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| Credit: Pixabay |
The Author's Bad Deeds Aren't the Book's
At my writer's critique group last week, the subject of the sexual assault accusations against author Neil Gaiman came up. I’ll admit, even though I’ve been a fan of Gaiman's work since the early 2000s, I had no idea he was accused of anything until last week. The writer’s group member who actually brought up the subject said that he would no longer purchase anything by Gaiman because of the alleged assaults. Everyone else in the group seemed to agree. Everyone but me. The meetup was virtual, so I responded by typing the following in the chat box:
“. . . I try to separate the art from the artist. The author can be evil but their art/literary work can still be good. I'll just be sure to downgrade the artist’s bad actions aside from their art.”
Please keep in mind that when I said “author” and “artist”, I wasn’t referring to Gaiman himself. Instead, I was referring to authors in general who have committed bad acts. I’m not saying that Gaiman did anything evil because, as of this writing, there’s no proof yet of what he did. That is why media, including unknown media outlets like this blog, has been referring to the sexual assaults as alleged ones.
What Brought the Accusations Against Gaiman
For any of you who are in the dark (like I was) about what started bad press for Gaiman, here's a summary: Tortoise Media, reported in early July that two women accused Gaiman of making sexual advances at them without their consent. Then, more recently, two more women came out and said he did the same with them. The accusations refer to assaults that assumingly occurred starting as early as the 1980s. However, Gaiman denies that he did anything wrong and claims that his sexual actions were consented to by all four women.
Why I wouldn’t Refuse a Book Because of Its Author
Going back to my response to the group's agreement to not purchase anything by Gaiman, I say that it’s unfair to act against the author in that way because the assaults are not absolutely confirmed. Again, as of this writing, they are only alleged. So, it wouldn't be right to stop purchasing the author's work solely based on those acts he was accused of.
Another problem I have with the group’s response is that if Gaiman is proven to have made those sexual advances and they were unwanted by any of the four women, that would be a problem with him and not his books. An author and their book are not the same thing. Of course, the book is, to at least some extent, a reflection of who the creator is but not necessarily of their morals. So, the book can and should be judged on its own merit and so as its own thing.
In most cases, I don't know the author of a book personally. All authors, like people in general, have their moral and ethical flaws many of which we don’t see. So, I'm not going to judge the book by the author's own morals unless the author is deliberately trying to impose them onto the reader. When I consider reading or buying a book that I think I may like, am I supposed to stop first and research the author's personal life, including morals, so I can make my decision? If we did that with every author, then we wouldn't be purchasing or reading anything because we’re going to find something about the person that we don’t approve of.
Yet, if the writer does something in their personal life that is socially unacceptable, I'm going to point out to people how wrong the writer was. However, when a writer is revealed to do harm towards others, I can perfectly understand why someone would not want to support that writer in purchasing their books. In that case, I would suggest to that person to check out that author’s book at the library.
I've been a longtime fan of works by science fiction and fantasy authors who have done some questionable things in their personal lives, things that have really turned me off. Three of these authors are H.P. Lovecraft, John Campbell and the late Harlan Ellison. The first two were known to be racists and the third used to put down religion and faith. But to refuse to read their works because of these flaws would cause me to miss out on their stories that are, at least on some level, of high quality. I only relatively recently started reading Campbell’s works, but have been reading Lovecraft and Ellison’s long before that. If I had missed out on reading the latter two’s work which has been a big inspiration for my own writing, I probably wouldn’t be a fiction writer today.
If an author, or any artist for that matter, does something socially unacceptable in their personal life, the quality of their work that they’ve already created and published doesn’t correspond to it. If we treated their work in that manner, then we would be overlooking a multitude of works that could change our lives and us as a society for the better. Hell, for all we know, if enough of us treated creative works in that manner it could even lead to the banning of them!
If Gaiman's accusations of sexual abuse were proven true, would you stop buying or reading his books? Or do you think the book should be judged separately from its author?
‘The Trespassers’ Print Edition
"The Trespassers", my short-read science fiction book of alien terror, is now available in print! The print, or paperback, edition can be purchased at Amazon. The ebook, which released at the beginning of the month, can be purchased at Amazon as well as other online stores. For easy access to the stores, click on the links below.
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After crash-landing on a desert planet, astronaut and forensic anthropologist Gav Torres becomes separated from the rest of his expedition. He soon enough reunites with everybody except one person: his fiancé, Shelley Wu. Gav’s persistence to find Shelley will soon reveal to him the alien terror from beyond death that may be responsible for her disappearance, the previous expeditions’ disappearances and the likely annihilation of himself and the rest of the current expedition.
Now Available in both ebook and paperback at
and in ebook at these many other stores that you can get to at this link:
https://books2read.com/u/3nQYB5
Next Post
Next Monday is a holiday here in the US--Labor Day. Because of that, I will not be posting next Monday. However, Wednesday of that week is another Insecure Writer’s Support Group blog hop, so be here for that! For those of you in the US, let’s remember to show our thanks and appreciation to the ones who work in heavy labour, especially those ones who are underpaid for it.
Until next time . . .
He's only been accused, not convicted. People are quick to pass judgement and leave forgiveness at the door.
ReplyDeleteThere are those who've done something vile enough I will no longer support their work. (Kevin Spacy comes to mind.) But I can separate most of it out as none of us are perfect.
Exactly, too many people are too quick to judge and don't bother considering the details in media and consider their meanings, such as the word "accuse" versus "convicted". They want too assume the worst too much.
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