For all we know, Straub put those spells in there for a reason, whether that was agreeing or disagreeing with the Magic system of D&D. Perhaps he is (sort of) on "Jack Chick's side", or, diametrically opposed, he wants to prove the religious fanatics, who claim spell use is evil, wrong.

I am sorry, but as you said, it was a very minor reference, and artistic licence can protect the writer even if he had an actual negative opinion on D&D.

Rav