ABSTRACT
Usually, authors love their works as their children: fiercely and unconditionally. Indeed, many authors refer to their works as their ‘children’, and some show far more solicitude for their aesthetic children than their actual ones. Of course, authors can also be cruel to their works. As William Faulkner famously observed, ‘In writing, you must kill all your darlings’. But even such merciless culling doesn’t prevent authors from loving what survives. If anything, their love only deepens with each sacrifice.
But even the filial bond can be broken. Many disappointed parents have disowned their prodigal children. Sometimes the relationship can be mended, but often it can’t. Why should authors be any different? Authors and their works can also grow apart. Perhaps the work was a product of the author’s youth, long since forgotten. ‘When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.’ Perhaps the author adopted a new style, and no longer feels a connection to older work. Or perhaps the author is just ashamed of a particular work. Happy authors all love their works in the same way, but unhappy authors hate their works in different ways, for their own reasons …
Frye, Brian L, The Right of Reattribution (March 21, 2021). The Business, Entrepreneurship and Tax Law Review, forthcoming.
First posted 2021-03-30 16:00:10
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