Goodreads Librarians Group discussion

Dear Librarians,

Here I submit to your expertise an issue with some intrinsic complexity: a misattribution of authorship, which is nevertheless widely accepted, with the text often seen as created by the person who made it popular.

If "everyone" thinks that a text was written by a supposed author, with even books misattributing it to them, are Goodreads quotes expected to follow accuracy or popular tradition?

The issue:

Mother Teresa painted Kent M. Keith's « The Paradoxical Commandments » on the wall of her children's orphanage, adding some further encouraging words to it, including "it's all about you and God anyway." This dramatically increased the poem's recognition and led to its widespread attribution to her.

This is the website dedicated to the poem:
• https://www.paradoxicalcommandments.com/

These are quotes attributing it to Mother Teresa:
• https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/7969043
• https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/1126430
• https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/7550795
• https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/7175015
• https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/70889
• https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/240433
• https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/9862766
• https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/7969043
• https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/875778
• https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/8204875
• https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/965616
• https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/7913180
• https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/1096...
• https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/7720191
• https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/1234...
• https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/1234...
• https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/1234...

I appreciate your perspective on the matter.

Anyway: The Paradoxical Commandments : Finding Personal Meaning in a Crazy World

Kent M. Keith

Ísis wrote: "Dear Librarians,

Here I submit to your expertise an issue with some intrinsic complexity: a misattribution of authorship, which is nevertheless widely accepted, with the text often seen as created..."

Hi Isis
Thank you for researching this.
Unfortunately the merge function for quotes has been broken for 11 years with no sign that Goodreads will ever fix this.

I looked at the first one - as it is a complete poem I believe it should be be deleted - but I can't delete 'quotes' that have been added more than 10 times. You need a Super for that.

I'm not prepared to look through the others unless you break them up a bit. Could you number them & put a line break after every fifth one.

This is mentioned in a general thread about getting help on Goodreads. (#5)

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

If any need a Super if you could put them in a Separate post & include "needs a Super" in the title.

If the quote needs a deleting that would be a quote with over 10 likes. If it can be edited (the tags can make it clear that this is actually Keith's quote) that would be over 500 likes.

Thanks. I know Goodreads can be a very confusing place!