JD Salinger's unseen writings to be published, family confirms • Hacker News Board

Re: JD Salinger's unseen writings to be published, family confirms

#41

Post by bloak » Tue, Feb 05, 2019, 9:32 AM UTC

oh_sigh wrote: post #22

bloak wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not take that to its logical conclusion and claim: if he truly never wanted them to be read, he would never have written them in the first place? To me it seems credible that a writer might want to hold on to some drafts, hoping to get round to editing them for publication, but doesn't want them edited by anyone else or published unedited. The question is, how to achieve that, seeing as one can't trust one's heir…

He should have put in his will and testament that all unfinished drafts should be destroyed. I don't believe it is possible to will property to people but put indefinite restrictions on legal usage of the property. I forget the exact term, but the restriction was put in place so that you don't get into a situation where estates are confined to operate in the manner that a long-dead great-great-great-great grandfather…

Perhaps you're thinking of "mortmain", a nice English/French word:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortmain https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_against_perpetuities

There's also the expression "dead hand", but that may also refer to a Soviet strategic defence system, which has also been referred to as "hand from coffin", which is certainly more fun than the official name.

Re: JD Salinger's unseen writings to be published, family confirms

#42

Post by toyg » Tue, Feb 05, 2019, 9:58 AM UTC

stupidcar wrote: post #27

ryanmcbride wrote: post #11

This gives me the same feeling as all these old Prince recordings from his vault coming out. On one hand it feels wrong on the part of the family/rights owners to release this stuff against the wishes of the deceased, but on the other hand I really want that forbidden media.

The interview makes it pretty clear that it isn't being published against his wishes. He wanted it out there, just not while he was alive. Now perhaps Salinger's son (and his widow) could be lying in the hope of profiting off his work, but if so he's chosen a strange way to go about it, blocking publication of his juvenilia and neglecting his own acting and producing career to spend what will apparently be the best p…

It might well be that it is a condition of his father’s will that he should make these arrangements. The royalties on “Catcher” alone are likely worth ten times what he could make from acting gigs (especially gigs he got: he was Captain America in that disgraced straight-to-video production...). At that point, might as well do things properly and carve yourself an essential role as the keeper of dad’s estate.

Re: JD Salinger's unseen writings to be published, family confirms

#43

Post by Ntrails » Tue, Feb 05, 2019, 11:27 AM UTC

pattisapu wrote: post #31

kregasaurusrex wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Contrast Prince with Terry Pratchett, whose estate followed his wishes of destroying the hard drives containing Terry's unfinished works with a steamroller.[0] [0] https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/aug/30/terry-pratchet...

That's terrible (to me, as a selfish fan). I'm happy that Max Brod published Kafka's works against his will that they should be incinerated. One never knows.

As a fan I would not want to read anything the author felt was unfinished. Worse, in Pratchetts case, I hate the idea that he would have stopped writing out of fear that part finished things would be released after he died.

Re: JD Salinger's unseen writings to be published, family confirms

#44

Post by logfromblammo » Tue, Feb 05, 2019, 4:45 PM UTC

function_seven wrote: post #37

balladeer wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if I do not want to leave my money to anyone, or part of it?

I’m not a lawyer, so I’m not sure. I imagine it would go to the state? Or you could specify the most extravagant funeral ever and be laid to rest in a diamond-encrusted gold coffin.

Property without heirs escheats to the state/crown. Wealth buried in your mausoleum goes to grave robbers, eventually.

You could pull a Goldfinger, and irradiate a bunch of gold bars, or otherwise render your wealth unvaluable or unspendable, but that just decreases the wealth supply and makes everything else in the economy a tiny fraction more valuable.

Even if you bought an extravagant Viking funeral, and burned your grave ship, and sank all your treasure to the bottom of the ocean, the world still turns without you. The value of money, goods, and services still depend mostly on the active participants in the economy. When you destroyed the representational tokens for the wealth in the economy that you controlled, their value was immediately redistributed to all the other tokens in existence, and those with the information about the destroyed tokens can theoretically earn arbitrage profit by spreading that information around.

The best you can do is to write a program that spends your estate after your death, give it to your lawyer to compile and execute on the legal mainframe, and hope no one can hack it before it accomplishes your intended goal.

Re: JD Salinger's unseen writings to be published, family confirms

#45

Post by alekseypo » Tue, Feb 05, 2019, 6:39 PM UTC

kakarot wrote: post #39

alekseypo wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the one place on the net I genuinely miss.

What a sad day for the internet. There is a place seeking to fill its shoes if you know where to look...

It's a happy memory now. Things shift and change. I satisfy my curiosity now thanks to that old and trusted friend slsk.

Re: JD Salinger's unseen writings to be published, family confirms

#46

Post by pattisapu » Tue, Feb 05, 2019, 10:23 PM UTC

Ntrails wrote: post #43

pattisapu wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's terrible (to me, as a selfish fan). I'm happy that Max Brod published Kafka's works against his will that they should be incinerated. One never knows.

As a fan I would not want to read anything the author felt was unfinished. Worse, in Pratchetts case, I hate the idea that he would have stopped writing out of fear that part finished things would be released after he died.

Sketches show the artist, and for that reason alone I would love to read such works.

Great point, though, on the potential chilling effect.

Re: JD Salinger's unseen writings to be published, family confirms

#47

Post by function_seven » Tue, Feb 05, 2019, 11:29 PM UTC

logfromblammo wrote: post #44

function_seven wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not a lawyer, so I’m not sure. I imagine it would go to the state? Or you could specify the most extravagant funeral ever and be laid to rest in a diamond-encrusted gold coffin.

Property without heirs escheats to the state/crown. Wealth buried in your mausoleum goes to grave robbers, eventually. You could pull a Goldfinger, and irradiate a bunch of gold bars, or otherwise render your wealth unvaluable or unspendable, but that just decreases the wealth supply and makes everything else in the economy a tiny fraction more valuable. Even if you bought an extravagant Viking funeral, and burned yo…

> The best you can do is to write a program that spends your estate after your death, give it to your lawyer to compile and execute on the legal mainframe, and hope no one can hack it before it accomplishes your intended goal.

This is way cooler than my gold coffin idea!

Finally, a use for Etherium I can get behind.

Re: JD Salinger's unseen writings to be published, family confirms

#48

Post by gagarine » Fri, Feb 08, 2019, 8:49 AM UTC

Just scan it all and release the archive in the public domain. I feel his soon is more interested by making $$ from copyright than really giving the archive to the fans.