[ SECRET POST #2807 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2807 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 033 secrets from Secret Submission Post #401.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ], [ 1 - random photo of a pizza place ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

01. http://i.imgur.com/aFdYySs.gif

[(Anonymous)]

What if it's a writer who wrote a long time ago, and thus would have had much different values than you?

Not the OP

[(Anonymous)]

I think that only goes so far...it's like the 'they were a product of their time' argument - there were people who also lived during that period who didn't act like the majority

Re: Also Not the OP

[(Anonymous)]

I think it depends what the values of the times were. If I were reading the memoirs of a Southern Slave Owner just before the Civil War and they were talking about whipping their slaves and raping their slave-women, then even though that was common in their time, it still would not get a pass. I think once you get back more than fifty years then you got to start taking things on a case-by-case basis.

[sarillia]

Personally, I don't like excusing people of the past. Understanding the context, sure. But part of that context is that there were people who thought differently even then and I don't think they should be ignored when they've fought so hard to make life more like it is now.

I don't go around saying that anyone who likes things that express bigoted opinions are terrible people though. I'm not sure why having a problem with something and liking it are treated as completely incompatible.

[(Anonymous)]

DA and not the OP -- the 'product of their time' thing only goes so far for me, too. Very often, people underestimate the range of possible opinions / actions in any given time. John C. Calhoun and Jefferson Davis were "products of their time," but William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass, and John Brown. H. P. Lovecraft was one year older than Nella Larsen and Zora Neale Hurston. Present day US news media has Melissa Harris-Perry, Rachel Maddow, Glenn Beck, and Bill O'Reilly, all existing together as products of their time, and the range of possibility for contemporary writers / artists is much broader than that of TV hosts. The past is no different. There were racists and anti-racists, reactionaries and radicals and conservatives of all stripes, feminists and anti-feminists, all in the context of their times.

I'm all for judging people in the context of their times, but I do think it's important to put some thought into what that context actually is. Sometimes that happens and sometimes it doesn't.

/wall of text

[peablossom]

I can't dissociate at all. Btw do you mean fic authors or published authors, or both, out of curiosity?

[kallanda_lee]

I'm not sure how I feel about this, mostly because I just tend to avoid writers' personal lives, especially if they are still living.

[elaminator]

I'm similar; I don't go looking into their personal lives and rarely know anything about them beyond, "They write good". If I hear something about them from a friend, or on the internet then it might be difficult for me to dissociate it, but usually I don't so it isn't an issue.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm the same way - I don't want to know anything about them, beyond their name for reference or to find other stuff they've written (and perhaps where/when they lived). The more I know about them, the more it's inevitably going to cloud my judgement of their work.

[(Anonymous)]

But why do you feel the need to argue against it? Is it something you think is intrinsically wrong?

[(Anonymous)]

DA

I'm wondering about this, too. Because my first response to reading the secret was to think that the OP should consider being less hypocritical and just, you know, not passionately argue against a position that OP actually shares.

But maybe it's more complicated than that?

[(Anonymous)]

Depends on what you mean by jerk. I expect authors to be human.

[a_potato]

I can understand this, OP. I'm sort of the same way -- but only when the knowledge is fresh. I've found that, once I've taken some time to process it, I can dissociate.

[(Anonymous)]

For me, being a writer is who I am. What I write is part of who I am, and who I am shapes and informs my writing. I treat other writers the same way.

[(Anonymous)]

Same here, OP. This goes for pretty much any media for me. If I find out somehow that the creator is a gigantic asshole, I won't partake in it anymore. Granted, I don't go out of my way to seek that information out, but sometimes you just happen to come across it.

I found out that someone in my fandom who wrote a semi-popular longfic had been supportive in her husband flaming other people in the fandom over their choice of ships. Even though she at one point tried to befriend me and attempted to mend her ways, I never warmed up to her or her writing.

[(Anonymous)]

This just happened to me. The author I looked up for many many years, my favorite one ever.... is a complete bigoted jerk. I wish I didn't know so I would still enjoy the stories :(

[dantesspirit]

I believe that author is one of my two as well. And yes, it does suck, as I really loved a couple books and now, can't read them as a result.

[(Anonymous)]

IA. I've seen authors be incredible snots, and that always colors my perceptions of their work after that.

[(Anonymous)]

I have trouble dissociating too, especially if I'm directly supporting them somehow.

[beverlykatz]

Same here, anon. I've had trouble enjoying Ender's Game since I learned what a prick Orson Scott Card is, and anything Cassandra Clare's written has definitely been spoiled. (Although that's a lesser disappointment because I thought TMI was very distinctly mediocre, occasionally edging into bad.)

[dantesspirit]

I've never read any of Clare's books, but after hearing about her actions, never will. OSC was ruined for me a few years back and it's really hard because not only do I love Hart's Hope, but it's autographed as well, along with Enchantment and now, I can't read it again. Or any of his books. And I will never see the movie.

[(Anonymous)]

I hear you, OP. I have this problem more with fan authors than I do professional ones. There are some authors in my fandom producing work that’s right up my alley, but I refuse to read them just because the authors are such assholes. To read their work and derive any pleasure from it just makes me feel dirty.

I guess professional authors have more of a distance, so it doesn’t bother me as much. I mean, I refuse to read Orson Scott Card, but I can still enjoy Neil Gaiman and Robin McKinley.

[dantesspirit]

There are some things that an author does or says, or has done or has said, in their personal life that I simply cannot disassociate with their professional/writing life.

Some things I do not and will not condone and as a result, I will refuse to read or buy any more of their books, because to me personally, buying their books implies that on some level, I agree with what they say/said, do/did.

There are two authors, currently, that I absolutely loved their books. But after what I've learned about each of them, have never bought another book of theirs since.

[(Anonymous)]

I use to love Gaiman till I started following him on Facebook. Now I can't stand his work.