Earlier this week, I wrote about alternate versions of narrative works — novels and films, to be more specific. Michael Hemmingson posted a  response regarding the Raymond Carver question:

The unedited carver book, BEGINNERS, will be out in october in the UK from Jonathan Cape. In August, the Library of America will publish a 900 page omnibus Collected Works that will also contain the unedited and edited versions for comparison.

Which makes me wonder — this particular case will ultimately leave both versions for the reader to peruse. Similarly, if and when I read Shadow Country, I can refer back to my copy of Killing Mister Watson if I so desire. The same is true for film: Criteron’s Mr. Arkadin set, for instance. And I’d argue that having access to multiple versions, to see just how a work came about and how it evolved, can be deeply educational. (I can remember reading older drafts, for instance, of Robert Towne’s screenplay for Chinatown while in college, and learning a lot about storytelling through seeing how the different elements of the film interacted.)