To preserve or to dispose of the work of a dead man.

Here's the situation: You are close friends with an extremely talented artist/writter/musician/whatever. He's produced a lot, and I do mean A LOT, of material(very good material, mind you.) during his lifetime and yet he's only published a small handful of them in life. After his passing, his last wish is for you, his dearest friend, to burn and rid of all of the pieces that he has left behind, never to be seen by the public eye.

Do you comply to his final wish?

Question came to mind upon doing research on Kafka Franz.

Probably yes, to the originals at least.

But before doing so I'd try to share what I could with his close friends and family.

Actually in my will all my negs/files are suposed to be burned with me and all my printed work and photo equipment is to be given to my kids and my ashes are to be send to czech republic where they still make b&w film and paper to be made from my ass to be given to the five schools i went to and taught at so they can made art with me. i'm morbid as hell uh.

His wish is my command.

My friend wants a viking funeral. He is gonna have his corpse put in a canoe loaded with fireworks and then he's going to be pushed out onto the lake and detonated. Talk about going out with a bang.

I'm guessing my "friend" doesn't have any children or relatives to pass it on to. If that's the case, then I guess so. A five minute bonfire seems better than a guilty rest-of-your-life.

What if you copy it first then burn the originals? I think I could live with that seeing how I fulfilled his wish and gave the world his great art. If he doesn't want them to know that he did it, it might be for the best that it remains anonymous.

If that's his wish, of course that's what I'd do. It's sad to see the talent destroyed that way, but ah well. Though I'm sure I'd be asking him why and at least try to convince him otherwise..

The request came to you after he died, though.

Yeah, I'm not some greedy bastard.

I would do as he says. I'm the kind of person who would honor such wishes. However, wishes that would affect someone negatively would be ignored of course, but I don't have a problem with wishes like the one stated here.

Your friend is a friggin genius.

^This to be quite honest.

If I ever made artistic material that I didn't want published, and I knew I was dying; I'd rather destroy it myself then trust it to anyone.

That said, I'd comply with the wish.

At very least, if I made any copies of it, I'd keep it to myself and closest acquaintances, and never make it public either.

[font=Verdana][color=green]Of course I'd burn them. I mean, can you truly enjoy the masterpieces if you know what a terrible betrayal you committed?

It's a noble thing in my opinion to respect the wishes of the dead.

On second thought... maybe give them a good personal going-over.

>>; if they're evidence of a crime, burning them could be a bad thing... but I doubt that's the case!

I'd do as he asked, no reason not to. True, he's dead and can't do anything to stop you from keeping the works. But if he was important to me, I'd respect his last wish.

^This, only an ass wouldn't respect a dying wish. More importantly, he probably had a good reason for wanting them destroyed.

As a true friend I would honor his/her wish and burn the material but I may keep one piece that I like the most for my own tribute to the memory. Never for sell or for other to view. Just myself.