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.
JD Salinger's unseen writings to be published, family confirms
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Re: JD Salinger's unseen writings to be published, family confirms
#12This 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.
A few posthumous items are coming out lately and the same comment keeps coming up: it's ok to have conflicting feelings.
We can acknowledge we'd like to respect the artist's wishes and yet, they are gone—and I think it's ok to delve into their hidden lives, as long as no-one living is going to be put to shame.
Re: JD Salinger's unseen writings to be published, family confirms
#13[deleted]
Re: JD Salinger's unseen writings to be published, family confirms
#14Re: JD Salinger's unseen writings to be published, family confirms
#15Some will argue that it goes against everything Salinger would want. e.g. He doesn't want to be "judged" à la "Catcher in the Rye". However, if he truly never wanted them to be read, he would have burned them immediately after being written.
Also, he's dead, so why do we care?
[deleted]
Re: JD Salinger's unseen writings to be published, family confirms
#16This 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.
A few posthumous items are coming out lately and the same comment keeps coming up: it's ok to have conflicting feelings. We can acknowledge we'd like to respect the artist's wishes and yet, they are gone—and I think it's ok to delve into their hidden lives, as long as no-one living is going to be put to shame.
Another unworkable posthumous wish was Albert Barnes, who was a patron of many impressionist painters around the turn of the last century: Renoir, Matisse, Degas, etc.
He bought thousands of famous works and arranged them to his taste, tightly packed on the walls in a tiny building in Merion, PA, USA. The good news is the foundation could bring out now priceless masterworks on easels to compare close up for art classes--my grandmother attended one--a rare opportunity anywhere, and anyone could tour for free.
The bad news was his will stipulated the works needed to stay as he arranged them, in that building, where there was only room to display around a tenth of his collection; the place was cramped, difficult to view the works, difficult to secure them, and probably a fire hazard for the works and the visitors.
Ultimately, after much debate and lawyering, the collection was moved to a modern facility down the street from the PMA in Philly. The letter of his will was overridden, but the intent--clearly public access and education--was followed.
Re: JD Salinger's unseen writings to be published, family confirms
#17This 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.
A few posthumous items are coming out lately and the same comment keeps coming up: it's ok to have conflicting feelings. We can acknowledge we'd like to respect the artist's wishes and yet, they are gone—and I think it's ok to delve into their hidden lives, as long as no-one living is going to be put to shame.
Definitely. I'm comfortable with this conflict. I don't believe in an afterlife so I know the artists don't actually care, it's more of a respecting the memory thing. I'm happy to finally be able to access these unearthed works, but part of me always silently apologizes first.
Re: JD Salinger's unseen writings to be published, family confirms
#18For anybody who is possibly interested, I suggest trying to read "Hapworth 16, 1924" (the last story he published). To me, after trying (I've found the whole story)... it's just... not worth the time.
https://themillions.com/2015/06/hapworth-revisited-on-j-d-sa...
"One of the most critically derided passages of the story takes up around a quarter its length and consists entirely of Seymour’s absurd and entirely age inappropriate list of requested reading material: “the complete works again of Count Leo Tolstoy […] any thoughtful books on human whirling or spinning […and] both the French edition and Mr. Cotton’s wonderful translation of Montaigne’s essays.”"
caveat lector.
Re: JD Salinger's unseen writings to be published, family confirms
#19On one hand it will be great to read more of his work but on the other hand I will have to read the god awful reviews and overhear my friends discussing these works at parties. J.D. Salinger is society’s most unflattering mirror.
Re: JD Salinger's unseen writings to be published, family confirms
#20We changed the URL from https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/feb/01/jd-salingers-u... to the much more interesting interview with the son.