A reader over on Io9 recently brought up some striking similarities between James Cameron’s upcoming Avatar and a 1957 short story called Call Me Joe, written by Poul Anderson and included in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Two.

Like Avatar, Call Me Joe centers on a paraplegic — Ed Anglesey — who telepathically connects with an artificially created life form in order to explore a harsh planet (in this case, Jupiter). Anglesey, like Avatar‘s Jake Sully, revels in the freedom and strength of his artificial created body, battles predators on the surface of Jupiter, and gradually goes native as he spends more time connected to his artificial body.

Should the similarities between Avatar and Call Me Joe cause problems for Cameron, it wouldn’t be the first time.  After The Terminator came out, writer Harlan Ellison sued the production company for plagiarizing two episodes he wrote for The Outer Limits. Even though Cameron took Ellison’s ideas in a very different and novel direction, the company settled with Ellison, who is now acknowledged in the film’s credits.

Call me Joe sounds pretty similar to the Avatar plot, and if the cover art means anything, in both the aliens are blue cat people (though in Call Me Joe‘s case they’re way-more-awesome centaurs).  Poul Anderson also wrote a 1978 novel called The Avatar, which says… uh… something.  But even if Cameron did steal it, at least give him credit for finding something people had forgotten while everyone else in Hollywood is busy ripping off 300 and Shaun of the Dead.  And for being able to read.

[via Io9, CHUD]

Twilight Mormon Stephenie Meyer is getting sued by 21-year-old writer Jordan Scott, who claims Meyer lifted parts of Breaking Dawn from Scott’s 2006 book The Nocturne (which Scott says she started writing when she was 15).  So… Stephenie Meyer stole her ideas from a 15-year-old girl?  Yeah, that sounds about right.

The letter from Scott’s lawyer claims there are a number of coincidences in the plotlines of the books, including a wedding, a post-wedding sex scene, a woman becoming sick because she’s carrying a child with “evil powers” and the death of a main character. …Scott also claims that “both the ideas and in many instances the text” of the two books are very similar.

…In Scott’s book, the description reads in part, “Her face was so pale, it was frightening; and there were beads of sweat pouring down her forehead. She couldn’t even stand, she was so weak. … She was violently ill, vomiting and scarcely able to catch her breath.”

In the allegedly similar scene in “Dawn,” Meyer writes: “Most of her dark hair was pulled away from her face into a messy knot, but a few strands stuck limply to her forehead and neck, to the sheen of sweat that covered her skin. There was something about her fingers and wrists that looked so fragile it was scary. She was sick. Very sick.” [via MTV, TMZ - You can also read the full complaint here, but check your brain at the door]

The main similarity I see is that both these chicks are horrible writers.  “So fragile it was scary.”  “So pale it was frightening.”  Notice how neither actually describes the scene, only the half-assed idea the author wants to get across?  I can’t help but imagine this as a Johnny Carson bit:  Johnny: “She was so pale…”  Audience: “HOW PALE WAS SHE?”  Johnny: “She was SO PALE… it was SCARY!”    “HOW SCARY WAS IT?”  “It was VERY scary.”