Greetings!

I just saw this... well... was pointed to it by Joe D'Andrea... A sixth HHGTTG book was well in development, and is due to be published next year. Mixed feelings, but I would still want to read it.

Yes, this actually pissed me off pretty badly.

Less than a week after Douglas died, his publisher announced that they'd scoured his hard disk and dug up his half-finished manuscript, and that they were going to publish it.

This is one of the worst moneygrubbing things I can think of. Douglas is probably rolling over in his grave right now.

Have you ever written anything? Could you imagine your embarassment if someone took a half-finished copy and published it before it was ready?

I have already told my friends that if I die unexpectedly, I want someone to erase my hard disk completely ASAP. I don't want anyone digging up any half-written crap that I never intended to publish.

True. I would not want anything published without my permission, that is certain. I have personally written a few things, never published them, and already destroyed the copies!!!

But there have been a lot of works that have been published posthumously, and certainly against the will of the author / artist, that are valid works that stand on their own. Or, if they are not complete (fragments), they still can provide a bit of insight into the artist. (Note: I am deliberately abstracting, because authors, musicians, painters, etc., all face the same situation.)

I agree - this is a grub for money by the publisher, and it would be criminal for the reader to buy it / be tricked into thinking that it was a final completed work as intended by the author. But the drafts may still stand on their own as fragments, and it would be the job of the reader to understand it as such.

I think that if they do this right, it could be a good thing. For it to be a good thing, I think that first it should be estlablished from somewhere that he would have wanted it published. (Either from a will, family/friends, etc). And the other part would be that the profits go to his favorite charity.

If any of this has happened (establishing that he wanted it published), or if any charity will benefit, who knows...

I'd like to buy it because of my admiration for Adams' writing style and wit. I still remember corresponding with him a couple of times in email back in 1993. He used to post to his usenet fan newsgroup. Until he got tired of all the flack from people who didn't believe it was really him.

I hadn't heard about any plans for a sixth Hitchhiker's, let alone that someone actually uncovered the material. It came as a huge shock one morning when I awoke with news that he had passed. I'll keep my hopes up for a release that honours his memory and honestly portrays how this work came to light. I'll also volunteer to be the charity case that receives the profits.

BTW, does anyone know where all these events have left plans for the movie? Of course I'd probably rather not see it produced unless it got the treatment it deserved.

Bruno