I would argue that it is not ethically possible to separate art from artist when consumption of their art can provide them any material benefit. If they’re dead, it’s a lot less likely to be problematic. Plus, there are plenty of great artists and writers out there who are not TERFs, nazis, or generally awful. Refusing them patronage is a double ethical failing of both lending aid to awful people and refusing to support smaller artists who have a harder time making a living when competing with the ethically bankrupt.
I think that’s an easier argument to make with someone who is dead, like H.P. Lovecraft. It’s a different story when the artist is still alive and actively profiting off the work you are consuming.
Feel like I’ve been saying this a lot recently, but it’s pertinent:
Camp Auschwitz was in Poland, not Germany.
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I’m a firm believer that if we only accepted art based on the morality of the artist, the whole world would be a bleak shade of grey.
Gotta separate the two. You can say “X was an incredible artist and I appreciate their work, but holy shit were they a terrible human.”
We can acknowledge the spectrum of the human and let the good parts into the world and still shun the bad.
I would argue that it is not ethically possible to separate art from artist when consumption of their art can provide them any material benefit. If they’re dead, it’s a lot less likely to be problematic. Plus, there are plenty of great artists and writers out there who are not TERFs, nazis, or generally awful. Refusing them patronage is a double ethical failing of both lending aid to awful people and refusing to support smaller artists who have a harder time making a living when competing with the ethically bankrupt.
I think that’s an easier argument to make with someone who is dead, like H.P. Lovecraft. It’s a different story when the artist is still alive and actively profiting off the work you are consuming.
As a black dude, I’m still not reading Lovecraft…
Yeah, that’s fair. He was so racist that even his contemporary racists were like “wtf?”
Piracy it is then!