I see dead authors...

[ffutures]

I've just been indulging in my favourite pursuit of trying to find authors who have gone out of European copyright, and realised that James Joyce will be out pretty soon, since he died in 1941.

I suspect that we will shortly see a shitload of crap from people who think that they are capable of doing his work justice... or not, e.g. Ulysses - With Zombies!

Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed. A semiautomatic shotgun, shoulder-slung, was sustained gently behind him on the mild morning air. He held the bowl aloft. Outside zombies intoned:

"— Brainzzzzz"

This is just a promise that I will NOT attempt to write Ulysses - The Role Playing Game or any variant thereof.

All of which reminds me to say that if anyone can suggest any good SF authors who died in e.g. 1930-40 I would love to know about them - the Weinbaum RPG has been getting some very positive feedback, and eventually I might want to venture into this period again.

Comments

You're well to keep clear of Joyce

[murphys-lawyer.livejournal.com]

By all accounts, his grandson took advantage of the EU's 20-year copyright extension to get very rich off people who'd used his grandad's works when they temporarily fell into the public domain under the old 50-year rule.

He's no lover of "fair use" either - he once refused a composer permission to use 18 words from Finnegans Wake because "to put it politely and mildly, my wife and I don’t like your music".

Re: You're well to keep clear of Joyce

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Charming. Oh well, no doubt plans are already in motion from several publishers...