Tolkien Estate blocks new Tolkien book

[Mithalwen]

Originally Posted by Bêthberry

Just saw this on The Tolkien Shop and thought davem would be interested in it.

It is a photocopy of Tolkien's last will and testament and it is for sale. Of its contents:



I don't know anything about the site.

A will becomes a public document when probate is granted. Anyone can get a copy for a fiver.

[Bêthberry]

Originally Posted by Mithalwen

A will becomes a public document when probate is granted. Anyone can get a copy for a fiver.

There ya go! I think you just told us something about the site, Mith.

Originally Posted by Morth

Now, is it a numbered photocopy where only a certain amount were copied and then the will was destroyed?

I think there's any number of theories, conspiracy and otherwise, one can come up with, Morth

[Nerwen]

Originally Posted by Lady Brooke

I am fairly certain that nothing in that book could be any worse then what my classmates and I wrote in our papers last term. In fact, my peers would probably prefer me to find something scandalous about Tolkien - the joys of having AP classes with teenage boys whose idea of history is unsubstantiated rumors about Catherine the Great. Of course those were written about people and events prior to 1800.

So, why is our culture so accepting of people long dead being remembered primarily for their scandals, but we are accepting of certain public figures who died just a short time ago having their reputations protected by their families.

But doesn't this love of scandal that so many seem to have explain why people can develop over-the-top paranoia about privacy and protecting reputation? I mean, really, you seem to be arguing against yourself here, Lady Brooke.

[Nerwen]

Originally Posted by Bêthberry

There ya go! I think you just told us something about the site, Mith.

What an enterprising lot! I wonder what other great bargains they offer?

[Mithalwen]

Frodo /Sauron fingers by the dozen, pieces of the true Ent, Saruman's sparkling chuddies? I still have a bit of Tolkien's old garden wall somewhere if anyone is interested....

[LadyBrooke]

Originally Posted by Nerwen

But doesn't this love of scandal that so many seem to have explain why people can develop over-the-top paranoia about privacy and protecting reputation? I mean, really, you seem to be arguing against yourself here, Lady Brooke.

I don't see it as being such. In a way, if there is nothing scandalous then it makes sense to release the information, so that people will not start rumors. Also Tolkien is dead which in my mind exempt him from being worried about such things as reputation.

[Mithalwen]

There are plenty of non scandalous things that people wish to to keep private. I am not money laundering but I would object to my bank account details being published without consent. Or my private correspondence. Or that of my deceased parents.

The failure to distinguish between secret an private and the assumption that anything not in the public domain must be scandalous I find abhorrent. People have the right to privacy and to protect their intellectual property as much as any other kind

[LadyBrooke]

I fear I'm not being very coherent with my thoughts in this thread. Yes, people have a right to privacy. However when you chose to publish a book or do anything else to become famous you surrender some of that. I do not support scandalous information being released just because it's scandalous, however, I know many people who do. It's a fact of life that, especially with the recent invention of Myspace and Facebook, some people want to know everything they can about everyone else.

The main thing that bothers me is not the fact that they want to keep some things private but the vehemence with which they do so. Nobody is denying the facts in this case, that Tolkien wrote a letter to one of his relatives, that relative had a book written about him, and the Tolkien Estate blocked the release of the book because it contained the contents of that letter. And that's what bothers me. If I had a secret that I didn't want to become public knowledge, I would not write it down in a letter and mail it to somebody. In fact, I assume that anything I write about my personal life may be published in the newspaper if I one day decide to run for a political office or something. I don't care if technically it can be argued that the letter cannot be published because it's my intellectual property. If you give somebody a document on which you've written anything, unless you have a prior arrangement that the person will not show it to anybody and burn it after reading, there is always the chance that it will end up public knowledge. Yes, it can be argued that the Tolkien's children have a right to keep their father's personal life private. It can also be argued that the Tolkien Estate is trampling over the freedoms of the letter recipient's family by forbidding this book to be published.

[Galadriel55]

I think LadyBrooke has a point. It just takes a bit af comon sense to see how personal a letter is and should it be published. I wouldn't want some of my emails to be known, but I don't really mind about others.

[PrinceOfTheHalflings]

Originally Posted by Mithalwen

A will becomes a public document when probate is granted. Anyone can get a copy for a fiver.

Anyone in the UK can. It's a bit harder if you live anywhere else in the world...

[Mithalwen]

Not with t'interwebs and a creditcard? £16 if you need someone to do a search for you but since we know where and when.... Why not get a death cert too and be really intrusive....