Sponsor |  kapka | Feb 1, 2:41pm | Who Is Grady Harp?
Amazon's Top Reviewers and the fate of the literary amateur.
Full disclosure: It was late at night, in a fit of furtive self-Googling, that I discovered the first Amazon customer review of my debut book of fiction. "Superb," wrote Grady Harp of Los Angeles. "Fascinating ... addictive." Not to mention "profound." Such extravagance should have aroused suspicion, but I was too busy basking in the glow of a five-star rave to worry about the finer points of Harp's style. Sure, he'd spelled my name wrong, but hadn't he also judged me "a sensitive observer of human foibles"? Only when I noticed the "Top 10 Reviewer" tag did I wonder whether Grady Harp was more than just a satisfied customer. After a brief e-mail exchange, my publicist confirmed that she'd solicited Grady Harp's review...
slate.com/id/2182002/pagenum/all/ [slate.com/id/2182002/pagenum/all/] |
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Sponsor | | joemayer | Feb 1, 3:00pm | | Interesting article. I've seen some comments about things like that going on at Amazon, but this was the best article I've seen describing it without getting into mudslinging. Thanks. |
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Sponsor | | kapka | Feb 4, 6:20pm | Dmitri's Choice
Nabokov wanted his final, unfinished work destroyed. Should his son get out the matches?
Here is your chance to weigh in on one of the most troubling dilemmas in contemporary literary culture. I know I'm hopelessly conflicted about it. It's the question of whether the last unpublished work of Vladimir Nabokov, which is now reposing unread in a Swiss bank vault, should be destroyed--as Nabokov explicitly requested before he died.
It's a decision that has fallen to his sole surviving heir (and translator), Dmitri Nabokov, now 73. Dmitri has been torn for years between his father's unequivocal request and the demands of the literary world to view the final fragment of his father's genius, a manuscript known as The Original of Laura. Should Dmitri defy his father's wishes for the sake of "posterity"?
slate.com/id/2181859/pagenum/all/ [slate.com/id/2181859/pagenum/all/]
What are your thoughts? |
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Sponsor | | alice44 | Feb 4, 7:44pm | He heee as an uninterested observer it is a snap, publish, but as a son who may be able to see reasons why the work should not be published it would be a lot harder. (Maybe it is very unfinished or...)
Didn't Kafka want his work destroyed, and what a loss that would have been. |
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Sponsor | | pixiequix | Feb 4, 8:41pm | I posted this over at Slate too...
Nabokov's son could make a copy of the manuscript and publicly burn it, allow the world to believe that it has been torched and is no longer. But take the original manuscript and secretly lock it away in a safe deposit box where it can be stored for a couple generations. Then, when the son's grandchildren have reached a certain age, allow them to decide whether it should be published or just quietly burned and left alone.
I suggested his grandchildren because they would presumably have enough distance from Nabokov himself to decide which is best for his legacy, something that his unfortunate son just doesn't have. |
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Sponsor | | kapka | Feb 5, 5:16pm | 5. There are no grand children so Dmitri has to make a choice; I would tell him to destroy his father's work. VN said "Style and Structure are the essence of a book; great ideas are hogwash." And I agree with VN and since he could not finish "Laura" I don't think we should see it.
4. Lord Byron personal correspondence was destroyed and do we really miss those letters? |
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Sponsor | | alice44 | Feb 5, 7:52pm | | As a historian I am sure we miss the letters. I am reading pure drivel -- but interesting historically, on how to fight plague. |
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Sponsor | | kapka | Feb 8, 3:12pm | | Alice I see your point and I understand; I'm just siding with the VN wish. :) |
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Sponsor | | vontwiss | Feb 8, 9:17pm | A last will and testament is ...last...hopefully, the son can publish a synopsis of it...
It was his choice...no one else... |
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|  csny | Feb 8, 9:23pm | | if he's not going to destroy them,post haste:p he should publish them |
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