Quote:
Originally Posted by Moejoe
I'm very interested in this approach, because it's something I just can't seem to do. If you found out your favourite author was a racist, a card carrying member of the Klu Klux Klan can you honestly say it wouldn't affect your reading of their material? It wouldn't inform your reaction to the material thereafter? I don't see how you can't be affected by the knowledge you have at hand. Any knowledge that is, not just knowledge that is distasteful.
I love Bradbury, but I can't stand his attitude toward the internet and now when I read certain stories I realise that my initial reaction was completely wrong. As the viewer I change the meaning of the viewed, and any information I have at hand also changes my reaction and by extension changes the viewed.
So how exactly do you ignore the information you have and not let it influence your reading?
|
For Fiction Only... I do it as the following. Each work of fiction, good, bad, or indifferent, I treat as a unique whole. It may or may not represent the views, beliefs, and morals of the author. In a sense, I strip off the label (i.e. the author) and let it represent itself...When I do that, I find that I may love many works of an author, yet dislike a particular work. The author doesn't get a free ride because I like other works by him, or dissed because I think he's a sociopath.
Can I not read Poe, because by modern standards, he was a child molesting dope fiend?
Or to turn it around, is it Ok to read Norman Spinrad's
The Iron Dream because he was a nice fellow.
I'm a greedy capitalist, but it doesn't stop me from reading and enjoying John Brunner or Mack Reynolds, both card carrying Socialists....
(Does knowing that Rock Hudson was completely gay make the Rock Hudson/Doris Day sex farces any less funny? My viewpoint is - What an actor!)