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About Joss Whedon and the shows he created... and about other creators who have done deplorable things.
There's a line in Lovecraft Country one of the characters speaks about their love of the racist ERB Warlord of Mars stories: “Stories are like people. Loving them doesn’t make them perfect. You just try and cherish them and overlook their flaws.”
But that's not quite right. You don't overlook their flaws. You love them despite of them... or else the flaws become too huge and you have to break off the relationship because of them.
And both reactions are fine. Art exists both in and out of the author's shadow. There's a part of it that gets tarnished by the author's attitudes and behaviours. And there's a part of it that exists beyond that. It's possible to have your enjoyment diminished by the tarnished bits and still adore the rest. It's possible to not be able to enjoy anything about the work anymore because the tarnish has eclipsed everything else for you.
Different people are going to have different responses, and that's fine. As long as we aren't denying or minimizing the gravity of the evils committed by the artist, there's nothing wrong with boycotting somebody's books forevermore, and there's also nothing wrong with continuing to read and enjoy their work for the untarnished bits.
(steps down from soapbox)
There's a line in Lovecraft Country one of the characters speaks about their love of the racist ERB Warlord of Mars stories: “Stories are like people. Loving them doesn’t make them perfect. You just try and cherish them and overlook their flaws.”
But that's not quite right. You don't overlook their flaws. You love them despite of them... or else the flaws become too huge and you have to break off the relationship because of them.
And both reactions are fine. Art exists both in and out of the author's shadow. There's a part of it that gets tarnished by the author's attitudes and behaviours. And there's a part of it that exists beyond that. It's possible to have your enjoyment diminished by the tarnished bits and still adore the rest. It's possible to not be able to enjoy anything about the work anymore because the tarnish has eclipsed everything else for you.
Different people are going to have different responses, and that's fine. As long as we aren't denying or minimizing the gravity of the evils committed by the artist, there's nothing wrong with boycotting somebody's books forevermore, and there's also nothing wrong with continuing to read and enjoy their work for the untarnished bits.
(steps down from soapbox)