5 ms·
What could reason could there be not to steamroll them if he wished for it?
by anotheryou 3y ago
What could reason could there be not to steamroll them if he wished for it?
- GranularRecipe 3y agoThe right of the general public to read the unpublished novels might override the wish of a dead person. Maybe.
- INTPenis 3y agoRight? That would be a privilege, not a right.
- kozinc 3y agoMost definitely. People would still want to read them though.
- Planktonne 3y agoThe public doesn't have a right to force expression.
- tssva 3y ago> The right of the general public to read the unpublished novels Such a right doesn't exist.
- Arcanum-XIII 3y agoThe artist has the right to choose when and what he publish. We should respect that (and I'm a huge fan of T. Pratchett). Maybe they were not up to his standard, too unrefined...
- ekianjo 3y agoSince when such a right exists? Did you just make it up out of thin air?
- mihaic 3y agoIt might have brought joy to millions of people?
- master-lincoln 3y agoMaybe, but against his will. That seems pretty privacy invasive to publish private notes against one's will
- anotheryou 3y agoWell we also don't force nude pictures of celebrities to be published at any point. If he didn't want to share it, we should respect that wish. Even if it's just for our peace of mind that our wishes might be respected.
- Freak_NL 3y agoReleasing a bunch of unfinished novels might have disappointed many people too. Either by having a negative effect on his published works, or on their own. It could reflect badly on his estate which manages the IP and presumably acts in good faith to preserve his legacy and reputation. In the end its up to the creator and the executor of their will to decide how their remaining artefacts are to be treated.
- Ekaros 3y agoIt is not rarely when the unpublished works don't really work out so great or compare well to published works. And with Terry I have to admit that the last works I have read were not as good as works sometime before them. So these might have been even less representative of his work.
- defrost 3y agoIn December 2007, Pratchett announced that he had been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease. This was eight years before his death in 2015. I have no doubt that he continued writing from habit and I also have little doubt that what he wrote increasingly looked like word salad. He was very likely all too aware that his unfinished works needed a strong overhaul from an editor in close partnership to tease out portions that were utterly at odds with what he had intended to say or thought he had written. In the event of death apply steamroller seems like a wise choice.
- jackvalentine 3y agoOnly greed.
- kozinc 3y agoWell, if I have to point out the obvious, so that people could read those unfinished novels. (regardless of his wishes)
- anotheryou 3y agoI should have worded it better: "What reason could possibly outweigh his wish." But I think the spirit of my question was clear and you are nitpicking. So no, you did not have to point out the obvious :P
- developer93 3y agoFinding a steam roller seemed to be harder than it sounds, but I feel like if the estate of Terry Pratchett asked for it they would find someone willing to fire one up for the sake of his final wish.
- Freak_NL 3y agoProbably even a decent number of steamroller operators.
- developer93 3y agoThey could probably run a competition to choose the person to have the honour of fulfilling the last wish of Sir Terry Pratchett.
- Hamuko 3y agoAre we talking finding about a generic (most likely diesel-powered) road roller or an actual steamroller?
- yreg 3y agoSome people see little reason to respect wishes of dead people.
- tinus_hn 3y agoWould the world be a better place without Kafka’s ‘the Trial’?
- anotheryou 3y agoDid Kafka speak against it's publication?
- blkhawk 3y agoI think he wanted his stuff destroyed. Quote from an article about him: "Before he died, Kafka had written a letter to Brod, who found it when he went to clear out Kafka's desk. In this "last will", Kafka instructed Brod to burn all his manuscripts, including his letters and diaries."
- anotheryou 3y agoAh thx. He's especially influential in retrospect, not sure how that weighs in. In general however I also value a society that respects me after death.
- vasco 3y agoIf you pay a bit of attention you see that dead people's wishes are worth very little to the living. Even regular people with basic requests are completely ignored even if simple. Specially when the requests are things like "just don't sell X" or "please make sure Y person gets Z thing". Trying to control what happens after we're dead is normal and I guess it can fuel motivation to work harder and have a purpose, but it's kinda pointless.
- ekianjo 3y agoYet copyright magically materializes for 75 years after the author has turned to dust
- drewcoo 3y agoBlame the mouse for that.
- MagnumOpus 3y agoAnd the endless greed of Mary Bono.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- michaelt 3y ago> If you pay a bit of attention you see that dead people's wishes are worth very little to the living. In some cases there are good reasons for that, which is why common law has the "rule against perpetuities" After all, if some eccentric landowner in the 1800s was scared of electricity and put a clause in their will that electricity could never be used on their property - why should the rightful owners of the property in modern times be bound by the wishes of the long dead? Of course in the specific case of an author's hard drive, I think it's right to respect their wishes - I wouldn't want the contents of my hard drive published after my death, no matter how much joy it might bring to voyeurs.
- marbletiles 3y agoThere is a long history in literature of ignoring author’s wishes: for example, we wouldn’t know of Kafka if Max Brod hadn’t ignored his instructions to destroy the manuscripts of The Castle, the Trial and others. (I’m not saying this makes it right, but there’s a long precedent for it happening)
- mananaysiempre 3y agoNot only in literature: many things published as Op. posth. in music are also unauthorized—e.g. Chopin’s Fantasie-Impromptu was posthumously released against the explicit wishes of the author. (Contemporary French copyright law prohibits that for unpublished works—in perpetuity, IIRC.)
- yyyk 3y agoKafka's last wish was also to burn his notes and remaining books. It didn't happen. I'll leave the debate on that to others.