Interesting question about public rights to private correspondence: Is the writer guaranteed secrecy in perpetuity even as cultural circumstances change that would relieve a figure of embarrassment? (Wilde's correspondence) Should we have presumed a wish for privacy from Pepys? Should it apply to politicians as well, say, Adolph's correspondence with younger sister Paula? Certainly, I'd love to read the private correspondence of Ivanka.
Also very true about university English classes. I expect profs are most interested to see how a student is able to make an argument, understanding that with books like Ulysses it's bound to be total bullshit. (I've always wondered how many theses (and lives) have been devoted to gremlins in the text that slipped past copy editors and are now taken as holy writ.
(My own typewriter was a Smith Corona, a company now surviving by printing barcodes, shipping labels and thermal ribbons. Sooner or later even the greatest are forced to reinvent themselves. I used to make typewriters, died and came back making barcodes. Does that count as reincarnation?)
I love that the ad for Plumtree's Potted Meats was placed in the human dead meat section, also potted for consumption by worms.
A self-slap on my wrist! I should have remembered the embargo element pertaining to papers given to institutions. I was thinking of the TF Rare Book Library as a place where the public would already be allowed to read the correspondence at a sleek table, in-house. Not always so! (I should know better--I'm working on a biography and can't see the subject's medical records until 80 years after his death. I can access them in 2033--and by then I myself may not be here! )
A link to the acerbic New Yorker article your piece led me to at 6 a.m. - https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/06/19/the-injustice-collector " In 2004, the centenary of Bloomsday, Stephen threatened the Irish government with a lawsuit if it staged any Bloomsday readings; the readings were cancelled. He warned the National Library of Ireland that a planned display of his grandfather’s manuscripts violated his copyright. (The Irish Senate passed an emergency amendment to thwart him.) His antagonism led the Abbey Theatre to cancel a production of Joyce’s play “Exiles,” and he told Adam Harvey, a performance artist who had simply memorized a portion of “Finnegans Wake” in expectation of reciting it onstage, that he had likely “already infringed” on the estate’s copyright."
Interesting question about public rights to private correspondence: Is the writer guaranteed secrecy in perpetuity even as cultural circumstances change that would relieve a figure of embarrassment? (Wilde's correspondence) Should we have presumed a wish for privacy from Pepys? Should it apply to politicians as well, say, Adolph's correspondence with younger sister Paula? Certainly, I'd love to read the private correspondence of Ivanka.
Also very true about university English classes. I expect profs are most interested to see how a student is able to make an argument, understanding that with books like Ulysses it's bound to be total bullshit. (I've always wondered how many theses (and lives) have been devoted to gremlins in the text that slipped past copy editors and are now taken as holy writ.
(My own typewriter was a Smith Corona, a company now surviving by printing barcodes, shipping labels and thermal ribbons. Sooner or later even the greatest are forced to reinvent themselves. I used to make typewriters, died and came back making barcodes. Does that count as reincarnation?)
I love that the ad for Plumtree's Potted Meats was placed in the human dead meat section, also potted for consumption by worms.
https://www.straight.com/article/bloomin-balmy
We raised a few bucks for the Carnegie. I remember a whiskey at the end. My memories are foggy.
A self-slap on my wrist! I should have remembered the embargo element pertaining to papers given to institutions. I was thinking of the TF Rare Book Library as a place where the public would already be allowed to read the correspondence at a sleek table, in-house. Not always so! (I should know better--I'm working on a biography and can't see the subject's medical records until 80 years after his death. I can access them in 2033--and by then I myself may not be here! )
A link to the acerbic New Yorker article your piece led me to at 6 a.m. - https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/06/19/the-injustice-collector " In 2004, the centenary of Bloomsday, Stephen threatened the Irish government with a lawsuit if it staged any Bloomsday readings; the readings were cancelled. He warned the National Library of Ireland that a planned display of his grandfather’s manuscripts violated his copyright. (The Irish Senate passed an emergency amendment to thwart him.) His antagonism led the Abbey Theatre to cancel a production of Joyce’s play “Exiles,” and he told Adam Harvey, a performance artist who had simply memorized a portion of “Finnegans Wake” in expectation of reciting it onstage, that he had likely “already infringed” on the estate’s copyright."