Seanan McGuire (seanan_mcguire) wrote,
Seanan McGuire
seanan_mcguire
  • Mood: stressed
  • Music: Simple Minds, "Don't You (Forget About Me)."

And then Seanan made a request.

This is not an anti-piracy post. I want to get that out there right up front. I am anti-piracy, but I don't really want to argue the situation right now, and I understand that it's complicated and all that. So this is not an anti-piracy post.

So here's the thing.

As is always the case when a new book is released, the illegal downloads for Sparrow Hill Road are popping up like mushrooms after the rain. They seem to be quite healthy, too. Swell; hopefully that means sales will be good. It definitely means that people are reporting them to me, because that's part of the circle of piracy. Which also means that some...other...links are getting reported to me.

Including the downloads for the original Edge of Propinquity stories.

I am aware that some people, on seeing me type that, will go "oh yay I can read them." And I am begging you: please don't. Please do not download these stories. Please do not save these stories. If you have them as historical artifacts, well, I can't stop you from doing that, but I would be much happier if you deleted them.

"Silly author, not understanding that the internet is forever!" No, I understand completely that the internet is forever. There's nothing in those stories that I'm ashamed of. The bulk of them have been preserved in the new volume, cleaned up and edited and improved by additional material. I'm not trying to hide anything. But those stories are out of canon, and I've been fielding emails and comments for the last two weeks about "but this contradicts..." or "but this story that isn't collected here says...". They've picked up in volume in the last two days.

So this isn't an anti-piracy post: it's a "please stop downloading what is essentially an early draft, and is out of canon, and is making me tear my hair out" post. You're not missing anything good by leaving it alone. You're just missing a lot of confusion about what year Rose actually died. And you're missing out on Mary and Amy entirely.

Really.
Tags: shameless plea, sparrow hill road
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  • 54 comments

waverly_tx

May 14 2014, 14:10:39 UTC 3 years ago

I have been mulling this over in the back of my mind since I first read the post a few days ago. Maybe this isn't the right analogy, but in my mind the earlier version... died. It lived once, and ghosts of it are still out there, but the living shouldn't go messing with the dead.

Editions by academic types (and I am lucky to be one of them) focus on making the author's final intentions for a text the version that people study. This is a good thing: if you read Tennyson's 1832 version of the "Lady of Shalott," you become very glad that he turned it into the 1842 version. I do not sit around wondering, "What happened to the daffodilly? Is it still there, ever chilly?" Naw. We don't need to go there. The living version is haunting, and true.

So, fair roads, Rose.

seanan_mcguire

May 20 2014, 16:24:19 UTC 3 years ago

That is an excellent way to look at things.