“The title of today’s blog post refers to a similarly gifted young man who lived in the 18th century, Thomas Chatterton. The ‘marvellous Boy’ appelation comes from these lines in a poem by William Wordsworth, ‘Resolution and Independence’…” ~ from Katherine Wikoff’s “Jonah Lehrer and the ‘marvellous Boy'”
I’ve written here before about how much I appreciate my writing buddy (whom I desperately need to see again after far too long and too busy a summer), so I am very pleased to see that one of her recent blog posts, “Jonah Lehrer, and the ‘marvelloous Boy,‘” was a WordPress featured “Freshly Pressed” piece. Just like Katherine herself, the post is nuanced, informed, and compassionate. You won’t want to miss it.
‘It’s not completely clear to me why some plagiarists/forgers/doers-of-bad-things are forgiven and others are not. Ironically, even as we may appreciate and feel gratified by a confession, we appear to respect a denial more, even when the evidence renders that denial untenable. Perhaps a denial makes it easier for us to pretend that the distasteful lapse in character never occurred?” Read More