Robert Clark Young

Robert Clark Young (born 1960) is an American author of novels, essays, and short stories. Recurring themes in Young's work include the relation between alcoholism, the abuse of power, and institutional dysfunction in American life, within contemporary and historical contexts. Young has been involved in several controversies about both the fiction and journalistic articles he has written.

Young's life

Born in Hollywood, California, Young was raised in Los Angeles and San Diego and won fellowships to study writing at the University of San Diego; the University of California, Davis, where he studied with Beat Generation author Gary Snyder; and the University of Houston, in the doctoral Creative Writing Program founded by postmodern satirist Donald Barthelme. The Creative Writing Program at UC Davis awards a Master's degree that is equivalent to an M.F.A. [ [http://www.mobylives.com/letters.html Letter by Robert Clark Young "MFA Programs 'weed out the whiners'"] , Moby Lives, June 29, 2005 (Accessed December 13, 2005); [http://wwwenglish.ucdavis.edu/ UC-Davis homepage] (Accessed December 13, 2005); and [http://www-ucdmag.ucdavis.edu/fall99/ClassNotes_80s.html UC Davis Magazine, Class Notes, 1988] (Accessed December 13, 2005).] Young's first teaching job, when he was 25, was as a civilian working on U.S. Navy ships deployed throughout the Far East. This experience would form the basis for his first novel, "One of the Guys", published by HarperCollins in 1999.

When not writing, Young has been active in the anti-Iraq-war movement and was arrested twice in 2003 for nonviolent protest of the Iraq War.

Controversy over "One of the Guys"

"One of the Guys" is a satire about a man impersonating a U.S. Navy chaplain on a ship that suffers a series of comic misadventures in the Far East. The novel gained notoriety shortly after publication when the American Family Association objected to Young's portrayal of a man posing as a Christian chaplain during deployment to ports where an alcoholic crew avails itself of child prostitution. The AFA, which had previously used the work of artists to attack the funding practices of the National Endowment for the Arts, lobbied the U.S. Congress to have the agency defunded.

Young responded, in "The Washington Post" and elsewhere, that the controversial sections of "One of the Guys" were not pornographic, but had been written to expose what he saw as the U.S. Navy's complicity in child prostitution overseas. He perceived an inconsistency in the AFA objecting to taxpayer funding of a book that exposed and criticized sexual exploitation, when the AFA should have been objecting to taxpayer funding of the exploitation itself.

"One of the Guys" was subsequently nominated for the PEN/Newman's Own First Amendment Award, which recognizes authors who have stood up to censorship in the United States.

The Neilson/Kingsolver and "Wind Done Gone" Controversies

In May, 2001 Young published an article in the San Francisco Chronicle that accused novelist Melany Neilson of plagiarizing, in The Persia Cafe, significant portions of verbatim text from the novel The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver. Young criticized Neilson's publisher, St. Martin's Press, for refusing to pull copies of "The Persia Cafe" from stores. Young placed his argument within the context of the concurrent litigation between Alice Randall and the estate of Margaret Mitchell, author of Gone with the Wind. He argued that Randall's book, The Wind Done Gone, was not in fact an instance of plagiarism, because Randall's intent was humorous and parodic, and therefore deserving of First Amendment protection, while Neilson's borrowing from Kingsolver involved verbatim text without parodic intent, thus Neilson's borrowing was not protected. [ [http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2001/05/18/ED197693.DTL&hw=robert+clark+young&sn=001&sc=1000 "Scarlett O'Hara Incorporated" by Robert Clark Young] "San Francisco Chronicle", May 18, 2001. Accessed Dec. 12, 2005.] Randall's attorneys cited Young's opinion piece among the evidence in favor of Randall, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit vacated an injunction against publishing the book in "Suntrust v. Houghton Mifflin" .

Article about Brad Vice

Young also wrote a much-publicized article in the New York Press about Brad Vice, a short-story writer whose first collection, The Bear Bryant Funeral Train, won the 2005 Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction from the University of Georgia Press. Vice's collection was later pulled from the shelves and destroyed by his publisher, based on an allegation of plagiarism. [ [http://www.al.com/books/mobileregister/jsledge.ssf?/base/entertainment/1131804990160680.xml&coll=3 "Plagiarism Charges Pull Prizewinner from Shelves," by John Sledge] Mobile Register, Nov. 12, 2005. Accessed Dec. 15, 2005.] Young's article summarized the plagiarism case against Vice while also claiming to discover an additional plagiarism charge against Vice. Young was the first to discover and report that Vice's "Tuscaloosa Knights" story appears not only in the pulped book, but also in Vice's 2001 University of Cincinnati dissertation draft of "The Bear Bryant Funeral Train". [ [http://www.nypress.com/18/48/news&columns/RobertClarkYoung.cfm "A Charming Plagiarist: The Downfall of Brad Vice" by Robert Clark Young] "New York Press", Vol 18, Issue 48, November 30-Dec 6, 2005. Accessed Dec. 3, 2005.] Young's article stimulated a great deal of Internet discussion and was cited by a number of blogs and a newspaper in Japan. [ [http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/features/book/20051211TDY18003.htm Plagiarism Scandal Derails Vice's 'Train'] . Tom Baker, Daily Yomiuri. Accessed Dec 15, 2005.] Many independent bloggers agreed with Young that Vice had committed plagiarism. [ [http://www.scalzi.com/whatever/003885.html How Not to Plagiarize] by John Scalzi accessed May 6, 2007] [ [http://www.metafilter.com/47169/Plagiarism-and-Vice Plagiarism and Vice] Metafilter.com accessed May 6, 2007] [ [http://misssnark.blogspot.com/2005/10/when-copying-is-wrong-thing-to-do.html When Copying is the Wrong Thing to Do] Miss Snark accessed May 6, 2007] [ [http://misssnark.blogspot.com/2005/12/talk-about-train-wrecks.html Talk about Train Wrecks] Miss Snark accessed May 6, 2007] [ [http://cs.writermag.com/forums/67769/PrintPost.aspx A Young Fiction Writer Stymied by Plagiarism] Writer Mag Forums accessed May 6, 2007]

Young's other writings

Young's essay " [http://www.eastbaywriters.com/non_fiction/bob/biginnings.html One Writer’s Big Innings] ", a comic look at the struggles of a young writer, was reprinted in "AWP Chronicle", nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and won the "Black Warrior Review"’s Best of the 1990s Nonfiction Award in 2002.

Young continued to write and publish in the wake of the One of the Guys controversy. He began work on a multi-volume historical novel based on the half-century of conflict between the alcoholic pro-German newspaper publisher Cissy Patterson and her daughter, the Countess Felicia Gizycka, who was one of the founding female members of Alcoholics Anonymous. [ [http://www.dcn.davis.ca.us/~gizmo/2005/felicia.html Meet Countess Felicia, The Richest Girl in the World] by Elisabeth Sherwin "Davis Enterprise", August 1, 2005.]

References

External links

* Collier, Gene, [http://www.post-gazette.com/columnists/20001025gene.asp NEA Foes Miss Boat on Satire] , "Pittsburgh Post Gazette", October 25, 2000
* Garvin, Cosmo [http://www.newsreview.com/issues/sacto/2001-03-01/news.asp Moral Minority] , "Sacramento News and Review", March 1, 2001
* Hansen, Suzy, [http://archive.salon.com/books/feature/2001/03/22/guys/ Our Wolves in Uniform] "Salon.com", March 22, 2001
* McInerney, Tom, [http://www.pw.org/mag/newsmcinerny115.htm NEA Funding up Despite Criticism] "Poets and Writers Magazine", January 2001
* Quinn, Brad, [http://www.citybeat.com/2000-11-16/books.shtml In the Navy] "Cincinnati CityBeat", November 16, 2000
* Sherwin, Elisabeth, [http://www.dcn.davis.ca.us/~gizmo/2000/bobclark.html First Amendment Sweethearts, Bob and Isabel] , "Davis Enterprise", October 15, 2000
* Sherwin, Elisabeth, [http://www.dcn.davis.ca.us/~gizmo/2005/felicia.html Meet Countess Felicia, The Richest Girl in the World] , "Davis Enterprise", August 1, 2005
* Young, Robert Clark, [http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A9154-2000Dec14&notFound=true A Strange 'Family Values' Attack on the NEA] "Washington Post", December 15, 2000
* Young, Robert Clark, " [http://www.eastbaywriters.com/non_fiction/bob/mimiandcecilia.html Mimi and Cecilia: A Recollection] " "Santa Monica Review", Spring, 2003
* Young, Robert Clark, " [http://www.eastbaywriters.com/non_fiction/bob/biginnings.html One Writer’s Big Innings] " "Black Warrior Review", Fall, 1992.