Posthumous Publications
April 24
Two posthumous publications by two much-loved authors are currently in the works: Jack Kerouac’s first novel The Sea is My Brother and David Foster Wallace’s last, The Pale King.
Kerouac, who was best known for his iconic novel On the Road, passed away in 1969 at the age of 47 after a lifetime of heavy drinking. The Sea is My Brother has been picked up by HarperCollins in the US, and has all the hallmarks of Kerouac’s early beatnik themes. The 158-page handwritten manuscript was completed while Kerouac was working as a merchant mariner in the early 1940s and tells the story of Wesley Martin, who the author describes in his notes as ‘the vanishing American… the American Indian, the last of the pioneers, the last of the hoboes.’
The Pale King is David Foster Wallace’s third and final novel, which he left uncompleted after his tragic suicide last September. His long-time publisher Little, Brown & Company are currently pulling the narrative together from thousands of pages of drafts, notes and outlines, and plan to release it in 2010. A beautifully worded note by Wallace outlines the novel’s premise as this: ‘Bliss—a-second-by-second joy and gratitude at the gift of being alive, conscious—lies on the other side of crushing, crushing boredom. Pay close attention to the most tedious thing you can find (Tax Returns, Televised Golf) and, in waves, a boredom like you’ve never known will wash over you and just about kill you. Ride these out, and it’s like stepping from black and white into color. Like water after days in the desert. Instant bliss in every atom’.
Fans of both authors will most likely await these releases with baited breath, yet there has been some outcry about the artistic integrity of posthumous publishing, particularly in the case of The Pale King. Wallace had only finished one third of the book before he died, which means that it is left to his editors to do most of the legwork. Some bloggers have pointed out that no matter how diligent or sensitive editors are in putting together the remaining two thirds of the novel, ‘the fact remains [that] this will not be the book that Wallace would have sent into the world if he had had more time’.
This is certainly true – with a mind as complex and striving as Wallace’s, it is impossible to truly predict how he would have wanted the tone of the novel to be, or what questions he would have eventually asked. However, in my view the issue of posthumous publishing is not so black & white. The extent to which a work is compromised perhaps depends on the circumstances and the reaction of the reader. Unlike Vladimir Nabokov, Wallace did not leave instructions to destroy his work, but left the unfinished manuscript and all his notes to be found in his garage. Equally, while some fans may feel that the decision to publish is disrespectful, other may use it as an opportunity to honour and mourn an author they love. As one fan commented on the New York Times blog: ‘I will read whatever he wrote, but not out of morbid curiosity. The man had the most incredible writing style, full of intelligence and creativity. I never met him, but his absence is keenly felt.’
JA
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Comments
24 Apr 09 at 9:29
Death certainly suits Jack Kerouac. Last year he co-wrote And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks with the equally dead William Burroughs. Mind you, the only thing good about that novel was the title. The Sea is My Brother doesn't even have a good title.
...24 Apr 09 at 10:02
My personal feeling is that if Wallace has only written a third of the novel there is no way we could know what his intention was.He wouldn't have yet known what final shape it was going to take. I don't think he'd want it published. If feels disrespectful to me.
...26 Apr 09 at 13:59
Now let's see what posthumous JG Ballard works make their way into the worlds. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/apr/24/jg-ballard-final-book-cancelled
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