The Secret Lives of ArtistsFollow

I was reading a bit about author Marion Z Bradley (Mists of Avalon) and how she had admitted to helping her husband commit a long history of pedophilia and how her daughter has accused M.Z. Bradley as well of raping her repeatedly as a child. I've never read any of her stuff and it wasn't on my to-do list anyway but a number of people were saying how they couldn't handle reading her stuff any more. Partially (and again, I never read her stuff so third hand info here) because she has had characters who commit the same acts in her book(s) and she's been interviewed saying how she tries to make them rounded, understandable people. In light of the accusations, it comes across as her defending her own acts via her characters.

Beyond that, there's all sorts of artists (using the term as a catch-all regardless of perceived talent) with spotty records: Woody Allen, Roman Polanski, Michael Jackson and non-kiddie-sex related stuff like Mel Gibson or Michael Richards' racist comments or Tom Cruise or Orson Scott Card's personal/religious beliefs.

Have you ever actively decided not to consume some artist's product as a result of these things? Obviously it doesn't count if you think someone is a horrible artist who you wouldn't touch their stuff anyway. But anyone where you would have been interested if not for their personal baggage?

I don't think I've actively boycotted anyone who let the limelight get to them, but at the same time the people who get wrapped up in these situations are usually in mediums that aren't all that interesting to me in the first place, or are in a decline in their career so I'd already lost interest in them.

Edited, Jul 3rd 2014 10:14am by lolgaxe

His landscape paintings look lovely on my walls.

I think you got the wrong medium.

You're working in the wrong direction. It's not about liking a work because you find the artist interesting in some unrelated fashion. It's about not wanting to patronize the artist due to non-artistic reasons. Presumably because you don't want to lend them the money or exposure or simply because thinking about their personal deeds limits your enjoyment.

I answered "yes" because in my younger days that's something I would have done.

Nowadays, no. I'm not going to defend Polanski, but neither am I going to boycott his work because he's a reprehensible human being.

If I boycotted music made by artists who do things I consider immoral, I'd live in a silent world.

I answered "yes" because in my younger days that's something I would have done.

Nowadays, no. I'm not going to defend Polanski, but neither am I going to boycott his work because he's a reprehensible human being.

If I boycotted music made by artists who do things I consider immoral, I'd live in a silent world.

I was unaware that she was deceased and think I wrote about her in the present tense. Not that it matters for the poll question but error acknowledged anyway.

I just watched Ender's Game last weekend. I've read a ton of MZB's stuff. Though I didn't know of her sordid lifestyle at the time.

I guess I don't really check out an author/director/artist before consuming their stuff.

Aren't good artists supposed to have problems anyway? I though some kind of traumatic experience or mental illness was almost a prerequisite.

Well, not all problems are equal. You might feel differently about a guy who doesn't bathe and wears tissue boxes on his feet versus one who eats neighborhood children.

Spoken like someone who has never tried to chase neighborhood children while wearing tissue box slippers.

Hannibal Lecter or Howard Hughes, huh.