This article is based on this Dutch article of Martijn Benders
### A Serious Form of Plagiarism
Bertus Dijk died in 2005, ten years after the unpleasant Trouw review in which his philosophy book was utterly trashed in a rather absurd way: the entire book was described as a kind of “Private Moment” of a student airing dirty laundry against his teacher.
(Dijk was 70 when the book was published) – Written by Hans Dijkhuis, a “philosopher” with books about evil and Cain and Abel. I have read the book by now:
It is a well-argued treatise that only briefly touches upon a conflict with a teacher in the introduction. It’s completely bizarre to review it that way, but anyone who reads the book quickly understands why: Dijk argues that, in essence, system philosophy functions as a vestibule to theology. I believe he is right.
Hegel, Locke, and other systematic philosophers made assumptions that are not scientific at all and lead to a distorted view of reality, for example, by constantly talking about primary and secondary properties (form would be a primary property of an object, color a secondary one) – Dijk rightly argues that this distinction is completely fictitious and, as such, is essentially just theology.
After reading five of Dijk’s books, I would describe him as a decent translator with a preference for protest poems where injustice prevails. As a philosopher, I find him good by Dutch standards, but he was ridiculed in an absurd manner by the religious factions. No other review of the book exists. Dijk had to make do with this one. I believe that Dijkhuis also wrote a book about gnomes, if I am not mistaken:
Hans was early among the gnome elite.
Alright, on to higher realms. Today I wrote three poems. The first is of course inspired by Arvo Pärt and his method of attaining divinity, the second is a translation of Csoori, and the third a poem about Rijkels, who doesn’t know them:
I feel compelled to annotate almost everything with footnotes, not to undo my own exile, but rather out of pity for the readers who lack the cultural frame of reference without explanation.
But we are now writing in a time when the news was replaced by a ‘news without difficult words’.
Yesterday, dear reader, I was shocked by an unrelenting discovery: a blatant, shameless form of plagiarism revealed itself on the lowest of platforms – social media.
Compare with my work Treatise of the Sun:
My outrage, oh, my fury knew no bounds at that moment. This was no innocent appropriation, no accidental resemblance that the unassuming reader might forgive. No, this was the disgraceful imitation of my own work, Treatise of the Sun, a masterpiece that captured the glory of the firmament in a pure, mathematically measured circle on brown parchment.
One might reason, as only a naive mortal would, that a circle – oh, a circle! – is too banal, too basic to justify any copyright claim. However, this is the reasoning of a misguided mind that does not grasp the subtlety of my artistic endeavor. A circle is not a simple shape; it is the symbol of perfection, the closed nature of the universe in a timeless loop. But it is not just the circle that was stolen from me, dear reader; it is the relationship of that circle to the space – the subtle tension between the perfect curve and the empty, brown expanse that embraces it.
And here, precisely here, a lazy, uninventive designer borrowed. No attempt was made to mask this theft, no effort to conceal the resemblance or even add a hint of originality! Changing the color to light blue, nothing more!!! No, what I see here is nothing less than a lethargic, pitiful parody of my work, stolen without any acknowledgment or shame. This lazy imitator, this hypocritical fraud, has with gross ease appropriated what is rightfully my creation – the perfect circle, the brilliant centerpiece of my opus, so carelessly thrown onto another sheet, as if it were nothing more than a trivial doodle!
Do not think, reader, that I will remain silent as this outrage unfolds. No, I will not let this injustice slide into oblivion. Just as the sun banishes the darkness each day, so will I seek my right – and with the same intensity will I protect my intellectual work from these shameless violators of art. For whoever dishonors genius, attacks the heart of humanity itself!
Martinus Benders, 15-09-2024