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Child's unfinished "secret song" performed at his funeral by orchestra

Kyan Pennell's unfinished composition has been given a new life at the young boy's funeral, thanks to the Queensland Symphony Orchestra. When the 12-year-old died suddenly at the end of January after a devastating accident, his mum Amanda Brierley discovered Kyan was writing his own music. After playing piano for just seven months, Kyan had started to write his own composition, that remained unfinished after his untimely death. Amanda sent out <a href="https://oversixty.com.au/entertainment/music/grieving-mother-s-plea-to-finish-son-s-composition-answered" target="_blank" rel="noopener">an emotional plea</a> to musicians worldwide to help Kyan's music finally be completed. Thanks to the kind strangers of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, the piece of music was finished in time to be played at Kyan's funeral. Kyan's mum said it was humbling to have the support of so many people during such a difficult time."The kindness of strangers has really changed me over this period of time," she said."We played the first submission and a selection of all the submissions we got on the Facebook thread through the eulogies.""By the time it was over I really hoped that tune was in everyone's head, and I think Kyan would have had a bit of a giggle knowing that he'd forced everyone to listen to this beautiful music through other people."Amanda said five different orchestral renditions of Kyan's music were played at his funeral service, but she hoped to continue collecting versions of his music that were not recorded in time."Even just having that very first piece — it was one person playing a piano — was going to be enough for me," she said.You can hear the Queensland Symphony Orchestra's rendition of Kyan's Piece below. Image credits: Facebook - Amanda Brierley

Music

“There’s nothing like it”: Unique ‘sculpture’ house hits the market

A home built from nearly 100 tonnes of salvaged steel has become known as the “Steel House” in Ransom Canyon, Texas, and its new owners are hoping to sell it. Courtney and Blake Bartosh, realtors with Taylor Reid Realty, bought the home several months ago from the builder’s daughter, before putting it <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/85-E-Canyonview-Dr_Ransom-Canyon_TX_79366_M70027-66092" target="_blank">back on the market</a> for $USD 1.75 million ($NZD 2.6 million). ‘We purchased it with every intention of turning it into an Airbnb or VRBO (Vacation Rentals by Owner). We’re getting a cash out [refinance] to finish the house, because the inside of it is not done,” Courtney Bartosh told <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.realtor.com/news/unique-homes/steel-house-in-texas-live-inside-a-scuplture/" target="_blank">realtor.com</a>. “If it sells for what we’re asking, great. If not, as soon as we get our refinancing done, we will take it off the market, and we will finish it.” Construction of the Steel House began in 1974, but its builder, Robert Bruno, never finished it, passing away from colon cancer in 2008. The structure has been unoccupied ever since. “Robert built an incredible house, and nobody has ever really been allowed in it,” Bartosh added. “He built it for a reason, not to just sit there and have people drive by and look at it. He wanted people to see inside of it. We don’t want someone to buy it and never open it up. Robert built this incredible thing. People drive by it constantly, and they should be able to go in and see it.” The unfinished home is made up of two steel shells with insulation between them, and features stained glass windows, winding stairs connecting the different floors, and archways and curved designs throughout. Bartosh said some of the walls could be painted, but that the steel still comes through. “I don’t think that the house is meant to be a warm and cozy house. People are not going to go stay in it because it is warm and cozy,” she said. “They’re going to want to stay in it because it’s iconic. It’s different. There’s nothing like it.” Currently, the home’s configuration includes three bedrooms and two-and-a-half bathrooms inside the 200-square metre steel structure. However, its new owners will need to put some work in to get it ready to live in. “There’s subfloor and tile in some places. Some areas need some flooring. Some of the windows need to be worked on. One of the bathrooms is not finished, and the kitchen needs to be finished out,” Bartosh said. The house sits on four legs - which also contain rooms including a sitting area and an office - and boasts views of the Ransom Canyon below. “The house sits on three lots, and it overlooks the Ransom Canyon and the lake. The main window in the living room is incredible to look out of. It’s an incredible view,” Bartosh said. Despite the majority of the house appearing suspended, you enter through a regular front door. “Where you park in the street, you just walk straight into the house,” Bartosh explained. “When you walk in, you’re on the main level.” This level also houses the living space, dining room, kitchen, two bedrooms, and a couple of bathrooms, and the master bedroom is found upstairs. Bartosh said she and her husband plan to finish construction in about six months, but they know they might encounter obstacles once the work begins. Though she said she is OK if the home doesn’t sell, Bartosh added that it is a unique opportunity for a new owner. “Who else can say they live inside a sculpture?” she asks. “We love the house. It’s an incredible home. Nobody else in the world can say they’ve owned something like it.” Images: Realtor.com, Courtney Bartosh, The Bartosh Realty Group

Real Estate

Should authors’ unfinished works be completed?

The scene: a field in southwest England. The sun is shining for a quintessentially British event, the Great Dorset Steam Fair. A six-and-a-half tonne steamroller takes centre stage. This, the Lord Jericho, goes head-to-head with a computer hard drive, and in a battle of old and new technologies, rolls over it several times. Then, just to be on the safe side, the hard drive is placed in a steam-powered stone crusher. A scene from a fantasy novel? No. The hard drive was from the late author Sir Terry Pratchett’s <a href="https://discworld.com/terry-pratchetts-hard-drive-crushed-according-wishes/">computer</a>, and it contained the files of, it is thought, 10 unfinished novels. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en-gb"> There goes the browsing history... Many thanks to <a href="https://twitter.com/steamfair?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@steamfair</a>. Soon to be on display at <a href="https://twitter.com/SalisburyMuseum?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SalisburyMuseum</a> in September <a href="https://t.co/Di8tvTO4Hi">https://t.co/Di8tvTO4Hi</a> <a href="https://t.co/onGGWLDYL4">pic.twitter.com/onGGWLDYL4</a> — Terry Pratchett (@terryandrob) <a href="https://twitter.com/terryandrob/status/901037198665019392?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">25 August 2017</a></blockquote> Pratchett, author of the much-loved <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-beginners-guide-to-terry-pratchetts-discworld-55220">Discworld series</a>, wrote more than 60 books in his lifetime. But it was his wish that any unfinished works remained unpublished, and so he instructed that the hard drive containing his remaining works be crushed by a steamroller. Raising Steam Commenting on BBC Radio Four’s Today programme, authors Patrick Ness and Samantha Norman asserted Pratchett’s absolute right to determine the future of his unfinished work. In recent years, though, both authors have completed unfinished novels by other writers. In Norman’s case, it was The Siege Winter, a book by her late mother, Ariana Franklin. For Ness, it was Siobhan Dowd’s A Monster Calls, now adapted into a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2Xbo-irtBA">hit film</a>. Unfinished work abounds in literary history, from Jane Austen’s <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/03/13/reading-jane-austens-final-unfinished-novel">Sanditon</a> and Charles Dickens’ <a href="http://www.charlesdickensinfo.com/novels/mystery-edwin-drood/">The Mystery of Edwin Drood</a> to F Scott Fitzgerald’s <a href="https://electricliterature.com/unfinished-business-f-scott-fitzgerald-and-the-love-of-the-last-tycoon-efa4862e40e1">The Love of the Last Tycoon</a>. For each of these canonical authors, their unfinished texts add to our accumulated knowledge of their writing, their rich imagination, and the development of their thinking. After completing Dorothy L Sayers’ last novel, Jill Paton Walsh went on to create warmly regarded <a href="http://www.thebookseller.com/news/newly-elected-dorothy-l-sayers-president-continues-wimsey-series-317478">new novels</a> featuring Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane. J R R Tolkien’s son Christopher likewise has worked painstakingly on <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-harpercollins-flogging-a-dead-horse-with-latest-tolkien-publication-46968">unfinished works by his father</a>, including <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/apr/28/jrrtolkien.fiction">The Children of Hurin</a>. Unlike Pratchett, the strict instructions left by some authors about their legacy have been ignored, sometimes to the reader’s benefit. Max Brod’s decision to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/26/magazine/26kafka-t.html?mcubz=0">counter</a> Franz Kafka’s wish for destruction is to literary history’s benefit, as it led to the publication of <a href="http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/trial/summary.html">The Trial</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/dec/22/franz-kafka-winter-reads">The Castle</a>, and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/jun/16/man-disappeared-franz-kafka-review">Amerika</a>. Emily Dickinson left no instructions on what to do with the approximately 1,800 unpublished poems she wrote before her death in 1886. Fortunately, her sister Lavinia took it on <a href="https://www.emilydickinsonmuseum.org/posthumous_publication">as her mission</a> to see them made public. When Swedish crime novelist Stieg Larsson died suddenly, unmarried and with no will, his estate came under the control of his father and brother. They commissioned ghostwriter David Largenrcrantz to create <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/authors/feud-over-stieg-larsson-sequel/">new works</a> using Larsson’s characters, with the latest, <a href="http://ew.com/books/2017/04/11/lisbeth-salander-millennium-series-cover-title/">The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye</a> due in September 2017. Larsson’s bereaved long-term partner is in possession of the author’s laptop which is believed to hold Larsson’s last unfinished novel, but she has <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/authors/feud-over-stieg-larsson-sequel/">refused to turn it over</a> to his family. Reaper Man The biographical figure of the author has, despite Roland Barthes’ critical articulation of “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/jan/13/death-of-the-author">The death of the Author</a>” in 1967, <a href="https://www.stir.ac.uk/research/hub/publication/13293">never been more present</a>. Now, readers have unprecedented access to the names on the spines of their books, thanks to festivals, talks and social media. While some authors may not want to show the struggle of their early drafts to the world, there is both an industry (famous author’ manuscripts can sell for high figures) and scholarship attached to them. <a href="http://www.senatehouselibrary.ac.uk/our-collections/special-collections/printed-special-collections/colin-smythe-terry-pratchett-archive">Formal archives</a> of Pratchett’s work exist in Senate House in London, for example – including some tantalising glimpses replete with coffee stains and notes to the publisher. Salman Rushdie has even <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/digital-life-salman-rushdie">given a desktop computer and several laptops</a> to Emory University in the US. There is no doubt that Pratchett was within his rights to deprive readers of these last rough-hewn gems, though understandably fans may be disappointed with his choice. However, the rumours swirling around <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-suspicious-should-we-be-about-the-new-harper-lee-novel-37182">the appearance of Go Set a Watchman</a> – the original version of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mocking Bird – suggest that elderly and infirm authors can potentially be preyed upon. Pratchett’s wish to control his literary legacy was consonant with his <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2010/feb/02/terry-pratchett-assisted-suicide-tribunal">advocacy for assisted dying</a>. He, more than anyone else, understood the power of letting things come to an end. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en-gb"> The End. — Terry Pratchett (@terryandrob) <a href="https://twitter.com/terryandrob/status/576036888190038016?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">12 March 2015</a></blockquote> As an author who had “Death” as one of his major recurring characters, Pratchett had thoroughly tested its presence in human life. But now, even knowing that Pratchett’s crushed hard drive will soon feature in <a href="http://www.pratchetthisworld.com/">an exhibition</a>, we can’t but regret the loss of these early, unfinished drafts, which contained the very last doorway into the Discworld.<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/83407/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /> Written by Claire Squires, Professor in Publishing Studies, University of Stirling. Republished with permission of <a href="https://theconversation.com/should-authors-unfinished-works-be-completed-83407">The Conversation</a>.

Books

Should authors’ unfinished works be completed?

Claire Squires is a Professor in Publishing Studies at the University of Stirling. The scene: a field in southwest England. The sun is shining for a quintessentially British event, the Great Dorset Steam Fair. A six-and-a-half tonne steamroller takes centre stage. This, the Lord Jericho, goes head-to-head with a computer hard drive, and in a battle of old and new technologies, rolls over it several times. Then, just to be on the safe side, the hard drive is placed in a steam-powered stone crusher. A scene from a fantasy novel? No. The hard drive was <a href="https://discworld.com/terry-pratchetts-hard-drive-crushed-according-wishes/" target="_blank">from the late author Sir Terry Pratchett’s computer</a>, and it contained the files of, it is thought, 10 unfinished novels. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> There goes the browsing history... Many thanks to <a href="https://twitter.com/steamfair?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@steamfair</a>. Soon to be on display at <a href="https://twitter.com/SalisburyMuseum?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SalisburyMuseum</a> in September <a href="https://t.co/Di8tvTO4Hi">https://t.co/Di8tvTO4Hi</a> <a href="https://t.co/onGGWLDYL4">pic.twitter.com/onGGWLDYL4</a> — Terry Pratchett (@terryandrob) <a href="https://twitter.com/terryandrob/status/901037198665019392?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 25, 2017</a></blockquote> Pratchett, author of the much-loved <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-beginners-guide-to-terry-pratchetts-discworld-55220" target="_blank">Discworld series</a>, wrote more than 60 books in his lifetime. But it was his wish that any unfinished works remained unpublished, and so he instructed that the hard drive containing his remaining works be crushed by a steamroller. Raising Steam Commenting on BBC Radio Four’s Today programme, authors Patrick Ness and Samantha Norman asserted Pratchett’s absolute right to determine the future of his unfinished work. In recent years, though, both authors have completed unfinished novels by other writers. In Norman’s case, it was The Siege Winter, <a href="https://www.bookish.com/articles/samantha-norman-finishing-my-mothers-last-novel/" target="_blank">a book by her late mother</a>, Ariana Franklin. For Ness, it was Siobhan Dowd’s A Monster Calls, now adapted into a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2Xbo-irtBA" target="_blank">hit film</a>. Unfinished work abounds in literary history, from <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/03/13/reading-jane-austens-final-unfinished-novel" target="_blank">Jane Austen’s Sanditon</a> and Charles Dickens’ <a href="http://www.charlesdickensinfo.com/novels/mystery-edwin-drood/" target="_blank">The Mystery of Edwin Drood</a> to F Scott Fitzgerald’s <a href="https://electricliterature.com/unfinished-business-f-scott-fitzgerald-and-the-love-of-the-last-tycoon-efa4862e40e1" target="_blank">The Love of the Last Tycoon</a>. For each of these canonical authors, their unfinished texts add to our accumulated knowledge of their writing, their rich imagination, and the development of their thinking. After completing Dorothy L Sayers’ last novel, Jill Paton Walsh went on to create warmly regarded <a href="http://www.thebookseller.com/news/newly-elected-dorothy-l-sayers-president-continues-wimsey-series-317478" target="_blank">new novels</a> featuring Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane. J. R. R. Tolkien’s son Christopher likewise has worked painstakingly on <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-harpercollins-flogging-a-dead-horse-with-latest-tolkien-publication-46968" target="_blank">unfinished works by his father</a>, including <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/apr/28/jrrtolkien.fiction" target="_blank">The Children of Hurin</a>. Unlike Pratchett, the strict instructions left by some authors about their legacy have been ignored, sometimes to the reader’s benefit. Max Brod’s decision <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/26/magazine/26kafka-t.html?mcubz=0" target="_blank">to counter Franz Kafka’s wish</a> for destruction is to literary history’s benefit, as it led to the publication of <a href="http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/trial/summary.html" target="_blank">The Trial</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/dec/22/franz-kafka-winter-reads" target="_blank">The Castle</a>, and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/jun/16/man-disappeared-franz-kafka-review" target="_blank">Amerika</a>. Emily Dickinson left no instructions on what to do with the approximately 1,800 unpublished poems she wrote before her death in 1886. Fortunately, her sister Lavinia took it on <a href="https://www.emilydickinsonmuseum.org/posthumous_publication" target="_blank">as her mission</a> to see them made public. When Swedish crime novelist Stieg Larsson died suddenly, unmarried and with no will, his estate came under the control of his father and brother. They commissioned ghostwriter David Largenrcrantz <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/authors/feud-over-stieg-larsson-sequel/" target="_blank">to create new works</a> using Larsson’s characters, with the latest, <a href="http://ew.com/books/2017/04/11/lisbeth-salander-millennium-series-cover-title/" target="_blank">The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye</a> due in September 2017. Larsson’s bereaved long-term partner is in possession of the author’s laptop which is believed to hold Larsson’s last unfinished novel, but she has <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/authors/feud-over-stieg-larsson-sequel/" target="_blank">refused to turn it over</a> to his family. Reaper Man The biographical figure of the author has, despite Roland Barthes’ critical articulation of “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2010/jan/13/death-of-the-author" target="_blank">The death of the Author</a>” in 1967, <a href="https://www.stir.ac.uk/research/hub/publication/13293" target="_blank">never been more present</a>. Now, readers have unprecedented access to the names on the spines of their books, thanks to festivals, talks and social media. While some authors may not want to show the struggle of their early drafts to the world, there is both an industry (famous author’ manuscripts can sell for high figures) and scholarship attached to them. <a href="http://www.senatehouselibrary.ac.uk/our-collections/special-collections/printed-special-collections/colin-smythe-terry-pratchett-archive" target="_blank">Formal archives</a> of Pratchett’s work exist in Senate House in London, for example – including some tantalising glimpses replete with coffee stains and notes to the publisher. Salman Rushdie has even <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/digital-life-salman-rushdie" target="_blank">given a desktop computer and several laptops</a> to Emory University in the US. There is no doubt that Pratchett was within his rights to deprive readers of these last rough-hewn gems, though understandably fans may be disappointed with his choice. However, the rumours swirling around <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-suspicious-should-we-be-about-the-new-harper-lee-novel-37182" target="_blank">the appearance of Go Set a Watchman</a> – the original version of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mocking Bird – suggest that elderly and infirm authors can potentially be preyed upon. Pratchett’s wish to control his literary legacy was consonant with his <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2010/feb/02/terry-pratchett-assisted-suicide-tribunal" target="_blank">advocacy for assisted dying</a>. He, more than anyone else, understood the power of letting things come to an end. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> The End. — Terry Pratchett (@terryandrob) <a href="https://twitter.com/terryandrob/status/576036888190038016?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 12, 2015</a></blockquote> As an author who had “Death” as one of his major <a href="https://www.terrypratchettbooks.com/characters/" target="_blank">recurring characters</a>, Pratchett had thoroughly tested its presence in human life. But now, even knowing that Pratchett’s crushed hard drive will soon feature in <a href="http://www.pratchetthisworld.com/" target="_blank">an exhibition</a>, we can’t but regret the loss of these early, unfinished drafts, which contained the very last doorway into the Discworld. Written by Claire Squires. Republished with permission of <a href="http://theconversation.com" target="_blank">The Conversation</a>. <img width="1" height="1" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/83407/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-advanced" alt="The Conversation"/>

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Child's unfinished "secret song" performed at his funeral by orchestra

“There’s nothing like it”: Unique ‘sculpture’ house hits the market

Should authors’ unfinished works be completed?

Should authors’ unfinished works be completed?