The Complete Works of Maya, Lost to Most of Humanity
I just learned that Sarah Rees Brennan, formerly known as Maya and Mistful, has not only taken her fics down and requested that those who have downloaded her master fic file not share it with others, but she has reportedly deleted her own stories from her hard drive.
I felt sick to my stomach when I read this.
Her stories have meant so much to me, given me such joy, that I really cannot express the effect they've had on my life. Maybe that sounds weird, but it's no different to me than the effect H.G. Wells or Ursula Le Guin has had on me. Good authors, no matter their subject, illuminate life and what it means to be human, and I deeply feel that SRB has done this as well as many more established authors. To know that these stories, which she must love, are lost to her and lost to all that didn't get the pdf in time or who lack the network to track someone who has the file, just makes my heart hurt.
I know the reasons why she did she took the stories down from public view. They make a certain amount of sense professionally and legally. I still can't help but feel that violence has been done to some great works of art, that by permanently removing them from her world she has symbolically repudiated and negated those works. In a way, it is an insult to her readership.
I'm not angry with her, by any means, but I do feel deep sadness and yes, somehow betrayed.
Just in case someone reads this and misunderstands, I do not dispute her right to do as she has done. I just needed to express how I feel about it.
I felt sick to my stomach when I read this.
Her stories have meant so much to me, given me such joy, that I really cannot express the effect they've had on my life. Maybe that sounds weird, but it's no different to me than the effect H.G. Wells or Ursula Le Guin has had on me. Good authors, no matter their subject, illuminate life and what it means to be human, and I deeply feel that SRB has done this as well as many more established authors. To know that these stories, which she must love, are lost to her and lost to all that didn't get the pdf in time or who lack the network to track someone who has the file, just makes my heart hurt.
I know the reasons why she did she took the stories down from public view. They make a certain amount of sense professionally and legally. I still can't help but feel that violence has been done to some great works of art, that by permanently removing them from her world she has symbolically repudiated and negated those works. In a way, it is an insult to her readership.
I'm not angry with her, by any means, but I do feel deep sadness and yes, somehow betrayed.
Just in case someone reads this and misunderstands, I do not dispute her right to do as she has done. I just needed to express how I feel about it.