With all the hate towards J.K Rowling (deserved) and lets say Kanye West for example, you can enjoy the art but can you really separate what they create from what they say?

  • eestileib@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    4·
    4 days ago

    Uh, no, the opposite. I don’t think I have an obligation to do that.

    To take a recent example, I can not interpret the paintings by former US president GWB without thinking about war crimes. I can’t even make a determination about whether they have artistic merit.

    If I were a student of art history, I would be expected to develop the critical skill to be able to separate that, just like a literary critic needs to be able to, or someone getting training in the history of science needs to be able to read shit by unbelievably racist and sexist men and evaluate it dispassionately.

    This is an important skill for people in their professional lives and people do need to develop it.

    But in our personal lives, we have no such obligation, and in most cases when it’s brought up outside very specific situations, it’s an excuse to patronize a horrible person.