The Original of Laura

It's getting bashed a bit. We featured a review of it the other night on AuthorScoop.

if you want a manuscript destroyed, you'd best build a fire and toss it in there yourself.

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Yes.


It's sad for his memory and still a unique opportunity to get a glimpse at the process, but overall, I think they shouldn't have done it.

They're outing Jung's THE RED BOOK against his wishes, too.

It's a tough thing. Best burn it, like you say, because the temptation is too great.

Nabokov is my favorite writer, and I'm excited to read it, though I'm not expecting it to be a masterpiece. He didn't consider it finished, so I won't, either.

The two books mentioned will primarily interest scholars of Nabokov and Jung, as well as their hardcore fans. These two groups will know how to receive the posthumous publications, I think.

Yes, you'd better burn yourself anything you want burned, if there's any possibility your heirs could profit by your manuscripts or notes. Or, to be less cynical, if there's any possibility your heirs might think the world enriched by their publication.

In any case, the authors are dead. They probably don't care about the posthumous publications. If they do, they'll just have to haunt the offending parties -- the spectral lawsuit, as it were.

Phaeal said:

These two groups will know how to receive the posthumous publications, I think.

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I agree. It's harder in the case of Jung's book, because he was always (so it sounds) divided on whether to share that work or not. He knew very well that he came off a ranting lunatic in it, but he found great value in the fits that worked themselves out in that production.

Nabokov just sounds like someone who would never come to the door in his dressing gown, but that he couldn't bear to part with the work he was unable to finish.

Apparantly Laura's not very good. And you've got the old paedophilic element in there too...