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Post by Ken on Jan 10, 2021 9:40:24 GMT
George Orwell died from tuberculosis in January 1950, we can celebrate the fact that in the month of the anniversary of his death comes the expiry of the copyright on his books – something that won’t happen for decades with the work of such longer-lived contemporaries as Evelyn Waugh and Graham Greene. It is to be hoped that interest in Orwell will receive a boost – and as we live in a world that sometimes seems to be heading increasingly close to the nightmarish vision of Nineteen Eighty-Four, it couldn’t be timelier.
The major consequence, however, is likely to be a rash of Orwellian films, television adaptations and so on, with film-makers now untrammeled by the need to win the estate’s approval – to say nothing of having to pay a copyright fee.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 10, 2021 10:24:53 GMT
George Orwell died from tuberculosis in January 1950, we can celebrate the fact that in the month of the anniversary of his death comes the expiry of the copyright on his books – something that won’t happen for decades with the work of such longer-lived contemporaries as Evelyn Waugh and Graham Greene. It is to be hoped that interest in Orwell will receive a boost – and as we live in a world that sometimes seems to be heading increasingly close to the nightmarish vision of Nineteen Eighty-Four, it couldn’t be timelier. The major consequence, however, is likely to be a rash of Orwellian films, television adaptations and so on, with film-makers now untrammeled by the need to win the estate’s approval – to say nothing of having to pay a copyright fee. If anyone wants to see an old adapted version of 1984 Here it is on you tube. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wl4kt4kUE88 Just watched it. I'd forgotten how frightening it was. |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 10, 2021 11:33:04 GMT
George Orwell died from tuberculosis in January 1950, we can celebrate the fact that in the month of the anniversary of his death comes the expiry of the copyright on his books – something that won’t happen for decades with the work of such longer-lived contemporaries as Evelyn Waugh and Graham Greene. It is to be hoped that interest in Orwell will receive a boost – and as we live in a world that sometimes seems to be heading increasingly close to the nightmarish vision of Nineteen Eighty-Four, it couldn’t be timelier. The major consequence, however, is likely to be a rash of Orwellian films, television adaptations and so on, with film-makers now untrammeled by the need to win the estate’s approval – to say nothing of having to pay a copyright fee. If anyone wants to see an old adapted version of 1984 Here it is on you tube. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wl4kt4kUE88 Just watched it. I'd forgotten how frightening it was. The reason there are so many dogs is that Greeks don't believe in cutting off body parts. Those who opt to have a dog in their home give them a contraceptive shot instead (some). But even if the dogs are abandoned, they survive. It is not minus 30 here, and no one is cruel. |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 10, 2021 11:36:03 GMT
George Orwell died from tuberculosis in January 1950, we can celebrate the fact that in the month of the anniversary of his death comes the expiry of the copyright on his books – something that won’t happen for decades with the work of such longer-lived contemporaries as Evelyn Waugh and Graham Greene. It is to be hoped that interest in Orwell will receive a boost – and as we live in a world that sometimes seems to be heading increasingly close to the nightmarish vision of Nineteen Eighty-Four, it couldn’t be timelier. The major consequence, however, is likely to be a rash of Orwellian films, television adaptations and so on, with film-makers now untrammeled by the need to win the estate’s approval – to say nothing of having to pay a copyright fee. I prepared that book for republication, cover, interior, everything. I was waiting for its copyright to come to an end. Alas, my files are on a computer in another country. 😏 |
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Post by ronmiller on Jan 10, 2021 13:50:18 GMT
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Post by Retread-Retired-Cameron on Jan 10, 2021 14:12:07 GMT
It looks like Earle Stanley Gardner's work is Public Domain now.
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sirram
Senior Printer
No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money
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Post by sirram on Jan 10, 2021 17:36:33 GMT
Orwell for me was the greatest writer of the Twentieth Century (well, except for a number of others of course!). I have read all of his novels over the years and enjoyed them immensely - except perhaps for Homage to Catalonia which, on more than one occasion, I failed to finish.
For anyone not aware of them, I commend Orwell's essays - on numerous subjects, including politics, the common toad and Orwell's awful experiences at boarding school and so on.
I remember a joke from Orwell's essay on Donald McGill. Those of you in the UK who remember the 1950s will recall the saucy postcards one could buy at the seaside - usually featuring a large buxom woman and a small down-trodden man. Donald McGill was the artist. Double-entendres were the order of the day. Orwell gave an example of one such. The scene is a court of law with the down-trodden man in the dock and the woman looking on.
"Did you or did you not sleep with that woman", asked the Judge.
"Not a wink Your Honour".
Well it made me laugh anyway.
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Post by BlueAndGold on Jan 10, 2021 19:49:31 GMT
You guys actually re-publish others' works?
That's an eye-opener.
Definitely not my style, but I can imagine the arguments for it.
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Post by BlueAndGold on Jan 10, 2021 19:50:49 GMT
You guys actually re-publish others' works?
Jeeeze! Like vultures circling fresh road kill!
That's an eye-opener.
Definitely not my style, but I can imagine the arguments for it.
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Post by Retread-Retired-Cameron on Jan 10, 2021 20:49:01 GMT
You guys actually re-publish others' works? Jeeeze! Like vultures circling fresh road kill! That's an eye-opener. Definitely not my style, but I can imagine the arguments for it. Some people do, but there needs to be some value added, i.e.: new translation to a different language, verbiage about the times and reasons the work behind the original publication, new cover, and et ceteras. Amazon and other outlets delisted a lot of recently turned Public Domain works a few years ago because the people who released works often weren't doing anything to add value.
Now turkey vultures tend to circle less than fresh roadkill and since they do clean up messes [like 300 pound to 400 pound wild hogs that lost a contest with a tractor-trailer] they do a public service.
I write my own and with a few dozen to finish I'll stick with my own work.
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Post by benziger on Jan 10, 2021 21:56:02 GMT
Simply reprinting is probably not worth it. But a translation into a language that does not yet exist, for example, sounds promising. But even that doesn't come without a lot of work. I've just picked up a novel by Orwell: 450 pages. The following might be the most likely to succeed: I find something by such an author that's out of print at the moment....
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 10, 2021 23:18:54 GMT
You guys actually re-publish others' works? That's an eye-opener. Definitely not my style, but I can imagine the arguments for it. No one can read the older publications anymore. Very tightly knit print, horrible fonts, boring covers. If you want the young to willingly pick up classics you have to dress them up like today. Trendy, spacious, cool. The minute they see a Penguin book they feel repelled. You have to trick them. 😉 |
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Post by Ken on Jan 11, 2021 10:00:15 GMT
You guys actually re-publish others' works?
That's an eye-opener.
Definitely not my style, but I can imagine the arguments for it.
Yes, I agree.
Based on my original statement the challenge now, or option if you wish, is new works such as plays, films, music and songs to be based upon his original work. Orwell’s executors have not been noticeably strict in comparison with some other literary estates, but there has been the odd kerfuffle. In 2015 the estate asked one company to stop selling beer mugs that bore extensive quotations from Orwell’s works, leading inevitably to accusations of Big Brother-esque censorship. From now on, however, you could market a range of tea towels containing the entire text of Animal Farm and nobody would be able to stop you. It was Sonia Orwell who put the kibosh on one of the most fascinating prospective adaptations of her husband’s work in the Seventies – David Bowie’s abortive televised musical of Nineteen Eighty-Four. “Mrs Orwell refused to let us have the rights, point blank,” Bowie later recalled. “For a person who married a socialist with communist leanings, she was the biggest upper-class snob I’ve ever met in my life. ‘Good heavens, put it to music?’ It really was like that.” Some of the songs from this abandoned project – such as Big Brother and We Are the Dead – found their way on to Bowie’s apocalyptic Diamond Dogs album, and there’s the marvellous possibility that somebody might now construct a new adaptation of Nineteen Eighty-Four incorporating these tracks.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 11, 2021 12:00:51 GMT
You guys actually re-publish others' works?
That's an eye-opener.
Definitely not my style, but I can imagine the arguments for it.Yes, I agree. Based on my original statement the challenge now, or option if you wish, is new works such as plays, films, music and songs to be based upon his original work. Orwell’s executors have not been noticeably strict in comparison with some other literary estates, but there has been the odd kerfuffle. In 2015 the estate asked one company to stop selling beer mugs that bore extensive quotations from Orwell’s works, leading inevitably to accusations of Big Brother-esque censorship. From now on, however, you could market a range of tea towels containing the entire text of Animal Farm and nobody would be able to stop you. It was Sonia Orwell who put the kibosh on one of the most fascinating prospective adaptations of her husband’s work in the Seventies – David Bowie’s abortive televised musical of Nineteen Eighty-Four. “Mrs Orwell refused to let us have the rights, point blank,” Bowie later recalled. “For a person who married a socialist with communist leanings, she was the biggest upper-class snob I’ve ever met in my life. ‘Good heavens, put it to music?’ It really was like that.” Some of the songs from this abandoned project – such as Big Brother and We Are the Dead – found their way on to Bowie’s apocalyptic Diamond Dogs album, and there’s the marvellous possibility that somebody might now construct a new adaptation of Nineteen Eighty-Four incorporating these tracks. Traditional publishers republish old works all the time, with little value added. Sometimes they add a Foreward so they can copyright it. |
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Post by ronmiller on Jan 11, 2021 14:06:10 GMT
You guys actually re-publish others' works? Jeeeze! Like vultures circling fresh road kill! That's an eye-opener. Definitely not my style, but I can imagine the arguments for it. Some people do, but there needs to be some value added, i.e.: new translation to a different language, verbiage about the times and reasons the work behind the original publication, new cover, and et ceteras. Amazon and other outlets delisted a lot of recently turned Public Domain works a few years ago because the people who released works often weren't doing anything to add value.
Now turkey vultures tend to circle less than fresh roadkill and since they do clean up messes [like 300 pound to 400 pound wild hogs that lost a contest with a tractor-trailer] they do a public service.
I write my own and with a few dozen to finish I'll stick with my own work.
I agree. I have a special collection of early space-related fiction and non-fiction books available via Lulu. I have made a special point of including only books that are rare: difficult to find, unavailable online or prohibitively expensive to obtain. In many cases, these books are from my own collection and not available via any online sources. I always make sure that value is added, regardless. This might take the form of being sure to include the original illustrations, an essay giving the book's historical context, biographical information about the author, etc, or any combination of these. In a couple of instances, this has taken the form of comprehensively annotating the book and, in the case of two or three of the Jules Verne titles, brand-new unabridged translations. I certainly agree that there seems to be very little point in offering reprints---either in print or electronic form---of public domain books simply because they are in the public domain. And especially if a book is still in print and readily available. I am sure there are going to be countless reprintings of 1984 now which, I think, is about a pointless an effort as I can imagine. |
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