Diskdrive World - Terry Pratchett's Unfinished...

[Biskit]

Mods - please move if this is the wrong place for this...

So, what would you like done with your unfinished works after you die? Here's the Terry Pratchett answer...
Terry Pratchett's unpublished works crushed by steamroller - BBC News

 

[Overread]

A comic method but the message is clear that he didn't want people ghost-writing or cobbling his stories together after his death. Still one wonders; did he keep backups!

 

[Montero]

Rob the assistant will have dealt with any back-ups.

 

[Phyrebrat]

What a miserable old b******.

I've never read any Terry Pratchett (!) so I'm just going from my own opinions, but ... ugh. Horrible man.

pH

 

[Nick B]

I'm sad there is no more, but glad because anything now would be a sad, pale immitation of a world, and author, I love.

 

[Amelia Faulkner]

While it saddens me, those were his wishes.

 

[Overread]

What a miserable old b******.

I've never read any Terry Pratchett (!) so I'm just going from my own opinions, but ... ugh. Horrible man.

pH

I don't see how its horrible; most authors only publish a tiny amount of what they produce in concepts and potential writing. It wasn't finished books that were destroyed but likely ideas, concepts, bits and dead ends as well as buts cut from other stories. Whilst there is some interest in such material its also the kind of stuff that really tends to be rather pointless. Unless someone goes through and adds a lot of the missing parts to make them into readable stories - and chances are that he just didn't want anyone else writing his story for him.

 

[Phyrebrat]

It's horrible because it's such a mean-spirited way to go about it.

Surely some kind of injunction could be made à la Stanley Kubrick. And if not, then a direction in his LW&T that the hard drives be wiped without all the spiteful dramatics.

pH

 

[Stephen Palmer]

My respect for Terry is increased even more by this news. The mark of a true author, a man unafraid to destroy what would not be his. Fantastic.

 

[Paul_C]

I felt that his last couple of completed books were quite poor due to his illness, so I'd rather remember all the great books and not run the risk of reading anything that fell even further below his best.

It's not as if there isn't plenty there to read already

 

[Biskit]

I'm sad there is no more, but glad because anything now would be a sad, pale immitation of a world, and author, I love.

There seems to be no shortage out there of 'franchises' being taken on/sold on, even with the original author still alive. That said, I find it impossible to believe that you could find anyone with that same blend of wit, charm, broad knowledge and sharp view on life that would qualify them them to go anywhere near trying to 'finish' Terry Pratchett's 'unfinished'.

Terry Pratchett is gone, and I was so looking forwards to more, but at least no-one gets to tinker with the legacy. Authors die - enjoy what they wrote without chasing what they might have written.

 

[Nick B]

I felt similar @Paul_C the last two really, they wern't 'Pratchetty'. Nothing wrong with them as such, but they didn't sparkle. I can't think of a better, or correct, term. There was just something missing. I guess it was parts of Terry.

 

[Lumens]

It's horrible because it's such a mean-spirited way to go about it.

It's just drama, with a bit of humour mixed in. After all, who knows drama better than an author?

That's the way I see it anyway. I was never a fan, but I like his style.

 

[The Big Peat]

It's horrible because it's such a mean-spirited way to go about it.

Surely some kind of injunction could be made à la Stanley Kubrick. And if not, then a direction in his LW&T that the hard drives be wiped without all the spiteful dramatics.

pH

I don't see anything spiteful or mean spirited about it and neither, it seems, do most of his fans. Its a bit of light hearted showmanship entirely in keeping with his humour and his stated intent that the only thing he'd leave behind were his finished works. And I, along with most of his other fans, can't think of many authors I'd describe as less horrible than Pratchett.

Besides, physical destruction of the hard drive is considered the only safe way of ensuring that sensitive data cannot be recovered in a lot of walks of life. It's what happens (or should) to all NHS hard drives that have contained patient data. An intact drive can still be stolen and data recovery will usually find it even if wiped. The only thing you can't steal data from is a destroyed drive.

 

[Wruter]

Quite a contrast to Stephen King, whose unfinished works are already in library collections and have their own wikipedia page.

As a fan I would have liked to see a retrospective collection of the best unpublished bits, similar to Douglas Adams with The Salmon of Doubt, but Pratchett's own stated wishes for the material should be upheld above all.

 

[Vaz]

This ^

His work's his wishes.

v

 

[Phyrebrat]

I'm not arguing his logic, just the pettiness.

pH

 

[Overread]

Given the choice between hammer and steamroller - the steamroller is far more fun!

 

[The Big Peat]

I'm not arguing his logic, just the pettiness.

pH

And I am beyond mystified as to how you see pettiness in his actions.

edit: I feel like you're seeing this as some big "Eff you" or "Nyaaaah you can't have this". And I really don't see that.

Leaving aside the issue that we've no idea what actual instructions were left in the will and to what extent public destruction is Pratchett's idea and to what extent its others' idea, I see it as "Well, its going to be done, so what's the most fun way of doing it?"

Unless you think the pettiness lies in a storyteller ensuring his stories won't be altered/finished by others after his death, in which case I can only vehemently disagree.

 

[Cathbad]

I can only vehemently disagree

Don't be vehement.