Second Harper Lee novel to be released in July

[Inigima]

Do you think you'd have felt that way in 1960, when it was published?

[SkynJay]

Honestly, To Kill a Mockingbird is probably one of the most overrated books in the canon of American "literature." It's a very simple, very straightforward, very obvious morality tale pitched at the reading level of a fifth-grader. For a simple, goes-down-easy children's book on the virtues of the rule of law and the evils of racism, it's fine. But it has zero depth, zero ambiguity, and nothing of interest to say on the subject.

Rather than a point by point argument all I can say is I disagree completely.

[HexMachina]

That interview is just horrible. The worst part to me is:

Uhh? What? So the representative from HarperCollins doesn't even claim that they asked Harper Lee if they could publish her book? In spite of the fact that her entire life Lee has gone to great lengths to insist that she did not want to publish another book ever?

That's just awful. It actually reminds me of the naked picture hacks from last year. Someone can make money (or fame) off it, and who gives a damn about the actual woman involved?

Does the U.S. have any sort of law that might prevent this from being allowed? (Something like undue influence maybe?) just curious.

Never read To Kill a Mockingbird, though it was something I always meant to read. Probably get around to it now that I have been reminded by this news

[NestorMakhnosLovechild]

Do you think you'd have felt that way in 1960, when it was published?

I'd like to think that if I was alive in 1960, I'd be too busy doing truckloads of drugs and engaging in debauched group sex to read children's books.

But seriously, this is 1960 we're talking about - not 1860. Lots of people wrote really fantastic pieces of literature in the 1960s - and hell, even the 1950s!

Flannery O'Connor published "A Good Man Is Hard to Find And Other Stories" in the 1950s, and some of the stories, like "Artificial Nigger" deal with issues of racism in a far more interesting, thought-provoking way than anything in "To Kill a Mockingbird."

In terms of sheer literary merit, the 1960s produced Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse Five," Heinlein's "Stranger In a Strange Land," Burgess' "A Clockwork Orange," and LeGuin's "The Left Hand of Darkness." I don't feel the need to grade "To Kill a Mockingbird" on a curve.

[HexMachina]

nvm, missed a paragraph

[Spockydog]

If the accusations of skulduggery are true, then it won't be the first time Lee has been screwed over by crooks.

"In her lawsuit, Lee alleged that in 2007 Samuel Pinkus took the "extraordinary step" of arranging for Lee to assign the copyright for "To Kill a Mockingbird" to a company he controlled, Veritas Media Inc. (VMI). It's not clear why Lee would assign her lucrative copyright to VMI, and indeed she said she had no recollection of discussing the document or signing it."

[maarsen]

Propriety and good manners usually require that you wait till the person is dead before you start looting the corpse.

[Hello World]

Yeah, they could learn some class from Brian Herbert.

[SpaceChampion]

NY Times reviews Go Set A Watchman. I think it's obvious now why Harper Lee didn't want it published. Her original idea of Atticus Finch's character is upsetting and she must have known it, and didn't want to ruin the public's perception of him from Mockingbird. I don't want to read this book.

I was so looking forward to this. Now I wish I could scrub my mind of just the review.

[C.T. Phipps]

Harper Lee has confirmed to the state of Alabama she's in full cognition of her faculties and wants it published.

Second, the big issue is that it's NOT a children's book and the children's book was originally part of this novel.

It was meant to represent Scout's ignorant childlike understanding of her father.

Who is, it turns out, actually quite racist.

It just so happens Atticus wasn't willing to let an innocent man go undefended for a crime he didn't commit, black or not.

Needless to say, the subject matter of this novel is...controversial.

[kuenjato]

Harper Lee has confirmed to the state of Alabama she's in full cognition of her faculties and wants it published.

Second, the big issue is that it's NOT a children's book and the children's book was originally part of this novel.

It was meant to represent Scout's ignorant childlike understanding of her father.

Who is, it turns out, actually quite racist.

It just so happens Atticus wasn't willing to let an innocent man go undefended for a crime he didn't commit, black or not.

Needless to say, the subject matter of this novel is...controversial.

Except that is not at all in the tone of Mockingbird, particularly the end of the trial sections, not to mention the conversations Atticus has with Scout.

This book was written before Mockingbird and rejected by publishers. Harper Lee decided to rewrite the story in a different era and with different themes and different character construction. Pretty obvious that this isn't "canon," otherwise Watchmen would have been published some time in the last 55 years.

I do think it is interesting in that Watchman can be used to depict how people tend to get more conservative/reactionary as they get older, unable to adapt as easily to changes and longing for how things were when they were still strong and functional.

[C.T. Phipps]

Well it's a bit more complicated than that as To Kill a Mockingbird was originally flashbacks within Go Set A Watchmen.

I haven't read the book yet but the basic story seems to be: Scout lives in New York for X number of years. Scout then comes back to Georgia. She finds the city in the midst of extreme Civil Unrest due to the Civil Rights Movement and Segregation. She then thinks back to the events of To Kill A Mockingbird (except the book hadn't been written yet) and remembers her dad as a person who inspired her to be anti-Segregation, Pro-Civil Rights and so on. Then she meets with her father and finds out he's very much not where she expected him to be standing. I.e. Atticus supports segregation and is speaking some truly awful things about the Civil Rights movement, horrifying Scout and leading to the disintegration of their once-close relationship.

Much of the book is apparently her disillusionment, uncertainty, confusion, and trouble reconciling the image of her father as a child versus the man he is as she's an adult.

The big controversy and why Harper Lee's sister more or less BEGGED her not to publish this book her entire life is, "You're going to RUIN your classic children's novel with this."

And Harper Lee is like, "To Kill a Mockingbird was always Scout's WRONGFUL impression of her father."

Call me crazy but I assume the ending of the book is going to be realizing Atticus is a complicated figure with good and bad qualities.

[C.T. Phipps]

It is weird how much Go Set A Watchmen sounds like To Kill A Mockingbird fanfiction.

When, in fact, it's really the story of how Daenerys envisioned Robert's Rebellion being contrasted to the reality.

[Nuncle Stark]

Much of the book is apparently her disillusionment, uncertainty, confusion, and trouble reconciling the image of her father as a child versus the man he is as she's an adult.

The big controversy and why Harper Lee's sister more or less BEGGED her not to publish this book her entire life is, "You're going to RUIN your classic children's novel with this."

And Harper Lee is like, "To Kill a Mockingbird was always Scout's WRONGFUL impression of her father."

Call me crazy but I assume the ending of the book is going to be realizing Atticus is a complicated figure with good and bad qualities.

Having read the first chapter released for Go Set a Watchman... hmm. I'm unsure of some of the changes revealed online, but if Harper Lee really did mean for their to be another side of the story of To Kill a Mockingbird, and how things seem different when you are an adult... I don't know! But I'm definately going to read the book.

To Kill A Mockingbird is amazing :) She has earned another read from me for this new story, regardless.

[C.T. Phipps]

So far, the reviews are coming back like, "Yeah, not as good as the original."

Which is to be expected.

[Gasp of Many Reeds]

So far, the reviews are coming back like, "Yeah, not as good as the original."

Well, it is the original, it's more a case of 'Not as good as the rewritten version that expands the childhood flashbacks and presents Atticus Finch as a moral beacon in dark times, as opposed to compromised by his sharing of his society's racism as he was originally conceived'.

[Fez]

I lost all interest in this after reading the reviews.

 

I don't buy the argument that this is supposed to be Atticus as an adult Scout sees him. That seems like revisionism of what happened, which is that Harper Lee (or her editor) simply changed his characterization during the writing process for To Kill a Mockingbird.

[Larry.]

I lost all interest in this after reading the reviews.

 

I don't buy the argument that this is supposed to be Atticus as an adult Scout sees him. That seems like revisionism of what happened, which is that Harper Lee (or her editor) simply changed his characterization during the writing process for To Kill a Mockingbird.

Having actually read the book, it is not as simple as that.

[Fez]

Having actually read the book, it is not as simple as that.

 

How? Watchmen was written before Mockingbird and was not edited in any way, and as such it cannot be considered a sequel or continuation of that story, just an earlier draft set in a different time telling a different plot. She took what she and her editor liked about Watchmen and made a different novel, and Watchman was what was discarded. Its only the fact that Watchman takes place after Mockingbird that allows people to try to find direct connections between the books, rather than just themes.

[Cas Stark]

 

How? Watchmen was written before Mockingbird and was not edited in any way, and as such it cannot be considered a sequel or continuation of that story, just an earlier draft set in a different time telling a different plot. She took what she and her editor liked about Watchmen and made a different novel, and Watchman was what was discarded. Its only the fact that Watchman takes place after Mockingbird that allows people to try to find direct connections between the books, rather than just themes.

 

I'm not at all convinced Harper Lee even knows this book is really being published.

 

She allegedly has lost her short term memory capacity due to a stroke, the only person who says she is all for this is her lawyer and she previously had signed away the entire copyright to Mockingbird to her agent [I think]...as well the lawyer's story of 'finding' the manuscript is shady as hell.