Noblesse Oblige We have in Plenty, but Precious Little Droit du Seigneur

[steepholm]

Did I mention that I've been dipping my toe into the world of authors and their pesky post-facto thoughts about books?

Comments

[nightspore.livejournal.com]

I cannot accept Proust's death-bed excision of the first two hundred pages of Albertine Disparue and the claim that he made her sexual orientation unambiguous there. (Even with the excision, I hasten to add, I don't think her orientation is ever unambiguous.)

[vschanoes.livejournal.com]

I think that's fair. It's one thing to add something that you didn't write--OK, readers can take that on board. But once something has been published and read, to try to take it back...well, I guess you can try, but I don't see how it can work unless you actually erase your readers' memories.