Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Idols at a Distance

We've been watching the show Magicians. Last night our unlikable main character found out some hard and awful truths about his favorite author. It shook him up, badly. I related to this because of the whole MZB thing. In fact, it brought back all of those memories and nasty bits of conflicting hell.

Ugh. It really is better to keep the artists you admire at a distance. People can often be deeply gifted at creating worlds or making stories. That doesn't mean they'll be likable people, or even decent people. Sometimes it means they may represent everything you hate about the world.

Is it really fair to the work itself to for it to be judged by the failings of the author? I know that may be an odd way to put it, but still. Sure, if the creator of the thing we love is still alive, we may be denying them some money by walking away from  their work, but what are we denying to ourselves? What are we losing by leaving the things that entertain, distract, and sustain us?

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