[darryl]

I've refrained from this discussion until now, mainly because I've been stuck on a sub-standard mobile broadband connection for the last few days and have spent very little time online.

My views on this issue are very simple. Many people who create great art and literature are terrible human beings, and none are perfect. I let the works stand on their own merits. I find the whole cultural appropriation concept abhorrent. I'm happy to know nothing about a writer of fiction or their background, particularly the colour of their skin or their sex. If a racist, a murderer or a child molester produces great work, I'm not going to deprive myself of the pleasure of reading it. If a work is related to crimes they have been convicted of then they may well not be entitled to the proceeds of the sales in any event. Even if they are, a traditionally published author will receive nothing or a tiny amount of royalty from each sale. And perhaps a great work of art or literature which brings pleasure to many may go towards making up for their crimes in some small way.

I am not interested in others telling me what I should not read. Nor, for that matter, do I approve of pressuring a publisher into not publishing or withdrawing a book from sale so as to prevent me from reading it. If you want to boycott particular authors because you regard their views as problematic, real or imagined, go right ahead. Do an unfavourable review. But please don't start a crusade with the ultimate aim of damaging the author and denying others the choice of reading that author's work. And, of course, of making you satisfied at the resulting widespread proliferation of your own virtue. I was reading Orson Scott Card long before his personal views were derided. If you boycott his works then I can vouch for the fact that you are missing out on some great reading. But that is of course your personal prerogative.