Now we're going to start taking orders from dead people? I think not. It doesn't matter a whit what VN wanted-- they guy's dead, gone, not here. We're people, we don't take orders from ghosts. Sure, we respect a lot of ghosty stuff-- the Bible, the Constitution, the Magna Carta.. Lots of things that were thought up and written down by people who came before.
But this is a case of here and now. If D sets fire to the ms, he goes down in history as a book-burning pinhead. If he sets the ms free, then the literary world gets to ooh and ah and deconstruct for years, decades, centuries.
My old high school history teacher, Sheldon Bryer, would ask-- "Whose ox is being gored"? and in this case, it's a good question? Who is harmed by letting the cat out of the bag? VN is dead, it wouldn't hurt him. Reputation? Everyone knows this is a totally unfinished piece, a protobook, raw, unpolished. It's not going to hurt his reputation.
So-- It can't hurt him, it can't hurt his reputation. Anybody see any potential foul here? I don't.
The world has lost a lot of great stuff to fire. Either this is great, and it would be a shame to lose it, or it's not great, and we're no worse from taking the time to read it.
Bear in mind that I don't *like* VN's stuff. I think he is vastly over rated. But so? Literature is one of the most human of human endeavors. People eat, people have sex, people make houses. SO do dogs, cats, and ants. But no one else, no other species, takes thoughts and puts them down on paper for others to read. Whales might be smart, but not one could write Moby Dick.
If what's sitting there in the dark is literature, then we all lose if it's destroyed, even those who don't read anything more than the sports pages of a second rate newspaper.
D's choice is clear: let the cat out of the bag, or go down in history in company with book burning vermin.

respect the dead.

i wonder how many people will disregard a will and testament of an inheritance?

besides he made that will when he is alive, and not a ghost.

burn it.

it is not a book yet it is a manuscript.

perhaps it is somebody's task to write the same like story... let Nabokov's genius be what it was, let the genius of Laura be given unto others - if they can do it.

I may not have enough of Nabokov but let Lolita be the masterpiece I know of him.

respect all the dead? I don't think so. maybe some.

but so what? we can respect the guy and not follow what we think are his wishes. how do we know it wasn't just a test? how do we know it's not a joke?

did he have a chance to tear it up and burn the ms himself? uh, that would be yes. did he? no. so he left a note asking someone else to do it?

people, live people, have to make their own choices and accept responsibility for what they do. and destroying a manuscript such as this can't be excused by saying, "well, i had to do it because this piece of paper told me to." If the twit destroys the papers, it's on his head. Not Daddy's.

So I would like to know, when did you go to Sullivan High School? For me, it was 1967-1971. I had Mr. Breyer in American History my third year. Were you in my class?

Signed,

Fraymeister

Lol! Greetings, Fraymeister! Just a bit behind you-- I had Mr Breyer in 1973-74, same third year, US History. What a great teacher he was! I had Schaffner for two years before that, and then Bertachi for Humanities with Alice Price the year after. Shaffner and Bertacchi attended my wedding in '78 after my and my wife's junior year of college. What a great high school Sullivan was! At least I always thought so...

With the exception of Schaffner we had the same teachers. I knew Schaffner well because I used to hang out in free periods in the History Department office helping out when I did not have Ranger duties (remember that). I have not been in the Sullivan building in years although I drove by once on a visit to Chicago.

By the way, I agree with your sentiments on all of them! They were an amazing corps of people and so very important to me.