Thread: A question about Plagiarism/Borrowing

So, I would like to make a literary nod to Richard Adams for his "Watership Down" novel because he was a large inspiration for my current novel. I was hoping to include a brief scene with a rabbit who will use the lapine language Richard Adams created for his novel and refer to the Rabbit "god" Frith. But does this constitute plagiarism and would I get strung up on a line if I included it? It would of course just be this one small part, a crossover into Richard Adams' world for a brief moment but I certainly would not want to be copying or doing anything unpleasant as I would mean it as an acknowledgement and delight for familiar readers.

Thoughts?

No, that happens all the time. So long as the words are different, and it's so obviously, and even humorously similar, it's consider a reference. If the author ever reads your book, he'd probably laugh for a while when he reads that part.