Quote:
Originally Posted by DiapDealer
No one here has suggested that reading decisions are an "up or down vote" on the character of the author. I've only seen suggestions that bad behavior (especially when there's no remorse) has consequences. People make personal decisions to read or not read books for a wide array of trivial (and sometimes borderline nonsensical) reasons all the time. Why should personal opinions about the author be exempt?
Reading for personal edification is not something everyone does. Especially later in life. For those reading purely for entertainment purposes, all criteria used to dismiss a book (or an author) are on the table. Be they whimsical and/or unfair.
I, for one, have no interest in an author's character. So long as the keep their character relatively private. Once they share their character publicly, I will use that knowledge any way I see fit. Up to and including choosing not to read (or to read) their works.
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I believe I've said similar things, myself, here. I've said that if we refuse to allow ourselves to read authors whose sentiments, morals, values, etc. don't align with our own and our modern-day own, we'll have bloody nothing to read. How many of today's women would really relate to Austen? I mean, let's get a grip here.
My..IDK, issue? My takeaway with this woman is yes, perhaps she's mentally ill. One has to infer a certain amount of some oddness, to have pulled this off. Sure, the Dame disappeared for some
days--not
years. She didn't allow people to go to her own funeral and all that. She didn't allow friends and family to grieve, thinking she'd suicided.
Was it, is it, a cry for help? Hell, who knows. She should definitely see a therapist. I'll leave it there.
Nonetheless...even if I did read her genre, which I confess is not my wheelhouse, I think I'd give her a pass. I think that if she were ill; if she'd sought treatment, if she had any self-awareness, at all, around the idea that she's not the center of the universe, the announcement and handling of all this would have been far better-handled. That sort of makes me feel as though it's all some huge joke to her and yes, I'm making that judgement from, no doubt, thousands of miles away with zero information. I admit it.
Hitch