Separating the Artist
It’s Harry Potter’s birthday today, so it seemed particularly timely that I finally read a post I had been holding onto by Nathan Bransford about whether we can separate the writer from their writing. Not just separating JK Rowling from Harry Potter but Alice Munro from her collective works or Neil Gaiman or… take your pick. There are a lot of artists out there in the news lately.
He uses Chinatown, a movie I haven’t seen, as a springboard to discussing the issue, ending with a question: “At what point are you, as a consumer of art, complicit in empowering artists to terrorize others in their personal lives and contributing more broadly to unjust and corrupt systems?” He doesn’t claim to have an answer, but people tackled the question in his comment section.
We’ve talked about this a few times over here, and I think what I’ve landed on is to approach each situation uniquely. Do I own their writing already? Where will the money go if I buy a new work? Do I disagree with them, or is something they’re saying or doing harmful or hurtful? Again, no easy answers, but it’s an interesting topic for this day.
3 comments
I like your approach. I struggle with JK Rowling (and didn’t know about Neil Gaiman, what the what!?!)
I visited a friend recently who saw the Ravenclaw sticker on my car and said, “I bet your trans students just LOVE that.” Which was weird because why would students be near my car at all? But I did talk about separating the artist from the art. It sucks so much because everything about Harry Potter is about not discriminating and labeling and acceptance, but then… JK Rowling. I think my actions speak more about support for trans students than the books I have on my shelf and my love for characters and setting. So tricky!
I remember watching Chinatown in my 20s and being horrified by Noah Cross. A narcissist individual intent on fulfilling his desires at the expense of others. And then I learned about Roman Polanski and felt physically ill by the resemblance. It’s like Polanski is using his art as therapy, fully aware the horror that is his life and yet unable to admit the truth as that would equal death.
So I struggle with this as the art was created at the expense of others. Similar to the struggle I have with Pernkopf Topographic Anatomy of Man, I think we need to have the whole story when presenting these works, highlighting the horror used to create something others consider great and important works.
I am constantly harassing my daughter about Chris Brown and Tory Lanez and how we don’t listen to abusers. I feel like Captain Oblivious when people point out all the problems with the Harry Potter books that I skimmed right over because they’re not relevant to me. (Also, I rarely look for symbolism unless someone makes me.) Creative genius often comes along with problematic behavior, it seems.