Ugh.
I know y’all have likely read all about the mysteriousness of Go Set a Watchman. No, I’m not talking about the book itself. I’m talking about how it came to be found and published. There are plenty of details that just make you raise your eyebrows. But there’s more to it than what you’ve read.
Yesterday I was reading some articles in my CNN app and I came across one about Harper Lee. The title of the article was something about her being a four book author. Before I start criticizing everyone involved, let me just say that I know this happens with prominent writers. Short stories, poems, and books always seem to be popping up once they’re dead. I get that. Once they’re gone there’s someone else in control of everything and money motivates people to do just about anything. I get it.
But what’s happening now is blatantly disrespectful to Harper Lee. I’ve read numerous times now that when Go Set a Watchman was allegedly found, there was another unpublished manuscript. AND that there may be another manuscript floating around out there and only a few people know about. I don’t even doubt that these things may be true. Because Harper Lee likely didn’t just stop writing once she became an award-winning author. I’m sure there are unpublished stories out there. But right now she has no control over what people are doing around her and that’s just sad.
I realize that there are worse things happening to people all the time, but how would you feel if you had people going through all of your affairs and being able to do very little about it? You wouldn’t like it, and my guess is that Harper Lee is no different if she understands what’s happened. I don’t care if she has 15 books out there and the true next great American novel, Harper Lee deserves some respect just like we all do. And right now she’s just not getting it from those around her.
What do you think about unpublished manuscripts suddenly being “found” only after Lee’s sister (and lawyer) has died?
On this day in 2014 I published Kindle Unlimited Hmm….
Johnny Reads 
Reblogged this on William Chasterson.
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Many people are outraged about how all this has come about. I hope something is done.
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I think we both know if something will or won’t be done. Just think of the number of books already sold. It’s a shame. Especially if there’s one or even two more books of hers eventually published that were never meant for a reader’s eye.
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If the lady chose not to publish her work, it was for a reason and should be respected. I don’t understand how this is any different from art theft?
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It isn’t. But readers don’t seem to care when you see the sales figures and the people around Harper Lee are at fault.
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Heaps of people are furious about her treatment. She probably knew at the time that Go Set a Watchman wasn’t a book she wanted published, unless she made significant changes, since it was surely forseeable to everyone involved that exactly what has happened (mass outrage over Atticus) would happen, and now there’s so much cruelty directed towards her. You can’t judge a writer’s ability based on a first draft when you’re holding it up against a well loved classic novel!
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Cruelty? Towards her? I think any reasonable person knows this wasn’t meant to be published. And they also know better than to treat this as a direct sequel to her first book. Because it absolutely is not.
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The problem is that I’ve seen way too many people saying that this book proves that she never wrote TKaM and that she’s destroyed Atticus with the “sequel”. People are unreasonable though.
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I’ve literally read dozens of articles about it. All from reputable organizations or publications, and I’ve not seen that once.
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I definitely think that there is absolutely no way that the manuscript was simply “lost” in a safe and that Harper Lee had no knowledge of it. A novel is like part of a writers soul, and it wouldn’t just be completely disregarded and forgotten. Having said that, I think that Lee knew and remembered of the drafts for Go Set a Watchman, and I believe that there was definitely a reason of why she didn’t want it published. So what really makes me angry about this entire controversy is that if Harper Lee didn’t want the book published when she was sane, it is disrespectful to publish the book when she is in a potentially compromised state of mind. It is disrespectful to both her, her writing, and her legacy. However, that doesn’t stop me from being compelled to read the book 😬
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I don’t think anyone has said she didn’t know it existed. It was “found”, I think, by people who did not previously have any access to her things. There’s no doubt in my mind that Harper Lee herself never meant for this to be published. The end.
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I really don’t like this either. How disrespectful, especially as these people are doing it for money. Publishers or whoever gets this money. It really bothers me, that people do this. If I was Harper Lee’s ghost, I would totally haunt these people. (If it were possible.)
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Buy a ghost suit and go to Alabama.
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That is really terrible. I haven’t been following this story but I hope this gets resolved in a way that will discourage others from doing this to other writers (and musicians/singers as well, because I’m sure its happened to some of them too).
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I don’t think anything will happen.
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That is unfortunate 😦
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Too much money involved.
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