The New Yorker explains the way James Joyce’s grandson, controller of all Joyce’s works which are under copyright, regularly uses that fact to abuse and exploit James Joyce scholars.
It’s a more interesting story than the usual “author’s estate copyright-holder” situation, which is just massive financial extortion. The Joyce-whelp adds insult, threat, and abuse to all that. Via Metafilter.
These things are just going to get worse as copyright terms are extended and extended and extended for the sake of Disney and such….
Disney is optioning Finnigan’s Wake? Golly!
While I think the destruction of documents is disgusting, and his behavior is ill-considered and unwise, I have read a lot of the scholarship that Stephen Joyce objects to, and I have to say, he has good reason in some cases. Possibly because of Stephen’s refusal to release so much material, scholars have focused on what I call “biographical archeology” rather than other approaches with Joyce. Often this leads me, at least, to put down an article and say “what the hell was the point of that?” And I think Stephen has a good point that Joyce *can* be enjoyed by a layman without all the textual apparatus (although I admit to having read U. with The Bloomsday Book open in my other hand). Of course, enjoyment isn’t the only purpose of literature.