Can Bad People Write Good Books?
Can we still appreciate great novels when we know their author behaved despicably?
By Gina Dalfonzo
https://www.plough.com/en/topics/culture/literature/can-bad-people-write-good-books
Little Dorit at PG: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/963
Comments (6)
@raymaccarthy very true!!
@gutenberg_org How one squares one’s appreciation of problematic artist’s works with their actions is between them and their conscience. After the artist is dead and the works in the public domain, it becomes much less of an issue: here, knowing and keeping alive the fact that he was a POS to his wife in reading them would IMHO suffice.
(See also: Lovecraft, whose conceptualisation of horror has essentially become a talking point about the nature of xenophobia.)
@acb I totally agree with you although some literary critics still emphasize such bad behaviors.
@gutenberg_org The cadaver synod school of literary criticism
@gutenberg_org splitting humans into good and bad is such an elementary and comic book take on reality.
its a false dichotomy.
@mHtt Agreed!