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Jun. 30th, 2017 01:44 pm
The Separation of Art and Artist
Someone said something really reprehensible on the internet. I'm not going to address that here because I don't want to name what Internet Man said, gloss over it, and get to MY point. But yes, this post was inspired by that event, and fuck that guy.
I'm going to use an earlier instance of this happening to illustrate my point. It involves my favorite author, Mike Resnick, author of my favorite book Santiago, a book I have owned twice and mailed to friends both times, creating this big shared-universe delivery of a wonderful, wonderful book. Santiago was a book I would recommend to anyone.
Mike Resnick is sexist.
Issue #200 of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America magazine, Bulletin, featured a bikini-clad woman on the cover for no reason and also had a column by Resnick and Barry Malzberg where they talked up the looks of "lady writers" and "lady editors." They then doubled down on this two issues later, complaining about censorship and comparing people who spoke out against this to censorship, likening them to Stalin and Chairman Mao. There was a lot of outcry about this, because of COURSE there should be, and I'm glad there was.
But there was this response -- not even in the wake, in the explosion itself -- of people scrambling to separate art from artist.
"I mean, Mike Resnick might be a sexist pig, but that doesn't make his books any worse!"
"I don't care what the author thinks if he writes a good book. The end result is what's important!"
"He shouldn't have said what he said, sure, but it doesn't change the fact that he's an incredible writer."
"I fail to see the point in abandoning arts and entertainment because their creator ends up being a terrible person."
Yes, you can enjoy a work of art that has problematic elements. With how ingrained prejudice has become in our society, you kind of have to? And that's terrible! I adore Persona 4, but BOY that game has problems regarding its treatment of women and gay people.
But to have your response to this kind of thing be "well, you have to separate the artist from the art," that doesn't say you're some beautiful connoisseur of the arts, it doesn't mean you're enlightened, it doesn't mean you're well read, it doesn't mean you're a good and smart person. It means you're a selfish coward.
If the first thing you vocalize in response to someone taking aim and punching down at a group of people is to say that it's still okay for you to like the thing that you like, that's shit. By doing that, you are telling everyone -- very clearly -- that the most important thing here is how this reflects on you. It's no coincidence that the majority of people that I see say this are heterosexual white men, that most infringed-upon group on this spinning marble we call earth. There has never been such injustice as there was wrought upon the thing the mediocre white man liked.
When I heard that Mike Resnick said that, I was angry. I wasn't angry because this meant my favorite author had said something shitty, I was angry because someone in a position of power was trying to reinforce the idea that women are background setting and were best if they maintained their quiet dignity like Barbie, the ideal woman, and also a fucking PLASTIC DOLL, did. I wasn't immediately trying to justify my continued love for Santiago. I wasn't posting on the internet shouting "IT'S OKAY, WHITE DUDES, WE CAN STILL LIKE THE BOOK WHERE THE LADY GETS NAKED TO GET HER WAY, I SURE HOPE THAT DOESN'T MAKE ME REFLECT ON HOW THE BOOK HANDLES GENDER AS A WHOLE."
I am really, really tired of this mad rush to still prop up people with shitty beliefs by validating the rest of their lives, as if writing a comic strip about dumb bosses somehow completely explains away your bigoted, hateful beliefs. I am not interested in hearing about how this one book you read when you were sixteen is still really good, and at least he made the trains run on time.
The plane's not crashing, guys, and even if it was, you don't have to give your fragile ego the oxygen mask that should go to the person sitting next to you. Help each other first -- people are way, way, way more important.
Be good to each other.
I'm going to use an earlier instance of this happening to illustrate my point. It involves my favorite author, Mike Resnick, author of my favorite book Santiago, a book I have owned twice and mailed to friends both times, creating this big shared-universe delivery of a wonderful, wonderful book. Santiago was a book I would recommend to anyone.
Mike Resnick is sexist.
Issue #200 of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America magazine, Bulletin, featured a bikini-clad woman on the cover for no reason and also had a column by Resnick and Barry Malzberg where they talked up the looks of "lady writers" and "lady editors." They then doubled down on this two issues later, complaining about censorship and comparing people who spoke out against this to censorship, likening them to Stalin and Chairman Mao. There was a lot of outcry about this, because of COURSE there should be, and I'm glad there was.
But there was this response -- not even in the wake, in the explosion itself -- of people scrambling to separate art from artist.
"I mean, Mike Resnick might be a sexist pig, but that doesn't make his books any worse!"
"I don't care what the author thinks if he writes a good book. The end result is what's important!"
"He shouldn't have said what he said, sure, but it doesn't change the fact that he's an incredible writer."
"I fail to see the point in abandoning arts and entertainment because their creator ends up being a terrible person."
Yes, you can enjoy a work of art that has problematic elements. With how ingrained prejudice has become in our society, you kind of have to? And that's terrible! I adore Persona 4, but BOY that game has problems regarding its treatment of women and gay people.
But to have your response to this kind of thing be "well, you have to separate the artist from the art," that doesn't say you're some beautiful connoisseur of the arts, it doesn't mean you're enlightened, it doesn't mean you're well read, it doesn't mean you're a good and smart person. It means you're a selfish coward.
If the first thing you vocalize in response to someone taking aim and punching down at a group of people is to say that it's still okay for you to like the thing that you like, that's shit. By doing that, you are telling everyone -- very clearly -- that the most important thing here is how this reflects on you. It's no coincidence that the majority of people that I see say this are heterosexual white men, that most infringed-upon group on this spinning marble we call earth. There has never been such injustice as there was wrought upon the thing the mediocre white man liked.
When I heard that Mike Resnick said that, I was angry. I wasn't angry because this meant my favorite author had said something shitty, I was angry because someone in a position of power was trying to reinforce the idea that women are background setting and were best if they maintained their quiet dignity like Barbie, the ideal woman, and also a fucking PLASTIC DOLL, did. I wasn't immediately trying to justify my continued love for Santiago. I wasn't posting on the internet shouting "IT'S OKAY, WHITE DUDES, WE CAN STILL LIKE THE BOOK WHERE THE LADY GETS NAKED TO GET HER WAY, I SURE HOPE THAT DOESN'T MAKE ME REFLECT ON HOW THE BOOK HANDLES GENDER AS A WHOLE."
I am really, really tired of this mad rush to still prop up people with shitty beliefs by validating the rest of their lives, as if writing a comic strip about dumb bosses somehow completely explains away your bigoted, hateful beliefs. I am not interested in hearing about how this one book you read when you were sixteen is still really good, and at least he made the trains run on time.
The plane's not crashing, guys, and even if it was, you don't have to give your fragile ego the oxygen mask that should go to the person sitting next to you. Help each other first -- people are way, way, way more important.
Be good to each other.
