Separating the Art from the Artist
Artists are human beings. As such, a certain percentage of them will be reprehensible, or at the very least hold opinions that are reprehensible. Humans are imperfect beings, and some of them fall short of the mark. I’ve thought about this a lot in relation to two works of art that have had an influence on me despite the problematic nature of the artists behind them.
The first is the film Chinatown. It is one of my favorite movies, despite the fact that Roman Polanski is a certified creep. Also it’s arguable in this case that you cannot separate the creep factor from the movie, as Polanski’s particular creepiness actually informed its central themes. I think it can be argued that Chinatown couldn’t be what it was if Polanski wasn’t who he was.
The second is the whole oeuvre of H.P.Lovecraft, who’s the go to guy when it comes to problematic fantasy authors. He was a largely unrepentant racist, to a degree that was even a little off-putting for the time. And, like Polanski and Chinatown, his particular creepiness can not be divorced from the themes of his work. Pick one and you’ll find fear of the other, fear of degeneracy, and a fear of the unknown that undoubtedly were informed by his opinions on particular groups of humans. Yet it’s unarguable that he was as influential in his sphere as Tolkien was in his. The whole genre of Cosmic Horror can’t be separated from him, to the point that his name has become an adjective.
This is an uncomfortable fact for many people. You can see it play out over people’s reactions to the fact that Harry Potter is still, and probably will remain, an undeniable foundation of YA fantasy cannon, despite what unpleasant opinions J.K.Rowling might hold.
Some people try to posit the “death of the author” to ease some of the discomfort. If the art and the artist are completely separate entities, I can enjoy my fiction in peace.
I don’t ascribe to that view. As the examples of Chinatown and Lovecraft show. The artist is deeply connected to the work. What I do think is that while art may not be divorced from the artist, art does have a separate existence from the artist. One can view a work of art, and one’s opinions of the art do not automatically reflect one’s opinions of the artist. And while we can judge art in relation to its flawed creator, we can also make the judgement if the art is indulging in the creator’s issues, or is reflecting something more universal.
I’d argue in the case of my two examples, the art transcended the artist.
Photo by Patrick Fore on Unsplash
