Media | Art
Can You Separate the Art from the Artist?
One of the hardest things is when you find out that a work that is fundamental to your identity and experience as a human was created by someone who both holds and promotes ideals you find abhorrent.
There is no one-size-fits-all answer to this and it’s your job as the one partaking in the media — be it a film, painting, or book — to search your soul and find your truth; is it ok to partake in and potentially support an artist who, as a person, you don’t like.
A lot of it comes down to how valuable the work is to you, your ability to separate the two, and what the artist did/does. While I can’t give you an answer, I can give you a guidebook to this minefield.
Death of the Author
The first way to look at it is through the lens of esteemed French literary critic and theorist Roland Barthes in his seminal work “La Mort De L’auteur” (or “The Death of the Author”). In this 1967 essay he suggests that your reading of a text is all that counts and what the author intended, or even that the author exists, isn’t relevant. It doesn’t matter what they think. Once it is out of their hands and in yours the only thing that matters is what you do with the experience you have with that media.
Did J.K. Rowling’s books make you find strength when you needed it most? Great! It doesn’t matter that she is a malicious TERF. Screw her and her intent, and just take from it what you will. It’s liberating…
