Quote:
Originally Posted by JSWolf
H. P. Lovecraft was an out and out racist. So I would guess you won't be reading any of his books and anyone else's books based in Lovecraft's work.
Henry Ford was a major anti-Semite. He even took out full page newspaper ads against Jews.
The statue of Edward Colston was taken down in the protests because he was a slave trader. But he used the money he made to do a lot of good for Bristol.
There are a lot of bad people who do good work. So how do you separate the person from the work?
|
Subtlety ain't your strong suit. I'm glad you read through my words carefully before replying and stretching things far beyond what I said.
For my response, I'm sticking to authors only as that is what seems relevant to this site.
As I mentioned, separating an artist from their work is important to do. You don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
I chose Card as my example because he's still above ground and collecting royalties and I just don't want him to collect them from me. Quite honestly, if someone were to ask me about Card, his offensive viewpoints likely wouldn't even come up. I'm not leading the charge to get his books removed from libraries or any such a thing. People likely should read at least Ender's Game. But I know about him and I know how it makes me feel and I know I haven't read Ender's Game or anything else he's written.
As for Lovecraft, he is long dead and his works are in the public domain. So I'm not giving him money.
His work is important and shouldn't be forgotten (though his ideas and their influence matters more than the quality of the stories themselves. Even as a teenager I could recognize purple prose when it was that obvious).
You also have to understand things in the context of their time.
Lovecraft wasn't just racist. He was extremely racist even for his time. My preferred writer from then, Robert E. Howard also had elements in his stories. But they don't hold a candle to Lovecraft. Lovecraft's racism did often intrude on his stories, at points to where it is a distraction.
Honestly, in the end, everyone has to choose how they feel. I don't think books should be pulled from print because the author was a piece of crap.
I don't see the point of the J.K. Rowling flap myself. I would let my kid read Harry Potter.
But I also wouldn't debate someone who felt differently, unless they were pushing to have her work removed from access somehow.