Posted by Forrest Brownell on September 26, 1997 at 19:14:24:
In Reply to: Re: hic liber est meus posted by Matthew Townend on September 25, 1997 at 13:39:38:
Mr Townend would, of course, not expect me to agree. Whilst he obviously
holds the tiller in a firm hand, I fear that he has brought his ship into shoal
waters. Of course the literary culture of Shakespeare's time was most unlike
that of our own, but today's authors still adapt, borrow and extend each other's
work, and, to my knowledge, neither parody nor pastiche is yet dead. It may well
be, too, that the concept of the 'fixed text' is doomed, one casualty among many
attending the coming electronic revolution in publishing. 'Fluidity', I suspect,
will be the hallmark of the coming literary age, just as it was in Shakepeare's
time.
Nothing that I have written, of course, challenges the right of Ransome's heirs
to protect (and exploit) his literary legacy. I do not myself seek permission to
complete the unfinished 13th tale -- even American hubris has its limits, and I
have more limits than most Americans. Nor, if someone else should do so (with or
without an imprimatur), can I be certain that I will be happy with the result.
But neither would I attempt to bar another, more ambitious and more skilful than
I, who wished to finish what Ransome had begun. Such an attempt on my part
would, in any case, be both futile and absurd: no one now living can control
what readers will demand in future, let alone what future authors will essay. Of
course Mr Townend and other nay-sayers may shake their heads, they may entreat,
they may indeed deplore -- but it is not in their power to command.
NB I will, I hope, be forgiven for eschewing the new fashion of exponential
hyperbole in choosing not to preface this note 'Nine Billion "MAYBEs"'.