Public Domain Day

[MajorRewrite]

January 1 is “public domain day”. Books published in 1930 entered into public domain today, including:

• As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
• The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett (Sam Spade)
• The Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie (introduced Miss Marple)
• Strong Poison by Dorothy Sayers
• the first four Nancy Drew mysteries

The movie All Quiet on the Western Front also enters public domain.

Anyone can now reinterpret these works in any way they want. Although Lit rules still apply so you can’t write Nancy Drew erotica if she was under 18 in the original works.

A couple of my stories are loosely based on classics, but I hadn’t considered anything remotely contemporary.

Is anyone going to take a stab at writing Lit versions of The Maltese Falcon or The Murder at the Vicarage? I guess you could blend the two stories to have Sam Spade and Miss Marple join forces (and have wild monkey sex)!! The mind boggles.

 

[MelissaBaby]

January 1 is “public domain day”. Books published in 1930 entered into public domain today, including:

• As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
• The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett (Sam Spade)
• The Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie (introduced Miss Marple)
• Strong Poison by Dorothy Sayers
• the first four Nancy Drew mysteries

The movie All Quiet on the Western Front also enters public domain.

Anyone can now reinterpret these works in any way they want. Although Lit rules still apply so you can’t write Nancy Drew erotica if she was under 18 in the original works.

A couple of my stories are loosely based on classics, but I hadn’t considered anything remotely contemporary.

Is anyone going to take a stab at writing Lit versions of The Maltese Falcon or The Murder at the Vicarage? I guess you could blend the two stories to have Sam Spade and Miss Marple join forces (and have wild monkey sex)!! The mind boggles.

Betty Boop has also entered public domain, and there is at least one movie already in the works.

 

[MajorRewrite]

Betty Boop has also entered public domain, and there is at least one movie already in the works.

But only the Betty Boop version in the 1930 cartoons is public domain, and that Boop was a dog (not ugly, an actual dog).

This YouTube video is an entertaining look at the topic …

 

[AchtungNight]

The Maltese Falcon? That’s the stuff that dreams are made of!

 

[MajorRewrite]

A few more books published in 1930 that didn’t get as much “Public Domain Day” buzz as others, but seem notable to me:

• Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh. “The Bright Young Things of 1920s Mayfair, with their paradoxical mix of innocence and sophistication, exercise their inventive minds and vile bodies in every kind of capricious escapade, whether it is promiscuity, dancing, cocktail parties or sports cars.” A story ripe for bringing into today.
• A Rose for Emily and Other Stories by William Faulkner.
• The 42nd Parallel by John Dos Passos. Part One of a trilogy that’s been called the great American novel. I have to admit I’ve never heard of it, but now I’m going to seek it out. “Counted as one of the best novels of the twentieth century by the Modern Library and by some of the finest writers working today, U.S.A. is a grand, kaleidoscopic portrait of a nation, buzzing with history and life on every page.”
• Very Good, Jeeves! by PG Wodehouse.

 

[RocketGrunt]

Remember that while The Maltese Falcon is now public domain and the character of Sam Spade in his original artistic depiction is now public domain, that subsequent works are not. Any "increment of expression" of the Sam Spade character made in later works (such as the Humphrey Bogart film or the later short stories or the licensed prequel novel) remain the intellectual property of somebody or other.

Importantly, Sam Spade is tall and blond in the original and public domain work, while the slight and dark haired version played by Humphrey is property of Warner Bros.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

Is anyone going to take a stab at writing Lit versions of The Maltese Falcon or The Murder at the Vicarage? I guess you could blend the two stories to have Sam Spade and Miss Marple join forces (and have wild monkey sex)!! The mind boggles.

Oh dear, would Miss Marple do that with Spade? Who would come onto who? Mature sure's seething to know.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

In principle, you could do a story of Miss Marple's Misspent Youth. Is her extra-staid persona as an older woman a reaction to an extremely debauched time in her life?

--Annie