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Terry Pratchett's Unpublished Works Securely Deleted

posted by Fnord666 on Friday September 08 2017, @09:36PM   
from the fighting-the-writing-dead dept.

darnkitten writes:

In a rare moment of sanity in the literary world, the manager of the late Sir Terry Pratchett's estate has followed the beloved author's wishes and destroyed the hard drive of the computer containing his unfinished works by crushing it with a steamroller. As many as ten unfinished works were on the drive, which, after being unsuccessfully steamrolled several times, was finally securely destroyed by being put through a rock crusher.

The pieces will be displayed at the Salisbury Museum as part of a Pratchett exhibition.

While I do, personally and professionally, mourn the loss of Sir Terry's remaining work; as a librarian navigating a publishing world increasingly dominated by the likes of James Patterson's literary mill, I applaud the Pratchett estate's willingness to defend him from a legacy of eternal "new releases" based on random back-of-a-napkin jottings and used-bubble-gum-wrapper sketches, as seems to be the industry norm these days.

Now, all they have to do is resist the no-doubt-considerable monetary lure of officially-licensed Terry Pratchett's Discworld (TM) novels.

That being said, what posthumous releases or ghostwritten literary sequels have you read and enjoyed? Also, do you consider any of those be considered worthy sequels or additions to the originals?

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Original Submission

• Tough shit, literary researchers of the future Tough shit, literary researchers of the future (Score: 5, Informative) by rigrig on Saturday September 09 2017, @01:40AM (1 child)

  by rigrig (5129) <soylentnews@tubul.net> on Saturday September 09 2017, @01:40AM (#565427) Homepage

  To me this felt like a very Pratchett Thing to do, and reminded me of this quote:

  I save about twenty drafts -- that's ten meg of disc space -- and the last one contains all the final alterations. Once it has been printed out and received by the publishers, there's a cry here of 'Tough shit, literary researchers of the future, try getting a proper job!' and the rest are wiped.

  -- (Terry Pratchett, alt.fan.pratchett)

  Re

  I applaud the Pratchett estate's willingness to defend him from a legacy of eternal "new releases"
  Now, all they have to do is resist the no-doubt-considerable monetary lure of officially-licensed Terry Pratchett's Discworld (TM) novels.

  I think that even if this wasn't about respecting his wishes, his daughter is smart enough to realize that
  a) the real money is in live-action adaptations anyway, and
  b) PTerry was a pretty brilliant and unique writer, and right now Discworld novels are known for being the great mix of satire and humor they are, which is not a brand identity you want to dilute by publishing a few sub-par "official" books in the same series.

  Also: If you're not scared of text-based games, have a look at the Discworld MUD [starturtle.net]. (It's completely run by volunteers who don't even accept any donations, which is why since PTerry heard of it he has been denying any knowledge of it.)

  --
  No one remembers the singer.

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• Re:Tough shit, literary researchers of the future (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 09 2017, @10:24AM

  by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 09 2017, @10:24AM (#565572)

  He is fine with the Discworld MUD as it does not generate revenue or affect his work. I played it for years before meeting him at a book signing. He denied all knowledge of it :)

  Parent