Kathryn Stockett [Author of The Help] To Be Sued

I just read this and came here to post the story - you beat me to it!
I have to say I loved this book. I know that many blacks in America hated it for a distorted portrayal of them, but I loved it. I don't think this maid has a chance (without knowing the US legal system), and if so, it's just wrong.

I mean, what else are we going to be offended about?

Miss Cooper's lawsuit claims it was offensive to be portrayed as someone who must use a segregated toilet.

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If there's any chance at all to make money, some will go for it.

Interesting. I think what complicates the matter is the womans claim that she worked for the authors familiy in the past. It could, if true, be a case of stories passed on like 'In the 60's we had this maid called....'

It'll be interesting to see how this pans out though.

The thing is, the maid in the book is one of the heroines of the story. She is portrayed as brave and noble, so I don't understand how the real maid could feel insulted.

I'm with Aruna on this. Fabulous book. The maid is just capitalizing on Ms Stockett's well-deserved success. I mean, even if the book were based on the maid, how many people are as talented as Ms Stockett to create such an engaging story loosely based on one person? Writers borrow from real people's experiences all the time. It is what they make out of those experiences that sets them apart. Maybe the maid was never as noble as Ms Sockett made her out to be.

aruna said:

The thing is, the maid in the book is one of the heroines of the story. She is portrayed as brave and noble, so I don't understand how the real maid could feel insulted.

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I haven't read the book, but I might give it a go now.

I guess it's all about perception really. The woman clearly feels that there is something there that is upsetting for her, or might damage her reputation etc, whether there is or not I guess is for a judge to decide.

These cases fascinate me to be honest.

I read some of the bad reviews of the book, and they seem to be all by black Americans who feel somehow insulted. I didn't when I read the book, so I don't get the hurt; maybe it's a subtle Southern thing? If anything, the blacks were all positive (even the bad-behaved feisty one) and the whites pretty nasty, most of them anyway. This was about racism,.
It's certainly worth reading, of only to find out. The dialect was a bit hard to get into at first but I quickly got used to it. And the "secret" is one of the biggest shockers I've ever found in fiction! .
It would be a sad day for writers if we couldn't feel inspired enough by people we've known to base a character on them. I've done it; and always in a positive sense.

^Speaking as a Southern American (but not a black one, unfortunately, so I can only see one side of the crazy clearly), there is such a thing as 'reverse racism' down here. Is the author white? Maybe the naysayers feel like she doesn't know what she's talking about, or has no right to make assumptions.

Just throwing that out there, because I haven't read the book myself. I'm curious to read those reviews now though...

ETA: After looking through a few of the one-star reviews--which on the first page are more well thought out and intelligent than the usual "THIS BOOK SUX!" diatribe I've gotten used to seeing that category--I think they may have a point. Again, without having read this myself, it seems like the biggest complaint is stereotyping and misusing the southern dialect. Which if it's true, would grate on my nerves too.

My mom really enjoyed this book though. I might have to put this on my list now. Hm. Well you know what they say about "bad" publicity.

Rhoda Nightingale said:

ETA: After looking through a few of the one-star reviews--which on the first page are more well thought out and intelligent than the usual "THIS BOOK SUX!" diatribe I've gotten used to seeing that category--I think they may have a point. Again, without having read this myself, it seems like the biggest complaint is stereotyping and misusing the southern dialect. Which if it's true, would grate on my nerves too.

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I don't doubt that they might have a point; yet I felt these characters as three dimensional, and since I don't know the dialect, it didn't bother me. I took the reviews I read to heart; but I still loved the book.

I loved the book too, but I can see where it would be offensive. There was a lot of subtext that I found a little uncomfortable, and chalked up to the author wanting it to be deliberately uncomfortable.

That being said, I read the article and flinched a little when I found out that the woman's name (Ablene) is almost identical to the main character of Aibileen. I mean, if one of my former employers wrote a book about 'Jillian' and portrayed me in a way I found offensive, I'd be really upset too.

I haven't read it, but it sounds to me like someone is digging for gold.

As a Southern African-American,I absolutely detested this book.



That said,the woman is obviously trying to capitalize on Ms.Stockett's success. But it will be interesting if she can prove that characters and stories are based on real events that she informed the author about. But would she have a case if that happened?

Irysangel said:

That being said, I read the article and flinched a little when I found out that the woman's name (Ablene) is almost identical to the main character of Aibileen. I mean, if one of my former employers wrote a book about 'Jillian' and portrayed me in a way I found offensive, I'd be really upset too.

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I felt the same.

Well, technically it wasn't her own family maid, but her brother's maid. Who knows how closely they knew each other. If the maid WAS the inspiration then the choice of name was very unfortunate.
I can imagine if one has lived through that situation it would be a very touchy subject, having the white employer exploit it in a novel. But the reasons given in that article wouldn't be enough to make a case.

aruna said:

Well, technically it wasn't her own family maid, but her brother's maid. Who knows how closely they knew each other. If the maid WAS the inspiration then the choice of name was very unfortunate.
I can imagine if one has lived through that situation it would be a very touchy subject, having the white employer exploit it in a novel. But the reasons given in that article wouldn't be enough to make a case.

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But in the book, Aibileen wasn't her maid either - she was the maid of a friend. Surely there are other names out there that she could pick up on?

Honestly, this lawsuit doesn't surprise me. I read an article about the author after listening to the audiobook (so I could get around the horrific faux-southern dialect) and my hackles kind of raised up a little because the article was all about how the author's life had parallelled Skeeter's in the book. What if it comes out later that Stockett was called 'Scooter' as a child? And that another friend had a maid named Millie? At what point does it stop being original fiction and start being a roman a clef, you know?

So I don't know what to think.

The maid works for the author's brother, the maid and the character have several parallels... and if I've read between the lines correctly, apparently the brother is both not speaking to his sister over this book AND encouraged the maid to sue.

This smacks of dirty family laundry as well as justifiable discomfort on the part of the maid.

Edit to add: The article I read gave me my impressions, not this Daily Mail piece.

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/17/family-maid-files-suit-against-author-of-the-help/?hp

The First Amendment is very broad and actionable exceptions like libel, commercial misappropriation of one's image and invasion of privacy are very narrow. Libel, in particular, has a number of necessary elements and a number of defenses.

This woman's case seems to be hinged on the fact that a character in a fictional novel includes a character who has a first name that is similar to hers.

Based on the 200 years of strong speech protections, this case should be quickly bounced out of court; if the courts will entertain this kind of thing, basically any artist can be sued on any pretense on the claim that the art in some way resembles a real person and caused emotional distress.

But after the 2009 "Red Hat" verdict in Georgia, who the hell knows anymore. The Constitution is only as good as the people who apply it.

Kitty27 said:

As a Southern African-American,I absolutely detested this book.

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Just curious - why?

(I haven't read the book, maybe the answer would be obvious if I had!)

Kitty27 said:

That said,the woman is obviously trying to capitalize on Ms.Stockett's success. But it will be interesting if she can prove that characters and stories are based on real events that she informed the author about. But would she have a case if that happened?

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Great question. Answer: not necessarily. A lot of the comments seem to indicate a belief that if the complainant can show the events were based on her, then she has a decent claim. If that were true, no unauthorized bio would ever be published. The issue is whether the plaintiff was somehow libeled or otherwise (legally) sinned against.

See djf881's post for the remainder of my opinion.

How much does it matter if the portrayal of her was negative, or not? The two examples cited don't convince me. In one of my early novels a black character decribed herself as "the colour of mud". It was deliberately negative, showing that she had a very low self image because of her skin colour, a very real issue in that day and age; an issue which affected me as well. And the outside latrine argument doesn't convince me either. Can someone be sues soley on the grounds that a character is modelled on her, or does the depiction have to be negative, to account for the offence taken?

aruna said:

How much does it matter if the portrayal of her was negative, or not? The two examples cited don't convince me. In one of my early novels a black character decribed herself as "the colour of mud". It was deliberately negative, showing that she had a very low self image because of her skin colour, a very real issue in that day and age; an issue which affected me as well. And the outside latrine argument doesn't convince me either. Can someone be sues soley on the grounds that a character is modelled on her, or does the depiction have to be negative, to account for the offence taken?

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There is no legal cause of action for insult, ridicule or mockery. The First Amendment to the US Constitution provides broad protections to speech and press, and those rights and the case law that develops them are clearly intended to prevent people from using litigation to try to silence or suppress speech and art that they find offensive.

There is a concept in US intellectual property law called "life story rights". It's more commonly an issue with film and television, but it's also relevant to publishing.

Attorney Mark Litwak writes about it here, with an emphasis on film and television issues.

Here's the thing. If the character of Aibilene is actually based on Ablene Cooper, and if The Help includes stories based on events from Ms. Cooper's life (and this is what Ms. Cooper will have to document)--

--and if Ms. Cooper wanted to write her own book now, presenting her own story of her life as a maid during the Civil Rights struggle

--she may be forestalled from profiting from her own experiences and character because Ms. Stockett had beat her to the market.

Now, it's hard to prove these cases, but people have won them. And the idea makes sense, yes? People who are private citizens should have the right to tell their own stories, or to decide who gets to tell their story.

As for the "why did many black Americans dislike this book intensely?" question, some views are highlighted in this New York Times piece.

For myself, as a white New Englander, I found Stockett's choice to render the black characters' dialogue in dialect and the white characters' dialogue in Standard English an awfully poor one.

IceCreamEmpress,

Life story rights are not a kind of intellectual property. That article refers to a kind of deal you make to authorize or assist in the creation of a biography or a movie about your life. But you cannot exclude people from telling a true story.

If you could, Lindsay Lohan could invoke intellectual property rights to prevent tabloids from writing about her drug addiction.

There are issues about appropriating another person's image for purposes of publicity, particularly where you make it appear as though that person is endorsing your product. But true events are not owned by anyone.

I've never read the book, but if Ms. Cooper can prove the similarities in court (which just looking at the facts thus far--are a lot) then she has a case and might just win.