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.
At this point there’s really no need to anyway. Plenty of works nowadays that capture the spirit of the sort of cosmic horror he wrote about without the atrocious xenophobia, or at least touch on the topic in ways that deconstruct and/or scrutinize those views in a much healthier and compelling way.
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?”
At this point there’s really no need to anyway. Plenty of works nowadays that capture the spirit of the sort of cosmic horror he wrote about without the atrocious xenophobia, or at least touch on the topic in ways that deconstruct and/or scrutinize those views in a much healthier and compelling way.
Piracy it is then!